A. Mark Richards

In 2009, Richards became the inaugural director of the Cardiovascular Research Institute at the National University of Singapore whilst continuing part-time retention of his New Zealand appointments. He has been deputy director of the National University Heart Centre Singapore (NUHCS) since 2021.

Richards was awarded a personal chair in medicine by the University of Otago in 1995. He was deputy head of the Department of Medicine at the University of Otago, Christchurch, in 1998, and head of department from 2002 to 2003. From 1993 to 1997, he directed the FRACP Part 1 Registrar Training Programme (Christchurch) and was an examiner for FRACP clinical examinations. He was admitted to the fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians (FRCP) in 2008.

Richards was programme director of the New Zealand Health Research Council (HRC) programme grants for serial cardiovascular HRC research programmes continuously for 24 years from 1995 to 2019. In 1997, he was appointed to the National Heart Foundation chair of cardiovascular studies. He founded and assumed chairmanship of the Christchurch Cardioendocrine Research Group, University of Otago, Christchurch, which later became the Christchurch Heart Institute in 2012.

Richards leads ongoing research aimed at refining the clinical applications and beneficial actions of the natriuretic peptides. He has investigated the effect of atrial fibrillation on the diagnostic and prognostic performance of NT-proBNP in suspected heart failure. In the mid-1990s, Richards pioneered human clinical studies of neprilysin inhibition, important in metabolism of the NPs. His group has studied the integrated haemodynamic, endocrine and renal effects of human ANP analogues selected for exclusive vasodilatory or diuretic activities in experimental heart failure laying the path for possible precision peptide therapy in heart failure. His group has demonstrated the beneficial integrated hemodynamic, endocrine, and renal effects of phosphodiesterase-9 inhibition (PDE9-I; which specifically impedes breakdown of the 2nd messenger, cGMP generated by the natriuretic peptides) in experimental HF. Results support PDE9's role in HF pathophysiology and implies that its inhibition could possibly be a novel anti-heart failure therapy.

Richards was appointed as a clinical lecturer at Christchurch School of Medicine, University of Otago, in 1988, where he became a professor in medicine in 1995. Since 2009, he has been professor of cardiology at the National University of Singapore, and a professor (joint faculty) in the Department of Biochemistry at National University Singapore as of 2010, and has also been an associate faculty member at the Genome Institute of Singapore since then.

Richards completed his MB ChB at the University of Otago in 1978. He was admitted as FRACP in Internal Medicine by the Royal Australasian College of Physicians in 1984. He graduated Doctor of Medicine (MD) with distinction in 1986, PhD in medicine in 1993 and Doctor of Science (DSc), with a thesis titled The cardiac natriuretic peptides – from bench to bedside, in 2000 from the University of Otago. The Royal College of Physicians admitted him as FRCP in 2008. In 2019, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Massey University, New Zealand.

Arthur Mark Richards (born 1 May 1955) is a New Zealand physician, academic and medical researcher. He is a professor of cardiology and director of the Cardiovascular Research Institute at the National University of Singapore, and a professor of medicine and founder of the Christchurch Heart Institute at the University of Otago, Christchurch, New Zealand, where he holds the National Heart Foundation (NZ) Chair of Cardiovascular Studies.