UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE
Research Field: Optometry and Ophthalmology
While some vision problems can be corrected with glasses or surgery, there are many conditions which still lead to irreversible vision loss.
Dr Ayton’s research focuses on early disease biomarkers in retinal disease and vision restoration. Her current work aims to develop new vision restoration measures using gene therapy and stem cells.
Lauren’s public outreach includes co-hosting a weekly radio show Einstein A Go-Go on 3RRR, co-hosting Conversation Hour on ABC radio, and extensive public lectures and media interviews.
Dr Ayton received her PhD from the University of Melbourne in 2009, and is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne.
MONASH UNIVERSITY
Research Field: Biomedical, Stroke Prevention
The carotid artery is the main brain artery, and its origin is common site of arterial disease build up as people get older. This ‘carotid stenosis’ causes about 10% of all strokes. A/Prof Abbott’s research has shown that healthy lifestyle habits and medication are more successful in preventing stroke in symptom-free people with narrowing of the carotid artery, rather than carotid surgery or stenting, expensive procedures that carry significant risks.
This means that carotid procedures are no longer necessary in people free of past stroke symptoms. Anne’s engagement with the public has included testifying for a US Medicare policy review, uniting experts that lead to updated medical guidelines in the USA, UK and Australia. She has also participated in television interviews, and assisted school students with literacy and science.
A/Prof Abbott completed her PhD at the University of Melbourne in 2004, and is currently an Associate Professor at Monash University
JAMES COOK UNIVERSITY
Research Field: Health systems research (Social Sciences)
Health services rarely perform as efficiently or as effectively as we would like them
to. With a focus on difficult-to-access and resource-poor settings, Associate Prof
Stephanie Topp’s research uses political and sociological theory and management
sciences to i) identify and define key health governance and workforce challenges
that impede the delivery of, or access to, high quality care and ii) develop strategies to
address those challenges.
In Australia her research is applying theories of accountability to lead a project
exploring the challenges faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (A&TSI) Health
Workers when balancing concurrent and often conflicting obligations to community
members and health service employers.
She aims to highlight the governance-related barriers and necessary reforms to help
them integrate into the workforce. Internationally, Stephanie is leading a component
of a large US-government funded evaluation of community health worker programs
in Malawi that support HIV-positive pregnant women to access care. This work is
using development and health systems theory to identify scalable components of the
programs that may be incorporated into government policy.
Although working in very different settings, her focus is always on the systems of
governance that underpin high quality and accessible health care.
CENTRAL QUEENSLAND UNIVERSITY
Research Field: Physical Activity and Public Health
Making a real difference to the health of Australian children through community-delivered
interventions and engagement with key community partners, parents and children is an
essential part of Dr Schoeppe’s work.
Dr Schoeppe considers herself as a physical activity and public health scientist. Her
research area involves ‘Physical Activity’, ‘Health Behaviour Change’, ‘Health Promotion’
and ‘Public Health’ with the main focus being on physical activity and sedentary
behaviour in children and adolescents. She also has a focus on adults particularly
parents to a lesser extent.
Through her work with the ‘Step it Up Family Program’, delivered to Yeppoon and
Rockhampton-based families in 2017/2018, she engaged with the Livingstone Shire
Council, the Rockhampton Regional Council, and local counsellors and politicians for
program promotion.
More specifically, her work involves conducting research on measurement, and
interventions to improve physical activity and sedentary behaviours in children and
families through the use of technology (e.g., apps, wearable activity trackers).
She is strongly motivated to nurture an active healthy lifestyle in children and thrives
on leading physical activity research that makes a difference for child health
at the community, national and international level.
THE UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND
Research Field: Obstetrics and Gynecological Oncology
The key aspect of Dr Salomon’s research is “communication”, specifically,
communication between different organs in our body via small vesicles called
exosomes (like bubbles). Exosomes essentially act as “letters”, travelling long
distances via the bloodstream to deliver the message to other organs and have the
extraordinary ability to capture a snapshot of what’s going on inside the organs.
His research has been focussing specifically on ovarian cancer and pregnancy
complications. Through a combined miRNA sequencing and quantitative mass
spectrometry approach, his team have developed a classification model based
on a specific set of exosomal markers to identify women with early stage ovarian
cancer, with over 90% accuracy (positive and negative predictive values over
90%).
In terms of pregnancy complications, his research has investigated the
release of exosomes by the placenta during gestation, and their utility as a
biomarker. This is crucial as poor pregnancy outcomes resulting from pregnancy
complications remain the most important modifiable risk factor. This research has
established the clinical utility of exosomes as liquid biopsies for early stages of
ovarian cancer and complications of pregnancy.
JAMES COOK UNIVERSITY
Research Field: Marine Ecology and evolutionary physiology
On the Great Barrier Reef and worldwide, Dr Rummer is tracking athletic capacity in
fish, including sharks and rays, under different conditions, across development and
species, and over generations to determine how climate change and other stressors will
affect the future of marine ecosystems.
She also has a strong interest in exercise-induced stress (e.g., swimming, vertical movements,
buoyancy control) and, from a more applied angle, catch-and-release fishing, including post-release
mortality and sub-lethal physiological/behavioural modifications. In the field, geographic gradients
are used (e.g., temperature gradients along the length of the Great Barrier Reef) and local extreme
environments (e.g., low oxygen, high CO² microhabitats within a mangrove or coral reef and even
underwater volcanic CO² seeps) as analogues for future change.
In the laboratory, her research integrates conventional and state-of-the-art physiological,
biochemical, and molecular techniques to gain insight into the various responses that
may be key to adaptation. These areas are not only vital to conservation of coral reef
and marine ecosystems but are also important contributions to basic science.
QIMR BERGHOFER MEDICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE
Research Field: Mucosal immunology
Severine Navarro is passionate about learning how the immune
system works, especially the link between bacteria, the gut, parasites and the
development of allergies.
Good bacteria in the gut of newborn babies was shown to be really important
for developing a healthy immune system, while an imbalance of good and bad
bacteria may lead to the development of allergies and asthma later in life.
With the reduced duration of breastfeeding and limited exposure to pathogens,
the developing immune system is deprived of essential stimuli allowing it to
reach optimal tolerogenic functions. Helminths, and hookworms in particular, are
believed to be an essential component of immune education. Indeed, eradication
of helminths contributes to the high allergy prevalence. Helminths are a major
constitutive partner of the gut ecosystem with the microbiome influencing the
immune system.
Severine’s research focuses on understanding how hookworm infection during
pregnancy and lactation affects the microbiome – gut – immune cross talk
promoting enhanced tolerance.
THE UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND
Research Field: Neuroscience
Psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia, affect a person’s sense of what is and
isn’t real. These disorders account for a large personal and socio-economic burden in
Australia. Young people at-risk of developing psychosis also have problems in thinking
and managing their education and work. Regardless of whether they transition to
clinical psychosis, these symptoms cause significant distress and/or social disability.
Drug development for the treatment of schizophrenia has not progressed for over 50 years.
Dr Kesby’s research focuses on the neurotransmitter dopamine and its role
schizophrenia where we know that increased dopamine activity in the associative
striatum is present prior to diagnosis and is central to the expression of psychotic
symptoms. His research focusses on how dopamine in the associative striatum
mediates psychotic/cognitive symptoms in schizophrenia and aims to establish a
translational platform to help identify people who are at-risk of developing psychosis.
Understanding more about how the brain functions and why psychotic symptoms occur
will help us identify better treatments to improve the lives of those with schizophrenia
and other psychotic disorders, and ultimately intervene before schizophrenia develops.
QIMR BERGHOFER MEDICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE
Research Field: Bioengineering
One of the most exciting areas in Professor Hudson’s current work, focuses on
the development of what is known as ‘human bioengineered muscle tissue’.
Simply put, that means being able to make and grow human heart tissue, in a
dish in a laboratory setting.
These human cardiac organoids (hCO) from human pluripotent stem cells
(hPSC) can be used for regenerative medicine as a patch to help restore heart
function. An application of hCO for adult heart failure patients is now progressing
to clinical trials in Germany, and in Australia there is a consortium to develop
hCO therapies for children with congenital heart defects.
James has actively engaged the community giving lectures to students, teachers
and developing coursework for the Queensland Senior Biology Syllabus and
incorporating new organoid technologies into University undergraduate degrees.
This research reduces the need to experiment on animals or humans, and
enables closer study of how the heart works, leading to the discovery of new
therapies for heart related diseases.
JAMES COOK UNIVERSITY
Research Field: Marine Ecology
Coral reefs, despite covering less than 2% of the ocean floor, are one of the world’s
most biodiverse, productive and valuable ecosystems. However, a warming ocean from
climate change, declining water quality, and pollution are killing corals, making way for
overgrowth by seaweeds.
Professor Hoey’s research is about discovering which fish perform critical seaweed
removal jobs on the reef, helping new corals to grow and the reefs to recover. His
findings include that grazing and browsing fishes avoid feeding within and in the
proximity of dense macroalgae beds, which may lead to gradual expansion of
macroalgae on coral reefs. His current research has discovered that, macroalgal-
dominated habitats are extremely resilient to cyclones and periods of elevated
temperature and recover to pre-disturbance levels within 12 months, compared to an
estimated 10–15 years for coral-dominated reefs.
Management strategies therefore need to look beyond the preservation of biodiversity
and focus on the maintenance of ecosystem processes and key species.
