RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MENTAL ILLNESS AND MENTAL WELLBEING
Dr Matthew Iasiello, Head of Data and Research Translation, Be Well Co,
SAHMRI (South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute) &
Post Doctoral Researcher, University of Adelaide
RESEARCHER PROFILE
Filmed in Adelaide, South Australian | December 2024
Since 2015, Dr Matthew Iasiello has been working on the development and dissemination of mental wellbeing interventions across the Australian community at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI). His PhD research was designed specifically to strengthen the translational work conducted by SAHMRI, and to solve problems that represented gaps in the literature that were arising when delivering mental wellbeing interventions into the community. The impact and relevance of Dr Iasiello’s work has been demonstrated with invited presentations at international academic conferences, and multiple media stories with significant online engagements.
Dr Iasiello’s research investigates the dual-continua model, an innovative model of mental health. The dual-continua model of mental health suggests that mental illness and mental wellbeing reflect distinct continua, rather than the extreme ends of a single spectrum. This novel conceptualisation of the relationship between mental illness and mental wellbeing has significant implications in the way we promote mental health, and prevent, treat, and recover from mental illness. However, little is known about the evidence validating the model, and whether this evidence supports the implications that have been proposed in the literature.
Dr Iasiello’s PhD project synthesises the relevant evidence supporting the model, provides further evidence of the role of mental wellbeing in the recovery of mental illness, and addresses important limitations in the current assessment of mental wellbeing in the context of psychological distress and mental illness.
He is engaged in the development of mental wellbeing services and products that emerge directly from the new knowledge generated from his PhD, translated into the community via SAHMRI. This has resulted in the development and evaluation of the Be Well Plan (https://www.bewellco.io/bwt), and evidence-based wellbeing intervention (over 5,000 participants since 2020), and the Be Well Tracker https://www.bewellco.io/be-well-plan, a free online assessment platform that Australians can use to assess and monitor their mental health (20,000 users since 2019).
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Muscle Cell Communication and Repair
Dr. William Roman is a Group Leader at the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute (ARMI) at Monash University. He obtained his PhD from Paris Descartes University and Freie University of Berlin, focusing on nuclear positioning during skeletal muscle development. Dr. Roman’s research journey has taken him across the globe, including postdoctoral work in Barcelona, tissue engineering in Lisbon, and a brief stint at Stanford University.
At ARMI, Dr. Roman leads innovative research on intercellular communication within muscle organs. His work involves growing human muscles on chips to understand how skeletal muscle cells interact with neurons and tendons. This research aims to develop better models for studying muscle diseases, drug screening, and even applications in cellular agriculture and biorobotics.
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CASE STUDY Link between levels of extracellular vesicles in the blood and tissue damage caused by diseases
A landmark study led by WEHI and La Trobe University has found a potential new diagnostic marker that could be used to better detect the level of tissue damage in our bodies.
This study revealed, for the first time, a link between levels of EVs in the blood and tissue damage caused by diseases such as leukaemia.
Researchers hope to leverage the critical new insight to develop a blood test to monitor cancer patients with tissue damage, which could, in future, enhance treatment strategies for blood cancers and other diseases.
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Better biomarkers for predicting the incidence of having atherosclerosis and heart attack
Assoc Prof Bursill is a vascular biologist with interests and expertise in vascular inflammation, atherosclerosis and angiogenesis. She completed her PhD at The University of Adelaide in lipid metabolism then headed to Oxford University for five years to undergo a postdoctoral post in the Departments of Cardiovascular Medicine and Pathology. Her postdoctoral time triggered her interest in the mechanisms that cause atherosclerosis and in particular the role of small inflammatory proteins called chemokines.
