PREGNANCY IN WOMEN WITH CHRONIC KIDNEY DISEASE OF ALL STAGES, INCLUDING WOMEN ON DIALYSIS AND WITH KIDNEY TRANSPLANTS
With
Professor Shilpanjali Jesudason
Head of Unit, Central and Northern Adelaide Renal and Transplantation Service (CNARTS),
Royal Adelaide Hospital,
Central Adelaide Local Health Network (CALHN) &
Clinical Professor, University of Adelaide, South Australia
RESEARCHER PROFILE
Filmed in Adelaide, South Australia | March 2025
Professor Shilpanjali Jesudason is an academic nephrologist and Head of Department at the Royal Adelaide Hospital’s Central Northern Adelaide Renal and Transplant Service, South Australia.
From 2017-2020, she was the Clinical Director of Kidney Health Australia, the peak body for patients with kidney disease. In this role she developed a passion for advancing kidney disease education in primary care.
She is the founder and Program Lead for Pregnancy and Kidney Research Australia, co-leads the new ISN Train the Trainer Program for Pregnancy and Kidney Disease, and is the inaugural chair of the Australian and Zealand Dialysis and Transplantation Registry (ANZDATA) Parenthood working group.
She is founding chair of the ANZ Society of Nephrology Pacific Working Group, and has been a supporter of nephrology development in her birth country of Fiji.
In 2025, she was awarded the Roscoe R. Robinson award for outstanding contributions to nephrology, by the International Society of Nephrology.
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9695-0761
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Hormone receptor positive breast cancer and therapy resistance
Prof Elgene Lim is a medical oncologist at St Vincent’s Hospital and Head of the Connie Johnson Breast Cancer Research Lab at the Garvan Institute. Following his PhD at the Walter & Eliza Hall Institute where he identified the aberrant cells in carriers of the BRCA1 mutant gene, a hereditary breast cancer syndrome as the culprit cells giving rise to breast cancer, he furthered his research and clinical training at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School. He was awarded the National Breast Cancer Foundation Practitioner Fellowship in 2014 and returned from Boston to Australia. In 2017, he was awarded the inaugural National Breast Cancer Foundation Endowed Chair, and subsequently appointed the Principal Cancer Theme Lead at UNSW.
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Infections and other lung diseases using models of human lung tissue grown from stem cells
Dr Rhiannon Werder is a Team Leader at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute leading a multidisciplinary team, combining expertise in stem cell biology and immunology, to develop new therapies for lung diseases. Her research centres around induced pluripotent stem cells to investigate respiratory diseases, spanning acute respiratory infections to chronic lung diseases. Using stem cells, Dr Werder’s team creates models of human lung tissue. With these models, Dr Werder is investigating how human-specific pathogens infect different regions of the lung, the ensuing immune responses, and how the lung repairs itself after infections, especially in people with preexisting lung diseases.
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Newborn screening for congenital hypothyroidism
Assoc Prof Jack is passionate about the health and wellbeing of children and adolescents, with diverse research areas including the impacts of family friendly workplace initiatives, screening and management of thyroid disorders in infants and children. She supports her First Nations colleagues on Indigenous-led research projects funded by the Medical Research Future Fund, aiming to improve the social and emotional wellbeing of First Nations Children. Through her clinical and academic roles, Assoc Prof Jack hopes to make a positive difference to the health and well-being of children and their families.
