RESEARCHER PROFILE (Filmed May 2024)
Dr Matthew Wallen PhD, AES, AEP
Senior Research Fellow, Caring Futures Institute
College of Nursing and Health Sciences
Flinders University,
South Australia
Dr Matthew Wallen PhD, AES, AEP is a Senior Research Fellow in Cancer Survivorship, the Deputy Lead of the Cancer Survivorship Program, and a Senior Lecturer in Exercise Science and Clinical Exercise Physiology within the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at Flinders University, in South Australia. His clinical interest focuses on improving outcomes for people requiring major surgery, specifically (1) lifestyle interventions, including exercise, nutritional, and psychological support to improve the health and wellbeing of people prior to surgery, termed ‘prehabilitation’, (2) novel physical function assessments aimed at identifying people at risk of treatment-related complications, and (3) implementation of new models of care in cancer.
Since graduating from his PhD in 2017, Dr Wallen has published over 55 peer-reviewed articles, including international guidelines and position statements in cancer care and lifestyle-related conditions, in high-impact international journals such as CA: a Journal for Clinicians and The Lancet’s eClinicalMedicine. He has attracted more than AUD$10 million in research income and has supervised research projects for 7 PhD students (1 completed, 6 on-going), 21 Master’s students (completed), and 3 honours students (completed). Dr Wallen is the Course Coordinator for the Master of Clinical Exercise Physiology at Flinders University, and currently advises for the Exercise and Sport Science Australia Research Committee and South Australian State Chapter.
Source: Supplied
* AES is the acronym for Accredited Exercise Scientist (AES), AEP is the acronym for Accredited Exercise Physiologist
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Mental wellbeing in rural and regional communities dealing with environmental challenges
Associate Professor Suzie Cosh is a psychologist and clinical researcher. Her work focuses on the intersection of climate change and mental health and she currently leads a body of work that focuses on supporting small rural communities to recover from and prepare for extreme weather events such as bushfires, floods and droughts.
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Novel silk-based biomaterials for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine
Dr Jelena Rnjak-Kovacina is a Scientia Associate Professor and ARC Future Fellow leading a multidisciplinary group at the Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, UNSW Sydney in Australia.
Her research interests are at the interface of biology and engineering, focusing on the development of biomimetic materials that direct cellular interactions for enhanced vascularisation and for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. In particular, she develops novel silk-based biomaterials and investigates how biomaterial properties translate to biological outcomes.
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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.
