MUSCLE CELL COMMUNICATION AND REPAIR
With
Dr. William Roman
Group Leader,
Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute (ARMI)
Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
RESEARCHER PROFILE
Filmed in Melbourne | April 2025
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.
Dr. Roman’s recent breakthrough in muscle repair mechanisms, independent of stem cells, has potential implications for preserving muscle function in exercise, diseases, and aging. His lab employs cutting-edge techniques such as cell biology, tissue engineering, and spatial transcriptomics.
In recognition of his groundbreaking work, Dr. Roman was awarded the prestigious 2024 Metcalf Prize for Stem Cell Research, highlighting his significant contributions to the field of regenerative medicine.
Dr Roman’s research has been funded by the Baker Foundation, Australia’s NHMRC and more recently the National Stem Cell Foundation.
Source: Supplied and supplemented
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Touched by bowel cancer and chasing science outcomes
Dr Josephine Wright is a Senior Research Fellow in the Gut Cancer group. She has been developing a translational network of labs, hospitals and clinics to enable validation of new approaches to prevent and treat colorectal and gastric cancer. Her key focus is studying human tumour organoids to better personalise therapy in cancer.
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Investigating the benefits of donor human milk for preterm infants
Together, SAHMRI and Lifeblood are leading a consortium to revolutionise the way human milk, and novel products made from human milk, are used as nutritional and medical interventions to improve health outcomes in vulnerable infants, but with potential application for a diverse range of medical indications.
Currently, babies who are born early preterm – before 32 weeks – are given donor milk when their own mother’s milk is not available or in short supply. Whether donor milk is beneficial for babies born just a few weeks early is unclear, as very little research has been undertaken with these babies.
The GIFT Trial will soon commence as an investigation between SAHMRI, the University of Adelaide, the Red Cross Lifeblood Milk Bank conducted at five sites across three states in Australia.
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Anne O’Neill
STATE GOVERNMENT SUPPORTING MEDICAL RESEARCH
@ NSW HEALTH, NEW SOUTH WALES AUSTRALIA
