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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Benefits of prehabilitation ahead of surgery
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.
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Digital Biomarkers and AI for Optimal Diagnosis, Treatment, and Decision-Making
Associate Professor Johan Verjans is a clinician-scientist with a strong focus on cross-disciplinary translational research. In his role as Deputy Director at the Australian Institute for Machine Learning (AIML)—one of the world’s premier machine learning institutes, with over 200 researchers—and as Group Leader of Artificial Intelligence at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI), he integrates his expertise in molecular medicine, clinical research, and advanced imaging with machine learning applications. This unique combination enables him to drive the translation of cutting-edge AI research into practical medical applications. He works with global teams from multinationals on AI problems.
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Developing upper limb motor biomarkers of dementia
Kaylee is currently a research fellow with the Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre at the University of Tasmania. She has recently submitted her PhD thesis, reporting the findings of her research on developing upper limb motor biomarkers of dementia. She has postgrad degrees in physiotherapy and experience working in the community and aged care across Tasmania for several years, where she worked with people with dementia.
