Oceania

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Health Workforce Oceania RESEARCHER PROFILE

Enhancing occupational therapy service provision with military veterans

By Bench Side Story — 6 months ago

Prof McKinstry was instrumental in the development of the occupational therapy course at the La Trobe University’s Bendigo campus and also the establishment of the Rural Health School.

Prof McKinstry’s research focus is on health workforce, particularly developing a sustainable rural health workforce through recruitment of rural students for health courses, innovative and flexible delivery of health courses, telehealth and emerging areas of practice for occupational therapists.

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Behavioural Science Health Workforce Lung Cancer Oceania Population RESEARCHER PROFILE

Behavioural science in cancer screening, control and communication

By Bench Side Story — 6 months ago

Dr Dodd has an established international reputation as a behavioural scientist in cancer control and communication. Since completing her PhD in 2016, Dr Dodd has been awarded a three-year University of Sydney Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (2018-2021) and a three-year Research Fellowship at The Daffodil Centre (current). Dr Dodd is the co-chair of the ‘Strengthening and optimising approaches to cancer prevention, screening, and early detection’ hub at The Daffodil Centre (with more than 130 staff and students).

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Muscles Oceania RESEARCHER PROFILE Stem Cells

Muscle Cell Communication and Repair

By Bench Side Story — 6 months ago

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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Cancer Exercise Oceania RESEARCHER PROFILE

Cancer survivorship and exercise oncology

By Bench Side Story — 6 months ago

Professor Sandra Hayes is the Director of Research at Cancer Council Queensland (CCQ), where she leads a comprehensive cancer research program encompassing cancer epidemiology, prevention, detection, treatment, and survivorship.

With a BAppSci (Hons) and a PhD in exercise oncology, Professor Hayes’s expertise lies in quantifying the impact of cancer diagnosis and treatment on physical and psychosocial wellbeing, quality of life, and survival. She also evaluates innovative supportive care strategies, particularly exercise, to improve post-cancer lives.

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CASE STUDY Leukaemia Oceania

CASE STUDY Link between levels of extracellular vesicles in the blood and tissue damage caused by diseases

By Bench Side Story — 7 months ago

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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Lung Cancer Oceania RESEARCHER PROFILE

Environmental exposure to function of lung epithelial stem cell biology

By Bench Side Story — 7 months ago

Dr Clare Weeden has recently commenced as a Laboratory Head at WEHI in 2025, supported by the CSL Centenary Fellowship.

Dr Weeden specialises in lung epithelial cell biology in the context of homeostasis, inflammation, and lung cancer, particularly in people who don’t smoke. Her work endeavours to understand how past environmental exposures shape the responses of lung cells and the molecular mechanisms underlying this cellular recall, with the aim to develop novel early detection strategies for lung disease.

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Kidney Oceania RESEARCHER PROFILE

Pregnancy in women with chronic kidney disease

By Bench Side Story — 7 months ago

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. 

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Cancer Immunotherapy Oceania RESEARCHER PROFILE

Next-generation NK cell-based immunotherapies for hard-to-treat cancers

By Bench Side Story — 7 months ago

Associate Professor Fernando Guimaraes is an internationally recognised leader in cancer immunotherapy and natural killer (NK) cell biology. Based at The University of Queensland, he leads innovative research focused on developing next-generation NK cell-based immunotherapies for hard-to-treat cancers, including sarcomas and neuroblastoma.

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Cardiovascular Diabetes Nutrition Oceania RESEARCHER PROFILE

Food and fasting periods as medicine to prevent disease

By Bench Side Story — 8 months ago

Professor Leonie Heilbronn is based at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI), where she leads the Obesity and Metabolism laboratory. Her research is at the interface between basic and clinical science. She is internationally recognised for her work in nutritional modulation in humans and has made major contributions to our current understanding of mechanisms underlying conditions such as insulin resistance, particularly inflammation and lipid metabolism. She has also contributed significantly to current concepts of caloric restriction (CR), intermittent fasting (IF) and time restricted eating (TRE) in humans. She has published more than 110 peer reviewed papers in scientific journals and is an Associate Editor of Obesity, and Obesity Research and Clinical Practice.

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Genomics Leukaemia Oceania RESEARCHER PROFILE

Genomics and rationally targeted therapies in Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia

By Bench Side Story — 8 months ago

Prof Deborah White’s research focus is genomics and rationally targeted therapies in Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) and Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia (CML) and she holds peer reviewed grants from: The William Lawrence and Blanche Hughes Foundation and the Leukemia Lymphoma Society (USA), the NHMRC, the Leukaemia Foundation Australia (LFA), Channel 7, Cancer Australia, Tour de Cure and the Cancer Council SA (CCSA). Professor White has presented more than 170 papers at scientific meetings, and authored more than 100 scientific publications as well as being an inventor on several international patents.

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