VIVA

My research examines the causes and consequences of asthma attacks. As recent events in Melbourne have shown, severe attacks of asthma still kill in Australia and my aim is to understand what happens during these attacks, and treat them better. We will investigate how airway narrowing that happens during an asthma attack not only leads to worse asthma symptoms and in some circumstances death, but also has other effects.

Post Doctoral Fellow (1.0FTE) + Research Assistant (0.5FTE)

Oceanic Leadership in Nutrition Platform training program for ECRs

The burden of asthma in children is unacceptably high. Asthma is the most common chronic childhood disease, affecting more than 10% of Australian children. Inhaled steroids are the most effective therapy for controlling asthma day to day, however, they do not prevent many acute attacks of asthma and many patients and carers are concerned about unwanted side effects, which reduces adherence to prescribed medications. Therefore, alternative strategies for managing asthma in children are urgently needed.

Anastomotic leak (AL), which is when the join between two segments of bowel fails in the immediate post­operative period, is the most feared major complication of colorectal surgery. This surgery is performed as a primary treatment for colorectal cancer and in 70% of patients with inflammatory bowel disease. AL rates are between 3% and 10% of surgeries, and mortality rates up to 39%. Few improvements have been made in the rate of leak in the past 20 years, despite the best efforts of surgeons around the globe.

The CoreScan application is a software upgrade for the existing Lunar Prodigy Dual Energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) machine located within the clinical trials pod at HMRI.

The countess II FL is the major component of this equipment and is the core module that enables highly accurate, reproducible and high throughput cell counting. The Countess II reuse slide enables the same slide to be used for an infinite number of experiments and reduces consumable costs associated with individual slides. However, this equipment allows options for users who need individual slides at their own expense. The two EVOS LED Cubes are removable components that allow quantification of fluorescent cells. We have chosen green fluorescent protein and red fluorescent protein as these are the major fluorophores used. However, these can be switched out for other detectors in the future, making it future proof and adaptable to future research needs.

Asthma affects more than 300 million people worldwide, with Australian’s suffering more from asthma (one in ten) than almost any other people in the world. Asthma is a major burden on Australia’s health care system and the economy. It can affect people of all ages - some people get asthma when they are young, others when they are older.

Smoking leads to lung inflammation that causes emphysema - a major health problem in Australia. Emphysema progressively declines even if smoking stops and there are no treatments.

Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy, or CBT, is one of the few effective therapies for children with functional abdominal pain. But CBT sessions can be costly and difficult to access, particularly as multiple sessions are required.

Children born to mothers with asthma are three times more likely to develop asthma themselves than those with asthmatic fathers, which suggests that a risk factor extends beyond genetics. There is emerging evidence that bacteria in the infant’s gut can impact immune function and contribute to the types of immune responses that are seen in asthma.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is a condition of persistent, progressive lung destruction caused by inhalation of damaging particles. Many current treatments are expensive, come with side-effects, or have very little effect on some patients.

Current therapies prevent only ~40% of asthma exacerbations. These figures are in the context of clinical trials - real life asthma exacerbations are even less likely to be prevented.

Net will use her Jennie Thomas medical research travel grant to travel to two conferences -the first being the Annual Scientific meeting of the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand in perth and the European Respiratory Society International COngress in London.

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a genetic disorder that affects 1 in 2,500 people born in Australia. 

Early-life lung infections, caused by respiratory bacteria and viruses, lead to permanent alterations in lung structure and function that predispose children to the development of chronic lung diseases such as asthma and emphysema in later-life.

If I am successful, the Jennie Thomas Medical research travel grant will be used to support my travel to two of the worlds biggest immunology conferences. 

Smoking leads to lung inflammation that causes emphysema - a major health problem in Australia.

Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) is the umbrella term for a group of chronic gastrointestinal diseases which include Crohn’s (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), affecting over 70,000 Australians, for which there is no cure.

Over 70,000 hip and knee replacements are performed in Australia each year. Unfortunately approximately 2% of these will become infected and there is a lack of high quality evidence to guide the management of these prosthetic joint infections (PJI). 

In patients with asthma, the airways narrow leading to shortness of breath, cough and asthma attacks.

If persistent painful ear infections of childhood can lead to long-term hearing and learning difficulties. 

An acute exacerbation (also known as infection) is a critical event for a CF patient.  

While symptoms of food allergy range from mild to severe, patients with peanut allergy are at the highest risk of a potentially life threatening reaction known as anaphylaxis affecting up to half of all individuals who are allergic to peanut. 

The first paper from Hayley’s PhD was published in the highly prestigious journal, European Respiratory Journal. 

Immunological aging in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)

Six to eight percent of children suffer from clinically relevant food allergy and the prevalence is increasing worldwide(1-3).

Asthma prevelance has increased in many western countries over recent decades. Currently, 1 in 6 children in Australia are affected by the disease. Over this time, obesity rates have also increased, and obesity now effects around 10% of Australian children.