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Science Bites
Welcome to Science Bites! The page to come to find videos highlighting ANZSN's best and brightest discovery scientists and outstanding research achievements. The presentations are on Tuesdays at 12pm AEDT/AEST.
To be included in this page you need to be a current ANZSN member and a recent research award recipient, have a high-level research publication or be selected by the ANZSN Research Advisory Committee (RAC). However attendance to the presentations is free and open to all discovery scientists and students in the region, in addition to all ANZSN members.
RAC selection will be based on criteria ensuring equity and diversity of gender, career stage, research category and rural or urban location.
If you have exciting new research or achievements that you want to share, please contact anzsn@nephrology.edu.au.
Science Bites 2024
Addressing Sex and Gender Disparities in Nephrology Research
Panel Speakers:
Dr Katrina Mirabito Colafella - " Sex, gender and the kidneys: current understanding and future opportunities "
Dr Melanie Wyld - " Gender equity in nephrology research (and researchers)"
Title: Sex, gender and the kidneys: current understanding and future opportunities
Presented by: Dr Katrina Mirabito Colafella
Dr Katrina Mirabito Colafella is a Research Fellow and Laboratory Head in the Department of Physiology at the Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University. Katrina completed her PhD in Professor Kate Denton's laboratory at Monash University. She was awarded a Monash Bridging Postdoctoral Fellowship and then obtained an overseas NHMRC CJ Martin Fellowship to continue her postdoctoral studies in Prof Jan Danser's laboratory at Erasmus Medical Centre, The Netherlands. Thereafter, Katrina returned to Australia to establish her own research group at Monash University. Katrina's research program focuses on the pathogenesis and therapy of hypertension and cardiovascular disease, with a special emphasis on the renin angiotensin system and sex-specific risk factors (complications of pregnancy, menopause).
Title: Gender equity in nephrology research (and researchers)
Presented by: Dr Melanie Wyld
Melanie Wyld (B.Econ(Hons) MBBS MBA MPH PhD FRACP) is a renal and transplant physician at Westmead Hospital and senior lecturer in clinical epidemiology at the School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney. She received her PhD 'Health outcomes and cost-effectiveness in kidney disease' in 2019 from the University of Sydney. She is a clinical researcher with research interests in gender and intersectional disparities in access to, and outcomes from, transplantation, and living donor kidney transplantation. She is the Chair of Equity Diversity and Inclusion Committee of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Nephrology.
Science Bites 2023
Single cell transcriptomics - a new tool to study nephrology
Panel Speakers:
Jennifer Li from Westmead Hospital - "Spatial transcriptomics in AKI"
Peter Lau from Australian Genome Research Facility - "Advancements in Single Cell Sequencing: Overcoming Limitations and Expanding Applications"
Phillip Kantharidis from Monash University - "Identifying cell populations critical for the resolution of inflammation in diabetic kidney disease."
Recording coming soon
Dr Jen Li is a staff specialist nephrologist and transplant physician at Westmead Hospital and post-doctoral researcher at the Westmead Institute for Medical Research.
Peter is a senior scientist at the Australian Genome Research Facility (AGRF) and is part of both the Science and Technology and the Innovation & Development teams within the organisation. Peter actively collaborates with research teams and commercial partners, addressing complex biological questions and assessing emerging technologies. Peter's expertise in single cell sequencing and Nanopore long read sequencing has established him as the primary point of contact at AGRF for these advanced methodologies.
Dr Phillip Kantharidis is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Diabetes. His main research focus is the identification of novel treatments to protect diabetic patients from micro and macrovascular complications. He is a molecular biologist who has worked for 10 years in the field of diabetic nephropathy publishing findings which have advanced our understanding of the important role of microRNAs in diabetic complications. He is interested is adapting his recent exciting results to the clinical setting.
Guest Speaker: Assoc Professor Joshua Ooi, Associate Professor (Research), Centre for Inflammatory Disease Monash Health
Watch the recording
Dr Ooi is an Al and Val Rosenstrauss Fellow in the School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health. His lab focusses on generating autoantigen-specific regulatory T cells to treat autoimmune diseases.
During his PhD (2009) and post-doctoral training, Dr. Ooi showed that inflammatory T helper cells specific for self proteins (known as autoantigens) underlie the pathogenesis of autoimmune disease. Now, Dr. Ooi and his team are devising regulatory T cell based therapies that specifically switch off the autoantigen-specific inflammatory response.
His work has been published in the top journals including in PNAS, J Clin Invest and Nature; and he has received funding by the NHMRC, Rebecca Cooper Medical Research Foundation and the Lupus Research Alliance to develop these new and innovative therapies.
Science Bites 2022
Guest Speaker: Professor Sharon Ricardo, Research Group Leader, Monash Biomedical Discovery Institute at Monash University.
Watch the recording
Sharon is a research group leader in the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute where she has an established international reputation in kidney disease and regenerative medicine. As head of the Kidney Regeneration and Stem Cell Laboratory in the Department of Pharmacology, her lab is producing high-impact research aimed at developing new stem cell-based therapies, in combination with repair and growth factors, to attenuate disease progression.
Her discoveries have resulted in >110 publications in the field that include the first report of the derivation of induced pluripotent stem cells from human kidneys and translational research evidenced by seven granted international patents.
She is a past member of the ANZSN Scientific Program and Education Committee (SPEC) and a recipient of the TJ Neale award. Adding to her professional experience, Sharon holds a senior leadership position at Monash as Academic Director, Graduate Research in the Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research). She is a passionate advocate for graduate research as the next generation of future scientific leaders.
Details about her academic profile can be found at https://www.monash.edu/discovery-institute/ricardo-lab/home
Guest Speaker: Professor Josephine Forbes, Program Leader of the Chronic Disease Biology and Care research theme at Mater, National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Senior Research Fellow.
Watch the recording
Professor Josephine Forbes is a global leader driving innovative therapies for diabetic kidney disease as well as for the prevention of Type 1 diabetes. She fosters her pioneering bench research all the way to clinical trials.
Her accolades include the Commonwealth Health Minister's Award for Outstanding contribution to Medical Research and ANZSN's TJ Neale Award. She has over 200 publications, an H-Index of 56, patents and commercial partners.
Her peak body leadership roles including for the Australian Diabetes Society, The Australian Centre for Accelerating Diabetes Innovations and previously Diabetes Australia Research Trust ensure strong advocacy for health research/ers and consumers.
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Dr. Veronika Sander obtained her MSc and PhD in Molecular Biology at the University of Salzburg in Austria. She undertook post-doctoral training in developmental biology/regeneration laboratories at UCLA and the Center of Regenerative Medicine in Barcelona, where she became proficient in a range of genetic and cellular techniques and acquired experience in working with several animal models (Xenopus, Drosophila, zebrafish) and human cell systems.
Dr. Sander joined the Davidson lab at the University of Auckland in 2013 to study kidney development and regeneration in zebrafish. More recently, she has been working with human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC)-derived kidney organoids and uses these to model congenital kidney disease and acute kidney injury.