EMCR seed and travel funding recipients 2024

Ms Sally Badorrek

Project | General practitioner and patient perspectives on community-based post-bariatric surgery care |

Summary | Bariatric surgery remains an increasingly popular option for sustained weight loss. General Practitioners (GPs) are pivotal in postoperative patient care. Anecdotal evidence and limited scholarly research show significant gaps in this care, leading to suboptimal patient outcomes and diminished GP confidence. As part of a PhD project embedded within the CPC Nepean Lifespan Obesity Node, we aim to understand the facilitators and barriers to effective post bariatric surgery patient care from the perspectives of both GPs and patients. This insight is critical for laying the foundation necessary to devise and implement targeted strategies to enhance GP management practices and improve patient care.

Dr Sarah Barakat

Project | Understanding mechanisms driving obesity: Applying nutritional geometry to binge eating 

Summary | Binge eating is a key driver of excessive weight gain and highly comorbid with overweight and obesity. Whilst binge eating has largely been conceptualized as a psychological illness, there is emerging evidence to suggest that the behaviour may be influenced by inadequate levels of protein intake. We will for the first time apply nutritional geometry to existing food diary records of 200 people with a diagnosed binge eating disorder, to investigate whether insufficient protein intake constitutes a key driver of overconsumption and loss of dietary control. This unique and innovative multidisciplinary approach uses nutritional ecology, evolutionary biology and psychology approaches to understand the underlying mechanisms of binge eating and associated obesity from a psycho-biological perspective.

Ms Tiffany Goh

Project | Reducing blood clots on cardiovascular medical devices, using a metal thrombosis-on-a-chip model to identify biological, engineering, material and clinical solutions

Summary | Cardiovascular disease treatment, management and prevention requires a range of blood-contacting medical devices. Fatally, all such devices carry the side effect of blood clotting (thrombosis), causing device failure via blockage, and threatens patient safety with stroke and embolism. To improve future-generation cardiovascular device efficacy, we developed a novel device thrombosis-on-a-chip model, which identified engineering, material, and clinical changes that reduce clotting, while elucidating biological mechanisms causing thrombosis on polymer devices. This seed funding grant will now implement a new metal thrombosis-on-a-chip model to seek real-world solutions to make metal ventricular assist devices (VADs), total artificial hearts (TAHs) and stents safer.

Dr Michael Gotsbacher

Project | A mass spectrometry-based ligand discovery platform

Summary | This project will establish the development of a disease-agnostic screening platform to identify novel ligands for any protein of interest (POI) from a vast library of fungal metabolites. This work will establish a high-throughput workflow using mass spectrometry (MS) paired with computational analysis (molecular networking) to find novel, small natural products that bind specifically to the POI. Consequently, the identified hits will enable the discovery of chemical probes or drug candidates.

Dr Nicholas Koemel

Project | Optimal variations of sleep, physical activity, and nutrition (SPAN) for glycaemic control in women: A 24-Hour wearable technology approach 

Summar | Sleep, Physical Activity, and Nutrition (SPAN) play pivotal roles in the development of non-communicable diseases, with well-documented individual effects on glycaemic control. However, no research has examined these behaviours collectively while considering possible synergistic effects across the 24-hour window. This study employs an integrative multidisciplinary 24-hour wearables approach, using continuous glucose monitors and research-grade activity trackers to investigate the interplay between SPAN behaviours and glycaemic control in a sample of 40 women from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. Taken together, this study aims to identify the optimal variations, dose, and timing of SPAN behaviours for the early prevention of type 2 diabetes in women.

Dr Kevin Law

Project | What makes us breathe? A novel dual-reporter human stem cell line to efficiently generate respiratory neurons for the modelling of central sleep apnea 

Summary | Central sleep apnea (CSA) is a chronic sleep disorder where respiratory neurons that initiate involuntary breathing become disrupted and cease breathing. Although breathing is the essence of life, there is limited research on human respiratory neurons and CSA. Human stem cells are a powerful tool to study live human cells and model disorders due to their potential to differentiate into any cell type, including respiratory neurons. Here, we aim to genetically engineer a dual-reporter human stem cell line to optimise a respiratory neuron differentiation protocol that can be used to uncover the biology of breathing and CSA.

Dr Dori Patay

Project | Strengthening national food system governance: lessons from the Ministry of Food in Bangladesh 

Summary | This project investigates how food systems can be better governed to improve health, social, environmental, and economic outcomes simultaneously. Working with a multidisciplinary team of Australian and Bangladeshi researchers, this project draws lessons from Bangladesh’s whole-of-food system governance, centring on the Ministry of Food. We will perform a qualitative governance analysis informed by systems thinking to produce new evidence about the drivers that shape how the Ministry of Food is able to forge coherence between food system policies and stakeholders, and design a system map for identifying leverage points to strengthen food system governance in Bangladesh.

Dr Rajshri Roy

Project | Co-designing a heart healthy social media health promotion with young Australian women 

Summary | The project focuses on adapting a previously successful New Zealand Daily Health Coach (DHC) social media health promotion program for young Australian women. This project leverages social media platforms to promote heart-healthy behaviours, targeting nutrition, physical activity, and mental well-being. By tailoring the DHC program to the Australian context, we aim to engage young women in proactive cardiovascular health management. The seed funding will support the co-design process, ensuring that the content is culturally relevant and accessible. The seed project will be used to design and pilot-test this intervention in a larger study for improving dietary and lifestyle behaviours of young Australian women. 

Dr Belinda Yau

Project | Does Cab45 regulate proinsulin trafficking in pancreatic beta-cells?

Summary | Cab45 is a calcium binding protein recently discovered to have a role in insulin secretory function in pancreatic beta cells. Cab45 deletion in beta cells leads to impaired insulin granule secretion, however its mechanism of action is not understood. This project aims to investigate whether Cab45 mediates the trafficking / sorting of proinsulin at the trans-Golgi network, the site of insulin granule formation, using a fluorescent proinsulin tracking marker.

Dr Jasmine Yee

Project | Exercise-induced immune cell mobilisation in advanced melanoma: a comparison of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) vs moderate-intensity continuous training (MICT) 

Summary | Checkpoint inhibitors, an immunotherapy for advanced melanoma, significantly improve survival by reactivating T-cell subsets and Natural Killer cells. Exercise similarly mobilises these cells, suggesting its potential to enhance immunotherapy response. This project aims to quantify, for the first time, the immune response to moderate- and high-intensity exercise in people receiving immunotherapy for advanced melanoma. By identifying the aerobic exercise intensity most likely to boost immunotherapy effectiveness, this work lays the foundation for evaluating exercise as an adjuvant therapy to improve cancer outcomes, such as disease-free and overall survival.