I’ve just joined the Clear Vision Research Group where I’m excited to keep investigating the relationship between neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration. My PhD at The University of Queensland investigated neuroinflammatory oxidative stress where I learned how different stress systems interact in the body. Following my PhD, I joined the Nitric Oxide Synaptic Toxicity Group within the Medical Research Council Toxicology Unit in the United Kingdom. Here, I investigated neuroinflammatory neurodegeneration in prion disease and became interested in different processes underlying neurodegeneration. I moved back to Melbourne where I began investigating how neuroinflammation alters proteins that are packaged in extracellular vesicles which are small particles that cells use to communicate. I was able to undertake some exploratory research that included cross-disciplinary collaboration understanding how critical nitric oxide signalling is in neuroinflammatory communication.

My research vision is to identify unique RNA and proteomic ‘fingerprints’ derived from specific neuron and glial cell types of the brain and investigate how these fingerprints change during the pathogenesis of neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases.