Medicine & Health - Early Career Academic Network

Medicine & Health ECAN exists to support and empower early career academics within the Faculty of Medicine & Health at the University of New South Wales

Medicine & Health ECAN Subcommittee Members

Medicine & Health ECAN committee has ECAs from different departments within the Faculty of Medicine & Health. So, engaging with us is easy. Email us at medECAN@unsw.edu.au or contact us individually.

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Nila Dharan, PhD
Kirby Institute, UNSW Sydney

 

Valentina Rodriguez Paris, PhD

School of Biomedical Sciences, UNSW Sydney

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Fatima El-Assaad, PhD
St George and Sutherland Clinical Campus, School of Clinical Medicine, UNSW Sydney

 

Jessie Huang-Lung, PhD
School of Optometry and Vision Science, UNSW Sydney

 

Mohammad Rabiei, PhD
School of Clinical Medicine, UNSW Sydney

 

Luna Xu, PhD

School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney

 

Bettina Mihalas, PhD
School of Clinical Medicine, UNSW Sydney

 

Daisy Shu, PhD
School of Optometry and Vision Science, UNSW Sydney

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Shadma Fatima, PhD

Ingham Institute, South Western Clinical School, School of Clinical Medicine, UNSW Sydney

 

Nipuna Cooray, PhD
The George Institute for Global Health, UNSW Sydney

 

 

Zhaoli (Joy) Dai-Keller, PhD

School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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2023 Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) Seed Funding Opportunity

 

We are excited to announce a new call for seed funding applications for one project up to $5,250 over one year (GST exclusive). The call is for projects focused on any area within Medicine, requiring Next-Generation Sequencing. To be eligible, projects must be led by early career academics within the UNSW Faculty of Medicine & Health, who are subscribed members of the UNSW Med ECAN subcommittee. Applications will close on 24th November 2023. The winner will be announced in December 2023. The funds will be awarded in the form of credit that can be used for any Next Generation Sequencing service offered at the Ramaciotti Centre for Genomics, UNSW.  For more information on eligibility, timeline, assessment criteria and submission processes, please download the application form here

 

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2023 Med ECAN Travel Grant Awards

Med ECAN is pleased to announce that we are offering travel grants (up to $1,500) for eligible travel to conferences by members in 2023. See here for information about eligibility, requirements for travel, and how to apply. Applications close 5pm 24th September 2023.

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2023 MED ECAN Investigator Grant Symposium

Med ECAN is hosting a symposium for early career academics currently applying for an Emerging Leadership Investigator Grants. We will have a panel of five EL1 and EL2 Investigator Grant recipients in the Faculty of Medicine who work across a broad range of research disciplines, and a representative from the UNSW Research Strategy Office. This Symposium will complement the sessions being held by the Research Strategy Office and Research Grants and Contracts.

 

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2022 Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) Seed Funding Opportunity

 

The primary goal of UNSW Medicine & Health ECAN is to encourage, facilitate, and support medical research by our ECAs. Therefore, we are excited to announce a new call for seed funding applications up to $6,000 over 1 year (GST exclusive) for projects focused on any area within Medicine, requiring Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS). To be eligible, projects must be led by ECAs within the UNSW Faculty of Medicine & Health, who are subscribed members of the UNSW Med ECAN subcommittee. Applications will close on 3rd October 2022. The winner will be announced via ECAN and Medicine staff networks in by November 2022. The funds will be awarded in the form of credit that can be used for any NGS service offered at the Ramaciotti Centre for Genomics, UNSW.  For more information on eligibility, timeline, assessment criteria and submission processes, please download the application form here.

 

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2021 Med ECAN best research paper announcements

We would like to congratulate the following five early career academics who were selected as winners of the 2021 Med & Health ECAN Best Research Paper Prize.

Basic Science: Dr Mike Kendig

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Paper:  Fam J, Clemens KJ, Westbrook RF, Morris MJ and Kendig MD. Chronic exposure to cafeteria-style diet in rats alters sweet taste preference and reduces motivation for, but not ‘liking’ of sucrose. Appetite, 2022 Jan 1;168:105742. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2021.105742

Bio: Dr Kendig is a postdoctoral researcher in the School of Medical Sciences working with Professor Margaret Morris. His work studies how diets high in sugar and fat alter aspects of cognition and behaviour, and underlying changes in the brain and composition of the gut microbiome. He is interested in how different eating styles may alter diet-induced cognitive impairment (e.g., time restricted feeding and diet cycling) and whether reverting to a healthy diet can ameliorate adverse effects. He has recently expanded to examine the impact of diet on taste sensitivity in a new collaboration with researchers in the School of Psychology.

 

Clinical Medicine and Science: Dr Nila Dharan (Co-winner)

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Paper:  Dharan NJ, Yeh P, Bloch M, Yeung M, Baker D, Guinto J, Roth N, Ftouni S, Ognenovska K, Smith D, Hoy JF, Woolley I, Pell C, Templeton DJ, Fraser N, Rose N, Hutchinson J, Petoumenos K, Dawson SJ, Polizzotto MN, Dawson MA, for the ARCHIVE Study Group. HIV is associated with an increased risk of age-related clonal haematopoiesis among older adults: the ARCHIVE study. Nature Medicine. 2021 Jun 7;27(6):1006-1011. doi: 10.1038/s41591-021-01357-y.

Bio: Dr Nila Dharan is an Infectious Diseases physician with a research focus on international infectious diseases and public health. She completed her medical training in Internal Medicine and specialist training in Infectious Diseases in the United States and completed a research fellowship with the Epidemic Intelligence Service at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She has clinical and public health research experience in the areas of HIV, influenza and tuberculosis. Her current research is focused on ageing and comorbidities in people with HIV. In 2021, she completed a PhD in the area of HIV comorbidities and aging, aimed at understanding the spectrum of comorbidities among persons living with HIV in Australia, and understanding aging-related genetic changes in people with HIV.

 

Clinical Medicine and Science: Dr David Khoury (Co-winner)

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Paper: David S. Khoury, Deborah Cromer, Arnold Reynaldi, Timothy E. Schlub, Adam K. Wheatley, Jennifer A. Juno, Kanta Subbarao, Stephen J. Kent, James A. Triccas & Miles P. Davenport. Neutralizing antibody levels are highly predictive of immune protection from symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection (2021). Nature Medicine 27:1205–1211. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-021-01377-8.

Bio: Dr David Khoury is a postdoctoral researcher at the Kirby Institute, with prior training in applied mathematics. Since 2012, David has conducted research into infectious disease drug treatment and immunity, first as a research student and currently as an Early Career Research Fellow with the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia. His background in mathematics has given him a unique perspective to dissect some of the major questions in infectious diseases. Examples of this include understanding the mechanisms of host control and drug action in malaria, uncovering the first correlate of protective immunity in SARS-CoV-2, and detecting the protective threshold for mild and severe COVID-19. David’s work is only made possible through the integration of experimental and mathematical approaches and his research is conducted in close collaboration with many domestic and international collaborators from other disciplines including parasitology, drug discovery, immunology, virology and clinical infectious diseases.

 

Public Health and Health Services Research:  Dr Belinda Hengel

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Paper: Hengel, B., Causer, L., Matthews, S., Smith, K., Andrewartha, K., Badman, S., Spaeth, B., Tangey, A., Cunningham, P., Saha, A., Phillips, E., Ward, J., Watts, C., King, J., Applegate, T., Shephard, M., & Guy, R. (2021). A decentralised point-of-care testing model to address inequities in the COVID-19 response. The Lancet. Infectious diseases, 21(7), e183–e190. https://doi-org.wwwproxy1.library.unsw.edu.au/10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30859-8

Bio: Dr Hengel is an early career researcher based with the Surveillance, Evaluation and Research Program at the Kirby Institute, who has been working alongside Aboriginal communities for around 15 years, primarily focused on reducing STIs and improving reproductive and pregnancy outcomes for women. She has been involved in point of care testing for infectious diseases in Aboriginal communities for the past ten years, more recently as co-coordinating the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander COVID-19 POC testing program, and supporting POC testing in Victoria and Queensland.

 

People’s Choice Award: Dr Shadma Fatima

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Paper: Shadma, F., et al. Integrative resource for network-based investigation of COVID-19 combinatoric drug repositioning and mechanism of action. 2021. Journal Patterns Vol. 2, Pg 1-10, 100325, Date September 10, 2021 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.patter.2021.100325

Bio: Dr Shadma Fatima is originally from Sagar a very small town of central India. After graduating (DVM) from Indira Gandhi Agricultural University in 2004 they were selected for a prestigious National research scholarship to pursue a Master’s by Research in Molecular genetics. Dr Fatima was then awarded an International Postgraduate scholarship from Monash University to pursue their PhD with Prof. David A Jans (a pioneer in nucleocytoplamic trafficking). While doing a PhD, they  identified the role of negative regulators of nuclear import in mammalian development and spermatogenesis and remained active  as a Biochemistry Student Representative with a focus on helping fellow colleagues overcome  day to day problems during their research and improve their professional outcomes. They are currently chair of the mentoring subcommittee of the newly established Postdoctoral Association at the Ingham Institute of Applied research.

 

We are also deeply impressed by the high quality of impactful work that was presented by the Med ECAN members. Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

 

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Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) Seed Funding Winner

 

The primary goal of UNSW Medicine ECAN is to encourage, facilitate, and support medical research by our ECAs. Therefore, we are excited to announce a new call for seed funding applications up to $3,200 over 1 year (GST exclusive) for projects focused on any area within Medicine, requiring Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS). 

 

 

Congratulations to Dr Dongli Liu for being awarded the Ramaciotti Centre Seed Grant!

 

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