Dr Shafagh Waters (BSc, MSc (Disc.), PhD) is a Scientia senior lecturer at UNSW and an honorary senior scientist at Sydney Children’s Hospital. A productive PhD (2012; ANU) and postdoctoral fellowships (2013-2016; UNSW) helped her secure international training fellowships in gene therapy and organoid medicine, establishing her independent lab in 2016. Dr Waters lead an NHMRC funded research program on adult-stem-cell biology for cystic fibrosis...view more
Dr Shafagh Waters (BSc, MSc (Disc.), PhD) is a Scientia senior lecturer at UNSW and an honorary senior scientist at Sydney Children’s Hospital. A productive PhD (2012; ANU) and postdoctoral fellowships (2013-2016; UNSW) helped her secure international training fellowships in gene therapy and organoid medicine, establishing her independent lab in 2016. Dr Waters lead an NHMRC funded research program on adult-stem-cell biology for cystic fibrosis (CF) that is supported by 32 grants; 21 as CIA including international and national industry partnerships. Dr Waters has developed an Australian national biobank of stem-cell-derived airway and gut organoids, and has built a platform for high-throughput therapy-testing on patients organoids. She combines her unique strengths in organoid disease modelling, multi-omic molecular profiling and computational research with clinical data to improve individualised outcomes for patients with CF. She is regularly invited to media interviews and present at community, and as a keynote speaker at national and international meetings, on two occasions, and was the recipient of the best ECR research award at the 2019-Australian Academy of Science, Precision Medicine Conference. In 2020, the latter (co-culture airway organoid with pathogens) was pivoted to COVID-19 to delineate the innate immune response to SARS-CoV2 infection.
My Grants
Scheme: Ideas Grants
Funding agency: National Health & Medical Research Council
Grant name: Towards Personalised Cystic Fibrosis Medicine: Functional characterisation and targeted therapies for rare CF Transmembrane Regulator (CFTR) mutations using patient-derived organoids
Role: CIA, UNSW Grant number: RG191611 Start date: 1 January 2020
Scheme: 2019 Gene Therapy Innovation Grant
Funding agency: Cystic Fibrosis Community Care
Grant name: Nanoparticle nanoparticle gene addition therapy in primary differentiated CF airway cell models.
Role: Sole CI, UNSW Grant number: RG194254 Start date: 1 January 2020
Scheme: Orphan Disease Center Million Dollar Bike Ride Grant Program
Funding agency: Penn Medicine Orphan Disease Centre | University of Adelaide
Grant name: Airway Cell Therapy for Cystic Fibrosis Nonsense Mutations
Role: co-CI, UNSW Grant number: RG192792 Start date: 1 June 2019
Scheme: DAVID MILLAR GILES INNOVATION GRANT
Funding agency: CYSTIC FIBROSIS AUSTRALIA
Grant name: an australian alliance of personalised lab grown mini-organs to save the rarest of them all
Role: Sole CI, UNSW Grant number: RG191126 Start date: 1 August 2019
Scheme: TSANZ VERTEX PAEDIATRIC CYSTIC FIBROSIS AWARD
Funding agency: THORACIC SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND (TSANZ)
Grant name: a novel compound for cystic fibrosis therapy, targeting proteostasis network.
Role: Sole CI, UNSW Grant number: RG192793 Start date: 17 July 2019
Scheme: NSW HEALTH PAEDIATRIC PRECISION MEDICINE SHARED GRANT
Funding agency: PAEDIATRIO LIMITED
Grant name: ppm 1: centralized capacity to develop functional genomics for paediatric precision medicine
Role: CIB, UNSW Grant number: RG192369, Start date: 1 June 2019
Scheme: REBECCA L. COOPER MEDICAL PROJECT GRANTS
Funding agency: REBECCA L. COOPER MEDICAL RESEARCH FOUNDATION
Grant name: personalised lab grown mini-lungs to predict effect of therapies in patients with cystic fibrosis
Role: Sole CI, UNSW Grant number: RG182229, Start date: 1 January 2019
Scheme: CONTRACT RESEARCH
Funding agency: PAEDIATRIO LIMITED
Grant name: microscope funding for drug discovery and efficacy testing
Role: CIB, UNSW Grant number: RG182726, Start date: 24 October 2018
Scheme: VERTEX INNOVATION AWARDS
Funding agency: VERTEX PHARMACEUTICALS (CH)
Grant name: exo-cf; exosomal biomarkers for early prediction of cystic fibrosis related diabetes (cfrd)
Role: CIA, UNSW Grant number: RG181847, Start date: 22 March 2019
Scheme: ACFRT INNOVATION GRANT
Funding agency: CYSTIC FIBROSIS RESEARCH LIMITED QLD
Grant name: Rna therapeutics: novel paradigm in mutation independent cf therapy
Role: CIA, UNSW Grant number: RG173352, Start date: 5 March 2018
Scheme: BOOSTING BUSINESS INNOVATION PROGRAM
Funding agency: NSW DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRY
Grant name: in vitro investigation of the potential efficacy of thiols to treat cystic fibrosis - techvoucher
Role: CIA, UNSW Grant number: RG161881-T Start date: 23 June 2018
Scheme: CONTRACT RESEARCH
Funding agency: BIOSPECIALTIES AUSTRALIA PTY LTD
Grant name: in vitro investigation of the potential efficacy of thiols to treat cystic fibrosis
Role: CIA, UNSW Grant number: RG181150, Start date: 4 June 2018
My Qualifications
PhD, Australian National University
MSc (Distinction), University of Otago, New Zealand
BSc, The University of Auckland, New Zealand
My Awards
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Young Tall Poppy Science Award
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Australian Institute of Policy and Science |NSW Young Tall Poppy Science Award
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2022
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Best EMCR Poster Award
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Australian Academy of Science | AU-China Precision Medicine Symposium
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2019
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EMCR Travel Award
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Australian Academy of Science | AU-China Precision Medicine Symposium
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2019
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Travel Award
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Australian Academy of Science | Science at the Shine Dome Early-and Mid-Career Researchers Program
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2018
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Finalist
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Annual Quality and Innovation Awards | The Sydney Children’s Hospital Network
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2018
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Travel Award
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SIDRA Functional Genomics Towards Precision Medicine Symposium. Doha Qatar
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2017
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Travel Award
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Vice-Chancellor's HDR | Australian National University (ANU)
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2012
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Best PhD Candidate Talk Award
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Genetics Society of Australasia Conference 2010
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2010
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Travel Award
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University of Otago, New Zealand
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2008
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Best Poster Presentation Award
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Molecular Basis of Cancer and Development Meeting 2007
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2007
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My Research Activities
My current research has a strong translational focus in three key areas of
(i) stem cell biology involving disease modeling and regenerative medicine
(ii) prognostic and diagnostic exosomal biomarker discovery for CF related diabetes,
(iii) CFTR restoring therapeutics in patient derived organoids using a variety of delivery approaches including viral and nanoformulations.
(iv) host-pathogen interactions for viral and bacterial infections.
My Research Supervision
Supervision keywords
Areas of supervision
Shafagh is interested in supervising both Honours and HDR (Masters and PhD) students in the areas of personalised medicine and Respiratory disease. If you are interested, please contact her via email describing why you would like to undertake a degree in her lab and providing your results from the UNSW HDR Self-Assessment Tool (applicable only to Masters and PhD candidates).
Currently supervising
PhD student (July 2016- current)
Hons and Masters students
My Engagement
The Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand Research Committee member (since 2020)
UNSW Early Career Academic Network Executive Committee member (since 2020)
UNSW- Faculty of Medicine Co-chair Early Career Academic Network (since 2020)
Memberships:
UNSW Australian Centre for NanoMedicine
Australian Living Organoid Alliance (ALOA)
The Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand (TSANZ)
UNSW Australian Centre for NanoMedicine
Women in Research Network member, UNSW
Australian Society for Medical Research
Genetic Society of AustralAsia (GSA)
Community Engagement
Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Australia
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1144-5411
