Dr Yvonne Belessis is a Conjoint Senior Lecturer with the School of Women’s & Children’s, UNSW Medicine.
Dr Belessis is also Senior Staff Specialist in Respiratory Medicine, Director of Flexible Bronchoscopy Services and the Director of Cystic Fibrosis Services at Sydney Children’s Hospital.
Her main field of research is early airway infection and inflammation in children with cystic fibrosis (CF) and she is currently an Associate Investigator on two North American CF Foundation funded grants and three NHMRC-funded Project grants related to clinical research in CF. Her particular interest is in biomarkers of early CF lung disease and her PhD thesis was titled “Assessment of non-invasive measures of early lung disease in infants and young children with cystic fibrosis.” The main chapter from Dr Belessis’ thesis was published in the American Review of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
Dr Belessis is also a founding clinician of the SCH Multidisciplinary Oesophageal Atresia-Tracheo-oesophageal Clinic established in 2011. This innovative clinic aims to provide best-practice, co-ordinated clinical care for children with this orphan lung disease from birth through to late adolescence. These children have long-term respiratory morbidity including recurrent aspiration, bacterial bronchitis and bronchiectasis and restrictive lung disease which impacts on their quality of life in adulthood. Our aim is to support these children and their families and together achieve the best possible outcomes. Additonally collaborative research is an important aspect of our clinic and prospective studies are currently in progress.
Research Interests
- Cystic Fibrosis
- Airway infection / inflammation
- Non-invasive biomarkers to detect early disease predict bronchiectasis
- Earlier targeted therapies
- Epidemiological studies
- Pathophysiology of lung disease in children
Society Memberships & Professional Activities
- Member of the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand
- Member of the European Respiratory Society
- Member of the European Cystic Fibrosis Society
- Member of the NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation Stearing Committee for Cystic Fibrosis
- Member of Australian Lung Foundation
- Member of the Infant Lung function Special Interest Group
$20,000 2015 SCH Foundation Seed Grant
“Sensitive minimally-invasive biomarkers of early lung disease in young children with Cystic Fibrosis"
CI: Dr Yvone Belessis, AI: Prof Adam Jaffe, Dr Steven Leach
$40, 000 2015 UNSW Goldstar Award
“Activating cystic fibrosis conductance regulator expression: the therapeutic potential of RNA directed gene activation.”
AI: Co-applicant with A/Prof Kevin Morris and Prof Adam Jaffe
$385,000 2011 National Health and Medical Research Council
“CF-IDEA (Insulin Deficiency Early Action) Study”
AI: With Drs. Hameed, Field, Morton, Jaffe, Verge and T. Katz,
$50,000 2011 Australasian Paediatric Endocrine Care Group
“CF-IDEA (Insulin Deficiency Early Action) Study”
AI: With Drs. Hameed, Field, Morton, Jaffe, Verge and T. Katz,
$54,405.95 2010 Australian Cystic Fibrosis Research Trust Grant
“CF-IDEA (Insulin Deficiency Early Action) Study”
AI: Co-applicant with Dr Hameed, T. Katz, Dr Field, Dr Morton, Prof Jaffe, Dr Verge
$434,000 2008-2011 National Health and Medical Research Council
“A novel strategy targeting quorum sensing molecules and catalase function to block Pseudomonas aeruginosa lung infection.” APP529309
AI: Co-applicant with Prof Jaffe, Dr Cooley and Prof Kyd
$96,097 2008 Australian Cystic Fibrosis Research Trust Grant
“Pseudomonas infection as an indirect cause of CF related Diabetes.”
AI: Co-applicant with Prof Jaffe, Dr Cooley, Dr Reid and Dr Roddam
$15,000 2007 Sydney Children’s Hospital Health Promotion Grant
“Reducing tobacco related harm - offering smoking cessation interventions to parents/carers during their child's admission.”
CIA: Co-applicant with C. Burns, M. Gray, K. Luttrell, Prof A Jaffe
$15,000 2007 Sydney Children’s Hospital Foundation Research Grant
“Effect of body position on gastro-oesophageal reflux during chest physiotherapy in infants with cystic fibrosis.”
CIC: Co-applicant with Michael Doumit, Dr Krishnan, Prof Adam Jaffe
$15,000 2005 Rebecca Cooper Research Fellowship Foundation Grant
“The S100 proteins in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and serum as markers of early airway inflammation in cystic fibrosis.”
CIB: Co-applicant with Dr Steven Leach and A/Prof Andrew Day
ROCHE Prize Best Cystic Fibrosis Oral Presentation 2009
New Investigator Award 6th International Congress of Paediatric Pulmonology 2004
TOW Research Poster Prize Randwick Campus Hospitals 2004
National Young Investigator Award 5th Australasian Cystic Fibrosis Conference 2003
Sydney Children's Hospital Foundation Research Fellowship 2002
Best Clinical Teacher Sydney Children's Hospital 1997/1999/2000/2001
Chief Resident Sydney Childrens' Hospital 1998
MBBS Honours Class 11 Division 1 (top 12% of class of >220 students) 1985
DUX (top ranked student in HSC) of Morefield Girls High School 1978
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0133-3432