Inclusive of maternity leave (Dec 2018- Oct 2019), as program coordinator for the longitudinal observational study, the Queensland Family Cohort (https://www.qldfamilycohort.org/), I set up the laboratory, maintained ethics and governance applications and study compliance and managed clinical, research staff, and PhD students to allow for the recruitment, data collection and processing of biological samples to develop a databank of over 60,000 samples from over 530 participating families.

My work has focussed on identifying whether IL-22 is an effective therapeutic for type 1 diabetes and MIDY using animal models, determining which cells produce IL-22 within the pancreatic islets and what IL-22-responsive cells in the islets are responsible for driving inflammatory responses that accompanies β-cell dysfunction. My other research interests lay in the effect of IL-22 in brain feeding circuitry and potential therapies to improve islet health and function in islet transplantation.

My project focussed on determining the effect of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) in type 1 diabetes disease development. I am currently delineating the effects of AGE lowering therapy within pancreatic β-cell health. I supervise two PhD students whose projects involve the role of AGE receptors in type 1 diabetes development and AGE homeostasis, respectively. My other research interests lay in early developmental changes that may occur in utero or early in life that consequently effects the development of type 1 diabetes.

The overall objective for my thesis was to establish the rationale and requirements for mesenchymal stromal cell co-transplant for improved pancreatic islet function after islet transplantation for type 1 diabetes translation therapy. I explored whether the stromal cell transplant could improve islet graft survival and function and whether the co-delivery of islets with other cells and adjuvant therapies would be facilitated by the use of biomaterials.

This project is focussed on optimising skin culture methods developed at QUT for clinical translation at the Royal Brisbane Hospital. Ultimately the expansion of skin cells will be performed with completely defined parameters excluding animal derived serum and cells. The outcome is to hopefully establish a clinical trial for a skin culture service in Queensland.

I commenced work at Cook Australia via the Co-operative Education Program at QUT, which was a program for selected above average students to undertake a year’s work experience in a relevant field to their area of study. I choose the field of quality assurance testing in microbiology. After my year was over, I was kept on by Cook Australia, to cover the weekend shifts, and over the holiday period.