Biography

Hi! I’m a full-time research, NHMRC Career Development Fellow working on paediatric burns and trauma research. I work in the Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation (IHBI) at the Centre for Children’s Health Research which is next to the Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital in South Brisbane. My research strives to improve outcomes for children with burn injuries and my work is focused in several different areas:

1. to publicly promote awareness of first aid treatment and its benefits to the healing burn wound
2. to determine what conditions are required for burn injuries to occur – which is important for preventing burn injuries and developing effective legislation and product safety
3. to investigate what pathological processes occur in the skin after burns and how these could be altered in order to improve wound healing
4. to examine the relationship between pain, stress and the wound healing response
5. to compare currently available wound healing treatments to develop best practice and to develop new therapies which are more effective.

At IHBI, I work with the Tissue Repair and Translational Physiology Program to examine the cellular mechanisms and processes behind burn tissue pathology. Previously I have also been involved in other research projects including: fetal scarless tissue repair and development of laboratory tools and models to examine burn injury and scar formation. During my PhD, I determined the optimal first aid treatment for burn injuries. This published work was used to develop guidelines for the treatment of burns internationally and for a “Cool Burns for 20 minutes” first aid public education campaign. This treatment has been shown recently to lead to decreased requirement for skin grafting operations, decreased admission to intensive care and shorter hospital length of stay for burn patients. It is really satisfying to know that research I conducted during my PhD has lead to improvement in the lives of people who have suffered from a burn injury.