Sansom Institute Research Fellows
Professor
Doug Brooks
NHMRC Senior Research Fellow
With a research career spanning three decades, Doug Brooks is renowned for
his work looking into lysosomal diseases, a group of over 50 genetic
diseases predominantly affecting children. He spent many years working in
the Lysosomal Diseases Research Unit at the Adelaide Women’s and Children’s
Hospital, where his and others efforts have helped develop early screening,
diagnosis and treatment techniques. With particular expertise in
immunochemistry, protein chemistry and cell biology, Doug is also the leader
of the Sansom Institute’s Molecular Medicine research sector.
Dr
Christine Yi-Ju Lu
NHMRC Public Health Research Fellow
A pharmacist with an international reputation for her work in medicines
policy, Dr Christine Lu joined the Sansom Institute in 2008. Among her
achievements, Christine received an Australian Society of Clinical and
Experimental Pharmacologists and Toxicologists New Investigator Award in
recognition of her doctoral work examining the access to high cost biologics
via Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. Christine was awarded a
Pharmaceutical Policy Research Fellowship and a Sir Keith Murdoch Fellowship
in 2007 for her postdoctoral research at Harvard Medical School, where she
examined the impact of prior authorisation policy on medication use among
patients with bipolar disorder. Now based at UniSA’s
Quality Use of Medicines and Pharmacy Research Centre, her current
research is looking into the effects of comorbidity on medication use and
associated outcomes among veteran patients with multiple chronic illnesses.
Dr Janna Morrison
Heart Foundation and NHMRC Career Development Award Research Fellow
An accomplished researcher in the field of fetal development, Janna Morrison
is co-head of the Sansom Institute’s
Early
Origins of Adult Health Research Group. Her current research centres on
the development of fetal behavioural states, including neural, respiratory
and cardiovascular systems. After completing her PhD at the University of
British Columbia, Janna held postdoctoral positions at University of Toronto
and the University of Adelaide before joining the Sansom Institute in 2006.
Among her numerous awards and achievements, Janna received a South
Australian Tall Poppy Science Award (2006) in recognition of her work
examining the link between low birthweight and heart disease in adulthood.
Dr
Beverly Muhlhausler
NHMRC Peter Doherty Postdoctoral Fellow
Awarded the prestigious Peter Doherty Fellowship in 2007, Beverly
Muhlhausler heads the Obesity and Metabolic division of the
Early
Origins of Adult Health Research Group. Her research is focused on
understanding the mechanisms by which events before birth and in early
postnatal life can increase the risk of obesity throughout the life course.
Beverly has acquired an impressive list of honours and achievements in
recent years, including an NHMRC Early Career Researcher Award in 2007,
being named South Australian Young Achiever of the Year in Science and
Technology in 2005, and attending the 2020 Summit in 2008.
Dr Emma Parkinson-Lawrence
NHMRC Peter Doherty Research Fellow
Emma Parkinson-Lawrence is a talented biochemist and cell biologist who
joined the Sansom Institute as a Peter Doherty Fellow in 2006. For the past
10 years she has conducted research into lysosomal diseases (a group of over
50 genetic diseases predominantly affecting children, for which to date
there is no cure). Awarded a South Australian Tall Poppy Science Award in
2007, Emma is also an executive director of the Australian Society for
Medical Research.
Associate Professor Cory Xian
NHMRC Senior Research Fellow
Over the past two decades Cory Xian has built up an international reputation
for his research into tissue growth and injury repair. In 2008 he joined the
Sansom Institute, where he heads the Bone Growth and Repair Research Unit.
The group’s research is focussed on the mechanisms of normal bone growth and
nutritional regulation, the mechanisms for growth plate trauma
injury-induced growth defects, and prevention of chemotherapy-induced growth
defects. Cory’s appointment to the Institute follows many years of
postdoctoral research, including seven years leading bone growth research at
the Adelaide Women’s and Children’s Hospital, as well as research positions
at the University of North Carolina and Flinders University.