Researchers

Professor Grant Morahan is one of Australia’s leading genetic scientists and the head of Western Australia’s Centre for Diabetes Research that was established by DRWA in 2004.

Grant’s research focus includes:

• The genetics of complex diseases including type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes.
• Origin and prevention of diabetes complications.
• Systems genetics.
• Gene-diet interactions.

Diabetes Research WA assisted in relocating Grant and his family to Perth in 2005 where he quickly established WA’s Centre for Diabetes Research, which is now housed at The Perkins Institute. This organisation has enabled a further $17m in research funding for the Centre to help uncover the mysteries surrounding diabetes and its complications.

Read more about Grant’s research here.

Lakshini is a researcher at The University of Western Australia School of Biomedical Sciences and the Dobney Hypertension Centre  in Perth.

Her research is based on understanding the development of eye disease (diabetic retinopathy) in people living with diabetes.

Lakshini completed her PhD in 2019, which was partly funded by the Inaugural Alex Cohen Scholarship (established by DRWA in 2010) to top up her Australian Post Graduate Award. In that same year Lakshini was awarded the Women in Technology WA People’s Choice Award.

In November 2019, Lakshini and her team were awarded a $60,000 research project grant to investigate if a new class of drugs (SGLT2 inhibitors) can be used to prevent blindness – not only in diabetic retinopathy but additionally in other causes of blindness.

You can read more on Lakshini’s research here.

Vance’s research goals are to identify novel molecular and cellular mechanisms which regulate obesity and insulin resistance. This work will potentially lead to therapeutic strategies to treat obesity-induced insulin resistance in humans and could result in significant benefits to Western Australian and Australian citizens plagued with the metabolic syndrome.

Vance has a strong track record in the fields of cytokine biology and metabolic disorders. He and his team have received three Diabetes Research WA grants  for the following projects:

1. 2013: $75,000 grant to investigate a protein (TNFSF14) and its role in obesity and type 2 diabetes.
2. 2016: $80,000 grant to investigate the role of the sympathetic nervous system and type 2 diabetes.
3. 2018: $60,000 extension grant for the 2013 grant to progress research into TNFSF14 derived molecules as a novel treatment for obesity and type 2 diabetes.

The group’s work has discovered that a lack of TNFSF14 can exacerbate chronic liver injury, inflammation and dysregulation of mitochondrial function in the liver.

A record of Vance’s research is available here.

Aveni is a medical doctor investigating the development of childhood type 1 diabetes and possible ways to delay or prevent it in families at risk. Her current research includes working with the ENDIA  study to help identify environmental factors contributing to the development of type 1 diabetes.

In 2018, Aveni and her team were awarded a $60,000 DRWA project grant to trial the use of continuous glucose monitoring in children at risk of developing type 1 diabetes (at risk due to having siblings or parents with type 1 diabetes and specific antibodies), to detect early changes in blood glucose levels and help find ways to prevent or delay progression to clinical type 1 diabetes. This will also help prevent the serious sudden onset of type 1 diabetes known as ketoacidosis, which can be life-threatening.

You can listen to Aveni discuss the project on our DRWA YouTube channel.

You can also read more about Aveni’s other research projects here.

Kevin is an internationally recognised researcher who has received a multitude of awards for his world-leading research and contributions. You can read more about Kevin and his accolades here.

Kevin’s research with DRWA has focused on looking into new ways to target a molecule involved in cell damage which leads to diabetes complications. In 2018 Kevin’s team was awarded a $60,000 DRWA project grant towards this significant research which could lead to new treatments in preventing diabetes complications.

You can listen to Kevin discuss his research on our YouTube channel.

Professor Yogesan Kanagasingam is highly recognised for his work in developing innovative technology for treating eye disease and has received numerous honours and awards. In 2011 he achieved a Fulbright Scholarship to Stanford University School of Medicine where he worked on developing a non-invasive imaging device to screen premature babies for retinal abnormalities.

Yogesan has developed e-Heath and medical technologies from bench to bed and one of his inventions is used by NASA in the International Space Station. He invented a remote digital retinopathy device, widely deployed to help identify diabetes and other early-stage diseases.

https://www.engadget.com/2015/11/18/nasa-astronaut-vision-loss-study/
https://www.nasa.gov/content/ocular-health-exam-aboard-space-station/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz7tzFlowQ8

Yogesan has published more than 150 peer-reviewed papers and four books in telemedicine and digital homecare. He also has a patient portfolio of more than 35 patent applications.

He was the national research director of the Australian Telehealth Research and Development Centre and worked at the University of Western Australia.

Yogesan is a Visiting Scholar to Harvard University and Professor at the School of Medicine at the University in Notre Dame. In July 2021 he was appointed the inaugural chair of Digital Health and Telemedicine at the University of Notre Dame Australia and will focus on building contemporary and cutting-edge practices in digital health and telehealth plans for St John of God Midland Public and Private Hospitals.

In 2018, Yogesan was the recipient of DRWA’s $60,000 Clinical/Translational Research Grant. With detecting early changes to your eyes from diabetes vital to prevent blindness, Yogesan and colleagues from the CSIRO developed an eye camera that can be used in GP clinics to detect any changes quickly and easily.

You can read more about Yogesan’s project here.

Professor Girish Dwivedi MD, DM, MRCP (UK), PhD (UK), CCST (Cardiology), FESC, FASE, FRACP is the inaugural Wesfarmers Chair in Cardiology at the University of Western Australia (Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research) and Consultant Cardiologist at Fiona Stanley Hospital, Murdoch, WA.

Girish’ background and training to date is unique and he is one of a few cardiologists in Australia who has advanced (level 3) multimodality imaging training. He has received accreditations in Cardiac Computed Tomography, Echocardiography, Cardiac Magnetic Resonance and Nuclear Cardiology including Positron Emission Tomography.

Completing his MD from the University of Delhi, India, in 1998 and his PhD from the University of Manchester, England, three years later, Girish then secured one of the most prestigious clinical lectureships in the UK – the National Institute of Health Research Clinical Lectureship at the University of Birmingham – and was awarded the Certificate of Completion of Specialist Training in Cardiology. He moved to the University of Ottawa Heart Institute in 2011 to obtain further experience in cardiac CT, SPECT, and PET imaging techniques, and was awarded the prestigious CIHR Banting Fellowship.

Girish has obtained training and accreditation in echocardiography, cardia MRI, cardiac CT, PET and SPECT and joined the staff of the Heart Institute in 2013.

Dr Girish Dwivedi has been awarded charity Diabetes Research WA’s $60,0000 Jamie Cripps 2021 Research Grant for his project which focuses on a new class of medications known as sodiumglucose co-transporter-2 inhibitors (SGLT2Is) and could also ultimately benefit those with type 1 diabetes.

You can find out more about Girish’ project here. 

Aleksandra Filipovska is a Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic biology, NHMRC Senior Research Fellow and Professor at the University of Western Australia. She received her PhD in 2002 from the University of Otago, New Zealand and from 2003 to 2005 was a NZ Foundation for Research, Science and Technology Fellow at the MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit in Cambridge, United Kingdom.

In 2006, Aleksandra relocated to Australia as a NHMRC Howard Florey Fellow and established her research group at the Perkins Institute of Medical Research at the University of Western Australia. She was an Australian Research Council Future Fellow until 2014 and since that year has been a NHMRC Senior Research Fellow and Professor at UWA and the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research. In 2019 Aleksandra established a Mitochondrial Disease Therapy group at Telethon Kids Institute.

Aleksandra’s research interests are in the regulation of gene expression by RNA-binding proteins and the use of multi-omic technologies to elucidate their molecular functions in health and disease. Her research group uses genomic technologies and synthetic biology to design new models of cancer, metabolic and cardiovascular diseases, diagnose genetic diseases and develop treatments for these disorders. In addition, Aleksandra’s research group uses next generation technologies to identify pathogenic mutations in mitochondrial genes that cause mitochondrial disease in genetically isolated populations.

The research by Aleksandra, supported by a newly announced $60,000 grant from Diabetes Research WA, will look at how diet and exercise may be able to target a gene change to reveal ways to prevent and manage the onset of type 2 diabetes.

You can find out more about Aleksandra’s project here. 

Director of Curtin’s Human Microbiome Program and a Distinguished Research Fellow, Fergal is helping us to better understand the molecular interactions behind conditions including type 2 diabetes (TD2) and cardiovascular disease.

Fergal’s ultimate goal is to improve human health and offer new therapeutic options for the prevention and treatment of age-associated diseases.

Both areas of Fergal’s research received a welcome financial boost in recent years. In 2018 a CHIRI-based research team he is co-leading received an $80,000 grant from Diabetes Research WA to explore a discovery that could reduce cases of T2D. In a pre-clinical study, the team found for the first time that statins – a class of drugs that lower cholesterol in the blood – drive changes in the body’s gut bacteria, which can trigger T2D. The results suggest that paying attention to our gut health could help prevent, cure or better manage the disease.

Fergal is also part of a CHIRI-led research collaboration that was awarded a grant by the Endeavour College of Natural Health in late 2018 to mechanistically characterise how nutraceutical compounds – a group of chemical compounds of plant origin – which are claimed to provide health benefits, modulate the gut-liver axis to prevent the development of metabolic disorders, such as cardiovascular disease.