Listed: Eight South Australian tall poppies pushing the boundaries of science
You’ve heard of smart cars, what about smart wound dressings? Meet the top young SA scientists of the year – one who works with “humanised mice”.
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From busting movie myths on YouTube to humanised mouse avatars and smart wound dressings, South Australia’s tall poppies are pushing the boundaries of science for the benefit of society – including animals.
While tall-poppy syndrome traditionally referred to criticising someone who is successful, in 1998 by the Australian Institute of Policy and Science turned the term on its head by using it to celebrate Australian intellectual and scientific excellence.
Instead, its campaign recognises the achievements of young Australians scientists through the annual Young Tall Poppy Science Awards.
Eight South Australians have been named tall poppies in 2023. These winners are encouraged to promote science among school students and teachers, as well as an understanding and appreciation of science in the broader community.
This work will help more poppies grow tall.
Meet SA’s tall poppies for 2023.
DR SAMANTHA MUNROE
Adelaide’s own mythbuster Dr Samantha Munroe reckons our great white sharks are misunderstood.
Her YouTube channel busting eco-myths talks about our marine neighbours and many other animals who have movie reputations which don’t quite square with reality.
“Sharks have memory, they can problem solve, its not like a lot of movies where they are just terrifying meat-eating monsters – they are quite misunderstood,” she said.
Dr Munroe is an ecologist dedicated to the conservation of Australian wildlife.
She studies the habitat use patterns of plants and animals and how they will be impacted by environmental change. She has worked with a variety of species on land and at sea, including sharks, prawns, shrubs and grass.
Dr Munroe has spoken to some 2000 children about her work at schools across Australia and internationally. She also has a YouTube channel where she creates videos on ecology and debunks scientific myths in film and television.
Dr Munroe completed her PhD in 2015 at James Cook University. She spent the past five years as a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Adelaide with the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network, and is now a research scientist with CSIRO.
DR XANTHE STRUDWICK
Dr Xanthe Strudwick is a research fellow in regenerative medicine at the University of South Australia Future Industries Institute.
While a paper cut can be painful, real trouble starts with more serious wounds.
Ideally, scientists want to achieve true wound regeneration, where the restored skin appears identical to and works as well as the original. However current treatments don’t achieve this.
Burn and diabetic patients are often left with debilitating scarring or with a wound that just fails to heal. The added risk of wound infection compounds problems faced by these patients.
Dr Strudwick is studying a protein present in high amounts in both burns and diabetic patients and seems responsible for their impaired healing.
She works to understand how it prevents healing, in order to reduce its detrimental effects and promote healing.
Dr Strudwick is also working with a multidisciplinary team to creating a new smart wound dressing that clears infections and jump-starts the body’s own healing processes.
She was awarded her PhD from UniSA in 2016 for her investigation of the role of the cytoskeletal protein Flightless I in tissue regeneration.
DR ALEXANDRA WHITTAKER
Dr Alexandra Whittaker trained as a veterinarian, animal welfare scientist and lawyer. Her work involves developing new tools for assessment of animal welfare. Specifically, a focus on those feasible for use within industry.
Good animal welfare is not only important for the animal but is needed to minimise the risk of “spillover” of diseases from humans to animals in the form of pandemic events.
While value judgments are important in interactions with animals, decision-making around animal husbandry practices needs a basis in scientific evidence.
Dr Whittaker completed her PhD in 2016 and works as a senior lecturer in animal welfare and law the at the University of Adelaide.
DR DANIEL HARVIE
Dr Daniel Harvie is a pain scientist and program director of the Master of Musculoskeletal and Sports Physiotherapy program at UniSA.
His research focuses on new theories of body perception and how they might inform new approaches to chronic pain.
Along with Lorimer Moseley, Dr Harvie is an author of the book Pain and The Nature of Perception: A New Way to Look at Pain which uses visual illusions to describe features of perception relevant to understanding and treating pain.
Dr Harvie has been a passionate contributor to PainRevolution.org, a group seeking to improve public knowledge and skills needed to prevent and overcome persistent pain particularly in regional communities.
DR STEPHANIE WONG
Dr Stephanie Wong’s research at Flinders University combines neuroscience and psychology to understand how changes in the brain lead to different symptoms of dementia.
By understanding what causes these symptoms, targeted and effective interventions can be developed, to manage these symptoms and improve quality of life in people living with dementia and their families.
When most people hear about dementia, they picture older people with memory loss. But not all types of dementia start with memory loss.
Other symptoms can include changes in personality and social behaviour, reduced motivation and empathy and/or difficulties with financial management and decision-making.
These symptoms are poorly understood and, as a result, limited treatment options are available.
DR LAURA EADIE
Dr Laura Eadie’s team sequences the genetic code of a patient’s leukaemia cells to identify the mutations causing leukaemia.
They also create humanised mouse avatars for leukaemia patients and use them in preclinical drug trials. Combined, these models allow them to identify effective therapies tailored to each patient.
Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia is one of the biggest causes of non-traumatic death in children and 30 per cent of those who do eradicate their disease relapse within five years.
Current methods of combating relapse involve intense chemotherapy or bone marrow transplant, but these are highly toxic and risky approaches. In order to improve long-term survival outcomes, more effective therapies targeted to an individual patient’s specific disease are needed.
Dr Eadie is a Cancer Council South Australia Beat Cancer Fellow based at the South Australian Health & Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI). She is also a senior affiliate lecturer at The University of Adelaide, in the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences.
DR CHRISTOPHER PERRELLA
Dr Christopher Perrella’s research uses light to make high-precision measurements of time and space and provide insight into the health of individual cells or into a person’s health.
The absorption of light by atoms or molecules allows Dr Perrella to measure the presence of different types of gases to monitor biological processes or human health, or to build high-precision optical clocks used in next-generation GPS.
He also uses light to manipulate small particles to investigate the health of a cell or embryo.
He developed the Laser Radio outreach activity laserradio.wordpress.com to highlight the fun and excitement of science to school students, aiming to encourage more students into STEM studies.
This activity allows students to learn how information can be encoded on to light (the basis of modern telecommunication technology like the NBN) by transmitting audio signals over a laser beam in an interactive hands-on activity.
Dr Perrella was awarded his PhD in 2013 at the University of Western Australia. He is a postdoctoral researcher at the School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide.
DR AZMERAW AMARE
Dr Azmeraw Amare leads a dedicated research team with a vision to revolutionise mental health treatment through the development of genetic tests to enable clinicians to make accurate diagnoses and identify the most effective and safe medications for their patients.
Leveraging advanced data science techniques on extensive internationally gathered genetic datasets, his team endeavours to create innovative technologies that can personalise health care, ultimately enhancing the quality of life for millions suffering from mental illnesses.
Mental health disorders are of major concern worldwide. While many individuals with mental illness seek medical help and undergo psychiatric care, a considerable number do not respond to initial medication-based therapies, and many experience moderate to severe treatment-related side effects.
This variability in treatment response is partly attributable to genetic factors.
Beyond his current focus on pharmacogenomics and studying the genetic basis of mental health disorders, Dr Amare’s research spans areas such as diversity genomics, healthy ageing, and global health.
Dr Amare obtained his PhD in Medicine from the University of Adelaide and holds the prestigious NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellowship (2021-2026).
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