Postdoctoral Fellows

Dr Christian Aloe - Postdoctoral Fellow

Dr Aloe is an early-career post-doctoral research scientist mentored by Professor Steven Bozinovski at RMIT University. His research focuses on identifying early disease biomarkers and molecular signatures driving the pathogenesis of silicosis. Christian completed his PhD at RMIT University evaluating the cutaneous wound healing potential of marine natural products and metal oxide nanoparticles, however he returned to lung disease research following a rewarding honours program investigating the effects of a matricellular protein, Periostin, on lung tumour growth and metastasis. In line with his mutual interest in both ILD and lung cancer, Dr Aloe’s research extends to identifying novel predictive biomarkers to select for patients that will best benefit from immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy in the Bozinovski laboratory.

Dr Hayley Barnes - Clinician and Postdoctoral Fellow

Hayley Barnes completed her FRACP training in 2018 and is now working as a Respiratory and Sleep Physician. She was awarded her PhD in 2022, working on Improving Clinical and Biological Approaches to Improving Diagnostic Confidence of Chronic Hypersensitivity Pneumonitis through the Alfred Hospital and the University of California, San Francisco. She has also completed degrees in Biomedical Science, Masters of Public Health, and has been working for the Cochrane Collaboration for over 10 years.

She is passionate about good quality research for ILD, is an Editor of the Cochrane Pain and Palliative Care Review Group, and a tutor in statistics and epidemiology at Monash University. She is supported by an NHMRC scholarship and has previously received the LFA/Cochrane Airways Scholarship.

Dr Christina Begka - Postdoctoral Fellow

Dr Christina Begka completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Ioannina in Greece. She performed her Masters in Medical Biology in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. Subsequently, she completed her PhD in the Immunology and Cancer at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, where as part of her studies she was trained as a specialist in murine endoscopic and diagnostic procedures. Immediately after her PhD, Dr. Begka joined the Respiratory Immunology Group at Monash University on the Alfred Hospital precinct. Building upon her endoscopy expertise, Dr. Begka has established cutting-edge bronchoscopic methods for simulating fibrotic diseases (silicosis and IPF models) in mice that faithfully recapitulate human disease pathophysiology. Her current research in silicosis is supported by a 3-year Fellowship from the Dust Disease Board, iCare of NSW. Dr. Begka is also part of an NHMRC funded team that established a multi-omics analysis pipeline (lipidome, metabolome, gene expression) of broncho-alveolar lavage fluid from lung transplantation recipients at the Alfred Hospital, which is currently being employed to characterise the lung environment of these patients with a view to predicting lung allograft health trajectories.

Dr Chris Brereton – Clinician and Postdoctoral Fellow

Chris is a Respiratory and Sleep Physician working in Wollongong Hospital, NSW. His specialist training was undertaken at John Hunter Hospital, Newcastle; Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney; and Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney. He undertook a 3 year clinical research fellowship in the Interstitial Lung Disease Unit at Southampton Hospital, United Kingdom where he also completed his PhD, investigating the causes and biomechanical effects of changes to collagen in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. He aims to bridge the divide between translational research and clinical medicine in order to increase our understanding of the mechanisms driving pulmonary fibrosis and deliver better treatment options for patients.

Dr Alexandra Brown - Postdoctoral Fellow

Dr Alexandra Brown is based in the School of Biomedical Science and Pharmacy at the University of Newcastle where she is investigating the role and therapeutic targeting of iron metabolism in IPF/fibrosis as well as other respiratory diseases. She completed her undergraduate degree (and received the University Medal) and PhD in immunology and microbiology at the University of Newcastle.

Dr Ingrid Cox - Clinician and Postdoctoral Fellow

Ingrid is an early career health economist at the Menzies Institute for Medical Research, University of Tasmania. She completed her PhD focusing on the “Health and economic burden of IPF in Australia”. Ingrid currently holds a postdoctoral research position under Professor Andrew Palmer at Menzies. Her postdoctoral research focuses on the quality of life people living with ILDs, the epidemiological profile and economic burden of ILDs, with the aim of developing disease models to predict patient outcomes and evaluate the cost-effectiveness of diagnostics, interventions, and treatments for ILDs.

Ingrid is a physician by training with a Master’s Degree in Health Economics and Policy from the University of Adelaide. She has extensive experience working in healthcare, including in clinical practice, public health, health policy and health planning, and has worked with regional governmental agencies in the Caribbean and international development partners working in health

Dr Leona Dowman - Postdoctoral Fellow

Dr Leona Dowman is a senior exercise physiologist at Austin Health and postdoctoral research fellow at Monash University. She has extensive experience in both research and clinical care for people with interstitial lung disease (ILD), specifically in pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) and the management of oxygen requirements during exercise. For her PhD she led a multi-site RCT which defined the benefits of pulmonary rehabilitation for ILD, the largest trial of pulmonary rehabilitation for ILD conducted anywhere in the world. She is currently leading the first RCT comparing high intensity interval training to the traditional method of moderate intensity continuous training in fibrotic ILD across four Australian centres. Her next research focus will look at how to identify ILD patients at risk of developing pulmonary hypertension in ILD and to evaluate whether oxygen therapy has a preventive effect on pulmonary hypertension in ILD.

Dr Mariana Hoffman Barbosa - Postdoctoral Fellow

Mariana is a doctor in rehabilitation science from Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais and KU Leuven. During her PhD she worked with inspiratory muscle training for patients with advanced lung diseases and on the waiting list for lung transplantation. She completed her master in Adapted Physical Activity in KU Leuven, Belgium. She is a respiratory physiotherapist specialized in Cardiorespiratory Rehabilitation at the Einstein Hospital in São Paulo and has been working providing pulmonary rehabilitation, in private practice, to patients with lung fibrosis and COPD. She is currently a research fellow at Monash University (postdoctoral position) under Prof Anne Holland. She is the clinical trial manager of the PFOX trial. The PFOX trial investigates the effects of ambulatory oxygen therapy during exercise to patients with fibrotic interstitial lung disease across 4 Australian centres and 2 Swedish centres.

Dr Jade Jaffar - Postdoctoral Fellow

2018 recipient of the Lung Foundation Australia/Lizotte Family Research Award for Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) Research.

Dr Adelle Jee - Clinician and Postdoctoral Fellow

Recipient of the Lung Foundation Australia's David Wilson PhD Scholarship.

After completing her FRACP in Respiratory and Sleep Medicine in 2015, Dr Adelle Jee commenced her career in clinical research with a PhD at the University of Sydney and Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. Dr Jee’s project aimed to characterise patients who fit proposed criteria for "Idiopathic Pneumonia with Autoimmune Features" (IPAF) and investigate the role of traditional and novel diagnostic techniques for connective tissue disease associated interstitial lung disease (CTD-ILD).

Dr Jee’s motivation to pursue clinical research was shaped by her real-life experience and many unanswered questions faced when managing patients with ILD. Although her main research focus is on interstitial lung disease, particularly of an idiopathic and autoimmune aetiology, she also has interests in the clinical management of patients with general respiratory and sleep disorders. 

Dr Gang Liu - Postdoctoral Fellow

Dr Gang Liu obtained his PhD in Prof Phil Hansbro's lab at Hunter Medical Research Institute and the University of Newcastle (UoN) in 2016. His PhD study is on extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins regulate tissue remodelling and fibrosis in lung disorders, in particular idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) using experimental in vivo and ex vivo models. He received Lung Foundation Australia/Lizotte Family Research Award for IPF 2016 on ECM in IPF study during his PhD. He did his first postdoctoral training at the same group on mast cells regulate inflammation and airway/lung remodelling in lung fibrosis. He then started his postdoctoral research fellow position from 2017-2019 on tissue remodelling during gut-lung axis at UoN.

Dr Liu started his lecturer position at UTS in late 2019 and joined the Centre for Inflammation at UTS/Centenary Institute as a postdoctoral research fellow to lead the fibrosis research program. He is currently holding the CREATE Hope Fellowship (Scientific) to study lung fibrosis. His current research is to understand the mechanism of lung fibrosis development in IPF and identify novel therapeutic options for this disease.

Dr Monica Lu - Postdoctoral Fellow

Dr Wenying Lu (a.k.a. Monica) is a Postdoctoral Researcher and Laboratory Manager with the Respiratory Translational Research Group at the University of Tasmania, Launceston. Her current research interests involve microbial pathogenesis in IPF and LAM, including implications for COVID-19.  Dr Lu is also actively investigating the role of epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) and endothelial to mesenchymal transition (EndMT) in patients with IPF and LAM. She is very enthusiastic to enhance her understanding on ILDs.

Dr Lu was awarded with her PhD degree in 2017 from the School of Pharmacy, University of Tasmania, examining the biological and behavioural markers of smoking reduction. Dr Lu is also manager of the Tasmanian Respiratory Tissue Bank, and Coordinator of the Tasmanian Lung Cancer Registry. Her other research interests involve understanding the pathogenesis of COPD, lung cancer, and asthma and COPD overlap (ACO).  She is also investigating the effects of electronic cigarettes/vaping on human lung cellular changes.

Dr Sionne Lucas - Postdoctoral Fellow

Sionne completed a Bachelor of Medical Science at Flinders University, Adelaide, in 2014. She then moved to the Menzies Institute for Medical Research, University of Tasmania, where she studied the genetics of an eye disease, keratoconus. Based on this research, she was awarded a Bachelor of Medical Research with First Class Honours in 2015 and a PhD in 2019.  

Dr Lucas is currently a postdoctoral fellow, coordinating for the Genetics Research in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (GRIPF) Study. Her research aims to identify the genetic cause of IPF in families and individuals with familial ILD. Her role spans all phases of the study, including coordinating patient recruitment, bioinformatic analyses and laboratory experiments to determine the functional impact of identified genetic variants. To date, this work has identified disease-causing TERT variants in two Australian families as well as identified a number of potentially disease causing variants in established IPF genes (TERT, SFTPA2 and RTEL1) and novel genes that are currently under further investigation in the laboratory. Dr Lucas is also a biocurator for the Interstitial Lung Disease Gene Curation Expert Panel (ClinGen).

Dr Tylah Miles - Postdoctoral Fellow

Tylah was awarded 1st class Honours in pharmacology in 2017 for her research project investigating the role of B cells in the mouse model of bleomycin-induced lung fibrosis. In early 2018 she commenced a PhD at the University of Western Australia to continue her research with A/Prof Cecilia Prele. The research focussed on the role of the immune system in the pathogenesis of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. In 2022 she moved to a new position at the Institute for Respiratory Health in a different field of respiratory research.

Dr Paris Papagianis - Postdoctoral Fellow

Paris is an early career post-doctoral research scientist mentored by A/Prof Jane Bourke at Monash University. Paris' research expertise is in lung cell biology and lung function. Paris was awarded her PhD from Monash University & University of WA, where she explored the efficacy of steroidal and cellular therapies as anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic in ventilation-induced lung injury in premature birth care. Her PhD research informed phase 1 and 2 clinical trials at Monash Health. Paris' first post-doc at RMIT focussed on understanding the cellular diversity of fibroblast cells in the lungs and their roles in tissue repair and fibrosis by developing unique flow cytometry sorting strategies, stem cell assays and lung organoid cultures. Paris' current research projects combine her interest in pediatrics and adult lung injury and disease. She investigates the potential impact of early life lung injury to predispose chronic lung disease in adults. Paris is also developing translatable ex vivo human lung tissue models of fibrosis and the occupational lung disease, silicosis. These human models have given insight into disease development and inform early screening and prevention strategies for patients. 

Dr Amy Pascoe - Postdoctoral Fellow

Amy is an Early Career Researcher with the Chronic Respiratory Disease Research Group at Monash University and Alfred Health in Melbourne, Victoria. She completed her PhD investigating skeletal muscle atrophy and regeneration at La Trobe University in 2021 and has since worked in clinical research in respiratory medicine and palliative care. Her research interests include investigation of healthcare equity and social determinants of health in chronic respiratory disease and she is active as a project manager on multiple clinical trials targeting symptom management in chronic respiratory disease, including ILD. 

Dr Ashleigh Philp - Postdoctoral Fellow

Dr Philp is an Early Career Research Officer and the recent recipient of the Graham Painton Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship at UNSW Medicine and Health. Her research includes identifying novel therapeutic targets in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and to improve lung allograft patient outcome and identify therapeutic strategies to prevent chronic lung allograft dysfunction. She gained her PhD in 2017 from the Centre of Inflammation and Ageing at the University of Birmingham, UK, examining the role of adipose secreted cytokines in driving the pathological changes in osteoarthritis. She has received expert training in inflammation research and how systemic changes in cellular stress lead to alterations in fibrosis, utilising proteomics, metabolomics and Next Generation sequencing.

Dr Daniel Tan - Postdoctoral Fellow

Daniel Tan is a postdoctoral fellow with five years of experience in respiratory pharmacology and immunology. He has experience in tertiary education and mentorship of several honours and medical students. Based in the University of Melbourne, he seeks to develop novel therapeutics for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) through interdisciplinary collaborations and micro physiological systems (MPS).

PhD Students

Dr Sheetal Deshpande - Clinician and MPhil Student

Dr Sheetal Deshpande completed her FRACP training in Respiratory and Sleep in 2020. She is now undertaking a Fellowship in Interstitial Lung Disease at the Alfred Hospital as well as a Masters through Monash University to develop a Telehealth model of care for patients with interstitial lung disease. She aims to improve the diagnostic process as well as access to specialist care for patients with interstitial lung disease.

Ms Archana Gaikwad - PhD Student

Archana Gaikwad is a PhD student at University of Tasmania, Launceston campus. Her doctoral research investigates role of endothelial to mesenchymal transition (EndoMT) in pulmonary hypertension and interstitial fibrosis in IPF. She had been awarded with Lung Foundation Australia/ David Wilson CREATE PhD scholarship in IPF research 2019. Before starting her doctorate, had the experience of over 10 years in global companies including GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis and Becton, Dickinson (BD) Medical. She has worked with global organisation such as World Health Organization (WHO), FIND- TB organisation, Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH) and regulatory agencies across the world. She also has expertise in managing each aspects of the clinical trials (Phase I- IV) for newly developed therapeutic treatments and diagnostics. She holds a postgraduate certificate in clinical trial management from National University of Singapore and a master’s degree in microbiology from India.

Dr Laura Glenn – Clinician and PhD Student 

Mrs Giulia Iacono - PhD Student

Giulia Iacono is currently a 3rd year PhD Student at Monash University, working under Prof. Ben Marsland from the Central Clinical School and Prof. Glen Westall from the Alfred Hospital. Her research uses bioinformatics and immunology with the aim to elucidate fundamental host-microbe interactions, metabolites, lipids and key gene expression pathways underpinning the development of chronic lung allograft dysfunction (CLAD) in lung transplantation. The discovery of molecular signatures associated with CLAD aims to contribute to a set of candidate biomarkers to be validated using in-vitro approaches and in upcoming transplant cohorts - a critical step to determine whether they carry prognostic potential in clinical practice. To achieve this, Giulia has established her own bioinformatics pipeline for the analysis and integration of multiomics datasets from clinical patient samples, as well as specialised in-vitro systems to test candidate biomarkers in primary cell cultures.
Aside from her PhD work Giulia is also involved in external collaborations investigating the gut-brain axis and microbial-derived metabolites during traumatic brain injury. She is also a teaching assistant for the master of data Science at Monash University, helping students become introduced to biology and bioinformatics analysis; and a national committee member of the Australian Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Student Society (COMBINE), where she helps organise recurring seminars with industry representatives and an annual national student symposium.

Ms Joanna Lee – PhD Student

Joanna is a researcher who has experience in various areas of research including mental health, aged care, ophthalmology, diabetes and respiratory diseases. In April 2020, she commenced her PhD at Monash University (Department of Respiratory Research@Alfred) in Melbourne under the supervision of Prof. Anne Holland and Dr. Gabriella Tikellis. The aims of her project are to better understand self-management in pulmonary fibrosis and to develop a self-management package. She has also been a member of the Centre of Research Excellence in Pulmonary Fibrosis - Translation, Education and Support Committee since 2017, where she contributes to the development of public patient resources. Joanna's PhD project is supported by the Lung Foundation Australia/CREATE Hope PhD scholarship in pulmonary fibrosis and a co-funded scholarship from Monash University.

Mr Roger Li - PhD Student

Roger Li is a PhD student at the Institute for Respiratory Health, Perth. He commenced his PhD with the University of Western Australia in 2021 after completing a First Class Honours in Biomedical Science in 2020. He is seeking to understand the effects of antifibrotic drug therapy in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and identify predictive circulatory biomarkers and epigenetic markers.

Ms Lena Ly

Lena Ly is a PhD candidate of the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry, and Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne (St Vincent’s Hospital) under the supervision of Prof Jennifer Philip, A/Prof Natasha Smallwood and Prof Peter Hudson. Lena’s PhD explores the benefits of non-pharmacological approaches for people with severe non-malignant lung diseases, such as singing for lung health programs. She is also a research assistant at the Chronic Respiratory Disease Research Group at Monash University and Alfred Health in Melbourne, Victoria. Her research interests include advanced chronic respiratory diseases (particularly chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis) and palliative care. 

Dr John Mackintosh - Clinician and PhD Student

Dr John Mackintosh (BSc, MBBS(Hons), FRACP) is a Respiratory and Lung Transplant Physician at The Prince Charles Hospital, Brisbane. In 2018, John completed a clinical fellowship in interstitial lung disease at the prestigious Royal Brompton Hospital, London. John has developed a keen interest in familial pulmonary fibrosis and the genetics of interstitial lung disease. He is a strong advocate for patients with interstitial lung disease and is passionate about the multi-disciplinary approach to these patients. He is part of a collaboration who were awarded funding through the Medical Research Future Fund to conduct a clinical trial of danazol in people with pulmonary fibrosis related to telomere shortening. He is principal investigator of multiple phase 2 and 3 IPF and PF-ILD clinical trials at The Prince Charles Hospital.

Dr Jennifer Mann - Clinician and PhD Student

Dr Jennifer Mann is a Respiratory and Sleep Physician based in Melbourne with a special interest in symptom management in interstitial lung disease. Having attained her FRACP in early 2019, she undertook a 12-month clinical fellowship in interstitial lung disease at The Royal Brompton Hospital in London. Her undergraduate studies included a Bachelor of Pharmacy and Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery at the University of Queensland. She commenced a PhD in 2020 on Cough in Interstitial Lung Disease with the Institute for Breathing and Sleep and the University of Melbourne.

Dr Matthew Parker - Clinician and PhD Student

Dr Matthew Parker is a rheumatologist with a special interest in connective tissue and autoimmune diseases. He completed his FRACP in 2017 with a fellowship in Manchester, UK, funded by the Leanne Stafford Award, researching idiopathic inflammatory myopathies. He works at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and is a Clinical Lecturer at The University of Sydney.

He considers that an early accurate diagnosis of CTD-ILD is of paramount importance in delivering appropriate management and is undertaking a PhD studying the pulmonary manifestations of connective-tissue diseases, supported by the Brian Eaton Memorial PhD Scholarship.

Ms Debra Sandford – Clinical Psychologist and PhD Student

Debra Sandford holds an affiliate appointment as a senior clinical psychologist research fellow at the Royal Adelaide Hospital and runs a private clinical psychology practice in the Ashford Specialist Centre. Debra returned to The University of Adelaide to undertake a PhD in the Disciplines of Psychiatry and Respiratory Medicine. Her research topic for her PhD investigates the psychological impact of IPF on the patient and their caregivers before and after a psychologically based 6-week group intervention. The aim of the intervention programme is to improve patient and caregiver perceptions on their health-related quality of life.

Debra’s motivation to research this topic and to develop a programme to increase psychological well-being, came about after an IPF patient referred to her private psychology clinic related the significant impact this disease had on his and his wife’s mental health. Currently, there are 3 hospitals, The Royal Adelaide Hospital in South Australia, The Austin and The Royal Melbourne Hospitals in Melbourne, Victoria involved with recruiting participants for this research.

Ms Claudia Sim - PhD Student

Claudia completed a BSc Honours degree with High Distinction on a silicosis-related project under the supervision of A/Prof Jane Bourke in the Respiratory Pharmacology Laboratory at Monash University. During her time there, she developed a research interest in pathophysiologies that underlie fibrotic lung diseases like silicosis, and potential treatments that may attenuate or reverse lung fibrosis. She worked as a research assistant for a year and commenced her PhD in the same laboratory in 2021, focused on identifying and characterising novel treatments for Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and silicosis. 

Dr Alan Teoh - Clinician and PhD Student

Dr Alan Teoh is a respiratory and sleep physician at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital where he is involved in the ILD clinic. He also holds a postgraduate Fellow position at Westmead Hospital and co-runs the ILD service there. Alan is undertaking a PhD at the University of Sydney and Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. His research is focused on IPF but includes other forms of ILD.

Dr Teoh completed his Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery at the University of Tasmania. He completed his BPT training at RPA hospital and continued his respiratory advanced training at Westmead Hospital. He has a special interest in interstitial lung diseases, particularly idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

Ms Olivia Young - PhD Student

Olivia Young completed her Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences with first class Honours in Respiratory Pharmacology at Monash University in 2021. She is currently undertaking her PhD in the same department under the supervision of A/Prof Jane Bourke and Prof Robert Widdop. Her research concerns the potential for activation of the anti-fibrotic elements of the Renin-Angiotensin system as novel anti-fibrotics in the treatment of IPF. She is particularly interested in modelling IPF ex vivo using precision cut lung slices to screen novel anti-fibrotic compounds. 

Dr Lai-Ying Zhang - Clinician and PhD Student

Dr Qiang Zheng - PhD Student

Dr Qiang is an anaesthesiologist who completed his Master of Medicine degree in Anhui Medical University, China. He has a background of four years clinical practice including general surgery, emergency medicine, and anaesthesia medicine in the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University. In February 2020, he started his PhD at Menzies Institute for Medical Research, University of Tasmania, focusing on epidemiology and health economics of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis in Australia.