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Filed Under: HEALTH, Research Tagged With: biomedical research, Griffith University, research and development

Associate Prof Lara Herrero leading the fight against mosquito-borne diseases and advancing medical research

Dr Lara Herrero standing at a bench in a lab

Dr Lara Herrero is a medical doctor, Associate Professor, and Research Leader at Griffith University’s Institute for Biomedicine and Glycomics, dedicated to developing treatments for mosquito-borne viruses that impact thousands of Australians each year. She is at the forefront of research into Ross River virus (RRV) and chikungunya virus, which cause long-term joint pain and suffering.

Her passion for this field is deeply personal. Having experienced Ross River virus herself, Dr Herrero understands first-hand the need for better treatments. Her research has already translated from the lab to real-world impact, leading to a patented treatment strategy for viral arthritis, which has successfully completed phase II clinical trials.

In recognition of her ground breaking contributions, Dr Herrero was awarded the Prize for New Innovators in the 2023 Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science, acknowledging her pioneering work in viral disease research and commitment to improving global health outcomes.

Beyond her research, Dr Herrero is passionate about mentoring the next generation of scientists, working with medical students, PhD researchers, and postdoctoral scientists to foster innovation and encourage more women to pursue careers in STEM. When asked what message she has for women pursuing careers in STEM, Dr Herrero shared:

“STEM provides more than a career of endless opportunity—it empowers us to break barriers, build bridges, innovate boldly, and question fearlessly. STEM allows us to shape the future and drive real change in the world.”

She is also one of Griffith University’s leading contributors to The Conversation, with 23 articles and over 5.4 million reads, making complex medical research accessible to the public.

Her work not only strengthens Griffith University’s reputation in medical research but also contributes to the Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct’s role as a hub for world-class research, industry collaboration and healthcare innovation.

Dr Herrero’s journey is a testament to the power of research in improving lives, driving medical breakthroughs and creating real change in global health.

Learn more about Dr Lara Herrero

February 12, 2025 By Robyn Stonefield

Filed Under: HEALTH, Research, TECHNOLOGY Tagged With: ADaPT, biomedical engineering, fresh scientist awards, GCore, Medtech

‘Queensland Fresh Scientist’ slashes surgery times for young patients

Dr Martina Barzan holding a hip bone anatomical model

The Precinct’s latest ‘Queensland Fresh Scientist’ is helping to slash surgery times and improve outcomes for paediatric patients undergoing complex procedures to correct hip deformities, by modelling surgeries, and designing and 3D printing personalised anatomical models and cutting guides.

Dr Martina Barzan is the 2021 Queensland Fresh Scientist award winner, joining fellow researchers from Griffith University’s Centre of Biomedical and Rehabilitation Engineering (GCore) to secure a hat-trick with awards in 2019 (Dr Antony McNamee) and 2018 (Dr Claudio Pizzolato). No competition was held in 2020 due to Covid.

Bioengineer Martina Barzan is in good company with her GCore colleagues – all focused on improving lives through precision medicine.

In the recent Queensland Fresh Science Awards, she took on 11 other up-and-coming scientists, to describe their scientific discoveries in less than a minute.

“Imagine if your little sister, daughter, or niece could not walk, or even sit, due to hip pain caused by a severe bone deformity,” Dr Barzan pitched. “The only treatment is surgery.”

Every two days, one child in Queensland has surgery to correct hip deformities.”

Dr Barzan plans a surgery with Assoc Prof Chris Bade

Traditionally, surgeons rely on 2D scans to guide surgery planning. Dr Barzan’s approach is to create a 3D digital twin – a computerised replica of a child’s anatomy, with the bones and muscles attached. The digital twin allows surgeons to test surgery options and simulate how the child’s hip would move after surgery.

After finalising their preferred surgical approach, Dr Barzan works with Griffith’s Advanced Design and Prototyping Technology Institute to design and 3D print cutting guides precisely matching the child’s bone shape, to transfer the virtual plan to the operating room.

“Surgery times and radiation doses have been cut in half and, nine months after surgery on the 13 children in our clinical trial, all can sit and walk again,” she says.

The approach is now being applied commercially and is already saving money for hospital services through reduced theatre costs and post-surgery follow-up.

“I was really interested in the medical field, but I didn’t feel like being a doctor was for me, so I was thinking of ways I could contribute without following that career path,” Dr Barzan says.

“I found the field of bioengineering would give me this opportunity, so I really like that I can play a part in this way.”

Heartfelt research for better medical devices

Dr Antony McNamee, a research fellow in the Griffith University Mechanobiology Lab

Dr Antony McNamee also nailed his pitch to take out the 2019 Fresh Scientist Award for best public presentation – focused on research to improve life support machines that keep people alive, but can also cause life-threatening complications.

Dr McNamee tests the BiVACOR total artificial heart

A blood physiologist in the Biorheology Research lab, Dr McNamee develops new and more sensitive techniques to detect red blood cell damage early, with the aim of improving heart-lung life support systems and artificial organs. He’s part of a team working with cardiothoracic surgeons and the medtech industry, including testing a world-first rotary artificial heart developed by Precinct company BiVACOR.

“This research area poses a challenging problem yet to be solved!” says Dr McNamee.

“It’s a fascinating field requiring skills in a number of areas, such as haematology, biophysics, and molecular biology. I get to work alongside some amazing teams in science, engineering, and medicine, to make discoveries that are working towards improving the lives of patients, all around the world.

In the future, artificial organs are going to be part of everyday medical treatment, and our research is helping this happen.

The opportunities are endless, as the health and knowledge precinct has amazing facilities and expertise at its fingertips!”

Dr Pizzolato with co-researcher Dr Dinesh Palipana OAM

Meanwhile, 2018 Fresh Science Judges Award winner Dr Claudio Pizzalato, now a Senior Research Fellow, is making strides in co-leading the novel BioSpine spinal injury rehabilitation research program, alongside Queensland Australian of the Year 2021, quadriplegic physician Dr Dinesh Palipana OAM.

With plans to commence a clinical trial involving a minimum of 5-6 people next year, the first stage of research has focused on customising a brain-computer interface (and Electroencephalogram or EEG) headset, with a virtual reality program to generate patient thought-control of a rehabilitation device, such as a motorised ergometer bike.

“The idea is the one of neuroplasticity,” Dr Pizzolato explains.

“We know we can remap our nervous system. We are using a brain-computer interface (BCI) and interpreting that data using artificial intelligence. That thought is then sent to a digital twin of the person, which controls the rehabilitation device.

The person is more empowered and feels control over their rehabilitation as that missing connection is being re-established.”

Watch our video below to learn more about the exciting medtech research emerging in the Precinct.

 

November 30, 2021 By Kathy Kruger

Filed Under: BUSINESS, Research, STUDY Tagged With: Datarwe, internships, PhD's, placements

Next-generation talent a focus for the Precint

Griffith University's Assoc Prof Samantha Capon addresses the collaboration workshop

The Precinct is ramping up efforts to connect our companies with future talent through undergraduate internships and post-graduate industry research projects, as businesses based in our Cohort Innovation Space go on a hiring blitz to support rapid growth.

As the market for talent becomes increasingly competitive, the Precinct is on the front foot in securing a future recruitment pool.

A recent workshop, hosted by the Precinct Office at Cohort, focused on responding to the needs of Precinct companies for student talent, bringing industry-focused researchers and Griffith University student placement staff to meet with early-stage companies, to streamline the matching process.

The benefits for both scale-up companies and graduating students are significant, according to Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct Director, Professor Mario Pinto.

Professor Pinto addresses the workshop

“Early-stage companies need students who are quickly able to fit into a small team to add value on projects, in a fast-paced entrepreneurial environment,” Professor Pinto says.

“For students, the dynamic nature of start-ups and scale-ups provides the opportunity to learn about all aspects of getting a business off the ground and make a real difference through their research or placement project to the growth of an emerging business, which differs to corporate placements which may offer more narrow experiences.”

Clinical Data-as-a-Service provider Datarwe is a great example of an emerging Precinct company that has maximised the value of student talent and used placement projects as a recruitment tool.

Dr Meghan McConnell, PhD

As a Griffith University PhD candidate, data scientist Dr Meg McConnell worked with Datarwe Chief Technical Officer Dr Kelvin Ross through one of his other ventures prior to Datarwe’s formation, while being guided by Advisory Board Member and Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service Medical Director of Innovation, Dr Brent Richards, throughout her PhD focused on the analysis of Intensive Care (ICU) data.

“My thesis was focused around improving detection and analysis techniques of Heart Rate Variability; including the development of novel software and application of machine learning (ML) techniques,” Dr McConnell says.

“Dr Richards provided industry guidance which was particularly important for developing the software platform into something that would be of use to clinicians, while it was during my last project (Electrocardiogram or ECG classification), that I was able to work with Dr Ross within an industry context for a start-up called Fatigue M8, which is developing a fatigue management system for long-haul truck drivers.

The exposure to industry during my PhD was paramount to my career – it is the reason I was able to step straight into a job on the completion of my PhD, and it has certainly helped the transition from pure academic research, to targeted industry R&D.”

Meg commenced in her full-time role with Datarwe in March, where she evaluates and improves the quality of collected healthcare data, as well as developing predictive health analytics, such as predicting atrial fibrillation in post-cardiac surgery patients prior to onset.

Data Engineer Joe Burton

For data engineer Joe Burton, the pathway to employment came directly through a work-integrated learning (WIL) placement as a Griffith undergraduate student in the final semester of an IT degree.

Also working under Dr Ross, Joe’s placement involved writing a large portion of the back-end of a near real-time reporting dashboard, to be used in the Gold Coast University Hospital’s ICU.

“The project provided the perfect platform for demonstrating my ability, allowing the freedom to express myself while support was close by whenever needed,” Joe says.

“After successfully delivering on the initial iteration of the dashboard, I was offered a full-time role with Datarwe as a data engineer, where I was able to see the dashboard successfully deployed into production.

These days my work largely revolves around ingesting, storing and serving data efficiently to our in-house data science team and external researchers. Part of this is writing scalable systems to process data but, as the data in question is sensitive, a large amount of time is spent on the security model and ensuring that access is strictly governed and audited. It’s a loosely defined, fast-paced and challenging role, but very enjoyable.

The experience gained during the industry placement was essential to continued success in the industry. It provided exposure to industry-standard concepts given less attention in my degree program and helped me build soft-skills, particularly how to communicate complex technical ideas, which helped my transition to the workforce.”

While Joe is now supervising another WIL student on a project to detect arrhythmias from EEG signals, Meg is supervising PhD students on projects including Septic Shock onset prediction, and signal processing to investigate the robustness of algorithms and dealing with noisy data.

Now stepping up its student research connections significantly, Datarwe is onboarding four Industry PhDs who will be employed with the company throughout their studies at Griffith University, to work across research into how AI can be used to improve outcomes for ICU patients using real-world data.

Meanwhile, Cohort is reporting a ‘tech boom’ in hiring for roles among its members and other Gold Coast tech companies – recently profiling 14 local founders to mark Global Entrepreneurship week, and helping some of its member companies in a recruitment drive for more than 10 new roles in October.

November 30, 2021 By Kathy Kruger

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From Research to Reality: GCHKP Talent Leads the LuminaX 2025 Cohort image

From Research to Reality: GCHKP Talent Leads the LuminaX 2025 Cohort

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A New Era of Health and Tech Innovation: HATRIC to Transform the Gold Coast

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Clinician Entrepreneurship Program wraps as a big success

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2025 International Women's Day

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Associate Prof Lara Herrero leading the fight against mosquito-borne diseases and advancing medical research

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