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Research

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an immune-mediated inflammatory disease of the central nervous system that results in demyelination of axons, inefficient signal transmission and reduced muscular mobility. Recent findings suggest that B cells play a significant role in disease development and pathology. To further explore this, B cell profiles in peripheral blood from 28 treatment-naive patients with early MS were assessed using flow cytometry and compared to 17 healthy controls.

Research

Identifying the causal variant for diagnosis of genetic diseases is challenging when using next-generation sequencing approaches and variant prioritization tools can assist in this task. These tools provide in silico predictions of variant pathogenicity, however they are agnostic to the disease under study. We previously performed a disease-specific benchmark of 24 such tools to assess how they perform in different disease contexts.

Research

Directed evolution emulates the process of natural selection to produce proteins with improved or altered functions. These approaches have proven to be very powerful but are technically challenging and particularly time and resource intensive. To bypass these limitations, we constructed a system to perform the entire process of directed evolution in silico.

Research

Composition of leukocyte populations in the first month of life remains incompletely characterised, particularly in preterm infants who go on to develop late-onset sepsis (LOS). The aim of the study was to characterise and compare leukocyte populations in preterm infants with and without LOS during the first month of life.

Research

Regular intramuscular benzathine penicillin G injections have been the cornerstone of rheumatic heart disease (RHD) secondary prophylaxis since the 1950s. As the pharmacological correlate of protection remains unknown, it is difficult to recommend changes to this established regimen. Determining the minimum effective penicillin exposure required to prevent Streptococcus pyogenes infection will accelerate development of new long-acting penicillins for RHD prevention as well as inform opportunities to improve existing regimens. The CHIPS trial will address this knowledge gap by directly testing protection afforded by different steady state plasma concentrations of penicillin in an established model of experimental human S. pyogenes pharyngitis.

Research

Respiratory viruses are increasingly detected in children with community-acquired pneumonia but prevalence estimates vary substantially. We aimed to systematically review and pool estimates for 22 viruses commonly associated with community-acquired pneumonia.

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Appropriate innate immune function is essential to limit pathogenesis and severity of severe lower respiratory infections (sLRI) during infancy, a leading cause of hospitalization and risk factor for subsequent asthma in this age group.

Research

Primary (or elementary) school teachers are often relied upon to provide children with opportunities for physical literacy development; however, many of these teachers feel they lack the skills to effectively promote or ‘teach’ physical literacy.

Research

Mainstream youth mental health services struggle to comprehend the connection between colonisation and service provision for Aboriginal young people. This is the consensus agreed by Aboriginal Elders from Perth, Western Australia and young Aboriginal leaders within their communities.

Research

Appropriate interpretation of pulmonary function tests (PFTs) involves the classification of observed values as within/outside the normal range based on a reference population of healthy individuals, integrating knowledge of physiological determinants of test results into functional classifications and integrating patterns with other clinical data to estimate prognosis.