Skip to content

Search

Projects

The key projects undertaken at Wal-yan Respiratory Research Centre.

Tapping into the healing nature of water

In Aboriginal culture, water is life, holding powerful spiritual and cultural significance and acting as a vital source of connection, food and medicine.

Healing airways so kids with asthma can breathe better

An exciting study is investigating whether a new therapeutic treatment for asthma will protect young sufferers from ongoing lung damage and improve their long-term health outcomes.

Population-specific heterogeneity in ontogeny of the broadly-conserved blood transcriptional program during the first week of life

Previous research has shown that immune development during the first week of life, i.e. ontogeny, is progressive, consistent and robust, involving large numbers of differentially expressed genes at each sampled time point.

Corrigendum to: “COVID-19 monitoring with sparse sampling of sewered and non-sewered wastewater in urban and rural communities” [iScience, Volume 26, Issue 7 (2023) 107019]

Anthony Kicic BSc (Hons) PhD Head, Airway Epithelial Research; WA Cystic Fibrosis Research Collaborative Program Fellowship; Stan Perron Charitable

Healthcare professionals’ experiences involving Aboriginal families in the paediatric ESCALATION system

The Western Australian paediatric ESCALATION system, integrating family involvement, promotes early recognition and response to a hospitalised child's deteriorating health. This study aimed to understand healthcare professionals' experiences of Aboriginal parent/carer involvement in detecting clinical deterioration in the hospital.

Respiratory disease in cerebral palsy: the overlooked impact of neonatal lung disease

Respiratory disease is a leading cause of hospitalisations in children with cerebral palsy (CP). Over 40% of individuals with CP are born preterm; however, the relationship between prematurity, CP and respiratory disease is unknown.

Early life exposure to an episode of extreme air pollution and lung function later in childhood: the Hazelwood early life follow-up (ELF) study

Children are particularly vulnerable to air pollution, but the effects of early life exposure to acute, high-intensity pollution on later lung function remain poorly understood. We assessed the association between prenatal or infant exposure to fire-related fine particulate matter (PM2.5) from a six-week coal mine fire and subsequent lung function. 

Applying spirometry phenotypes to a longitudinal cohort born very preterm

To better characterise prematurity-associated lung disease, adult spirometry phenotype classifications (obstructive lung disease, preserved ratio impaired spirometry and dysanapsis) have been applied to children born preterm. It is unknown how these phenotypes track over time.

Animal-free peptones support bacteriophage propagation for therapeutic use without altering bactericidal activity or genomic integrity

Bacteriophage (phage) propagation has traditionally relied on bacterial culture media containing animal-derived ingredients; however, safety concerns with animal-derived materials for production of phages for therapeutic use limit their acceptability. We compared animal-free and traditional media formulations, and evaluated effects on phage yield, bactericidal activity, and genomic characteristics, hypothesizing no significant differences would be observed.