As a clinician-scientist working in intensive care, my research is focussed on understanding dysregulation of the immune system in critically ill patients. Critical illness is an aetiologically and clinically heterogeneous syndrome that is characterised by organ failure and immune dysfunction, both of which drive mortality. I believe that combining an understanding of immune cell function (the immunophenotype) with physiological and clinical data will facilitate novel insights into the pathophysiology of critical illness syndromes, allowing the identification of viable therapeutic targets. My interest and skills in this area of research began during my PhD (University of Cambridge, supervised by Dr Andrew Conway Moris) where I investigated signalling pathways leading to defective neutrophil function in critical illness states. I devised and co-lead the Functional Immunophenotyping in Critical Illness study (FICI, RMH-ICU and Peter Doherty Institute) which has performed deep immunophenotyping of over 70 patients and controls with the aim of identifying endotypes with divergent clinical outcomes and is currently in the data analysis phase.

Learnings and collaborations from the FICI study have driven my involvement in the MRFF Early and Mid Career Researcher Grant funded MEGASCORES project. As a chief investigator, I will lead recruitment at Western Australian sites and have planned the human immunophenotyping aspect of the study in collaboration with partners at the Doherty Institute.