CURRENT POSITION 
Director, Plastics & Human Health, Minderoo Foundation, Perth

Emeritus Professor, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia

QUALIFICATIONS
PhD 1978 (London)
BSc (Hons) 1974 (London)

Professor Sarah Dunlop (Emeritus, University of Western Australia) joined Minderoo in 2020 to establish the Plastics & Human Health Impact Mission. Our goal is to eliminate the harmful effects of global plastic pollution by identifying casual evidence for harm to human health thereby establishing attribution and accountability to drive change through advocacy and engagement.

Sarah leads an integrated program of high-risk key-stone scientific in partnership with world leaders in Australia, Europe, the United Kingdom and the US research to drive innovation and impact.

Evidence synthesis of peer-reviewed scientific literature has established harm to human health across the plastic life cycle of production from fossil fuels, use and disposal as well as consistent and statistically significant health impacts across our own life cycle from before birth.

Reliable analytical techniques are critical to accurately measure internal plastic chemical and microplastic exposure in humans. We established the Minderoo Centre - Plastics & Human Health at the Queensland Alliance for Environmental & Health Science, University of Queensland which houses an award-winning plastic contamination-controlled steel laboratory to accelerate discovery in analytical chemistry.

Clinical research encompasses PERTH Trial (Plastic Exposure Reduction Transforms Health), a series of randomised controlled trials to reduce plastic exposure and determine whether health is improved i.e. the opposite of our everyday experience of uncontrolled exposure to industrial plastic chemicals which are linked to harmful health impacts. Hybrid epidemiological studies that look at how plastic chemicals interfere with our bodies are identifying underlying mechanisms for harm are also strengthening causal evidence.

In addition to identifying harm, the Plastics & Human health team is also driving innovation and investment in safe and sustainable materials to replace fossil plastics and change plastic for good.

Profssor Dunlop’s prior medical research career in neuroscience combined laboratory-based mechanistic and clinical studies to develop novel treatments for diabetic retinopathy and identified that maternally administered steroids to prevent pre-term birth inadvertently impacted the developing brain. Clinical trials for spinal cord injured patients involved multi-centre randomised controlled trials to exercise the paralysed limbs, intravenous cooling to buy time and prevent spreading secondary damage before emergency decompression surgery and protecting the bladder with biologically-inspired treatments to prevent recurrent urinary tract infection.

Profssor Dunlop has held senior academic roles including Principal Research Fellow, National Health and Medical Research Council, Accorded Status, Royal Perth Hospital; Director, Spinal Cord Injury Network, President, Australian Neuroscience Society and President, Asian-Oceanian Neuroscience Societies.