Meet our Medicine students

Julia Morahan

Julia completed her PhD at Sydney Medical School and is now undertaking further study in the UK. Her research focuses on sporadic Motor Neuron Disease (MND), a neurodegenerative disorder for which the cause is currently unknown.

”I investigated the possibility of a genetic predisposition to environmental toxins leading to this disease. We found that some environmental toxins, pesticides in particular, appear to play a role and in some patients, a genetic polymorphism in a detoxification enzyme increased risk. The work undertaken during my PhD resulted in five publications in international journals, and my data has also been included in a large international meta-analysis of pesticides and MND.”

Jane Zahiri, Graduate Entry

From her home in Indonesia, to Singapore and Los Angeles, Jane’s ambition has taken her all over the world. Now she has finally landed at Sydney Medical School.

“I chose Sydney because it had a long and prestigious history, it was a 4-year graduate-entry program and because it was close to Indonesia. My Clinical School is Nepean and they allowed me to shadow an Emergency Medicine team and the bug has bitten.”

Matt Spargo, Graduate Entry

After completing a Bachelor of Commerce and a Bachelor of Science, travel, and work experience in the finance sector, Matt has made the switch to medicine.

“I chose to study medicine at the University of Sydney because it has always had an excellent reputation. I would highly recommend the course. It is certainly a challenging course due to the work load, but the reward from the knowledge gained far outweighs the hefty burden.

The Problem-Based Learning (PBL) sessions are another fantastic component of the course. I love learning about the body and the various ways that it interacts with the environment.”