About Dr Natasha Nassar
The aim of my research is to make a positive contribution to maternal and child health and to ensure optimal reproductive health and a healthy start to life for all children.
Dr Nassar is a perinatal epidemiologist and NHMRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow working at the Kolling Institute of Medical Research, University of Sydney. She has almost 10 years experience in pregnancy-related research investigating maternal, socio-demographic and environmental risk factors and their impact on maternal and infant health outcomes. Dr Nassar has extensive experience in conducting perinatal health-related research using linked population health data sets and expertise in issues related to the preparation, analysis and management of large datasets. During 2006-2008, Dr Nassar was based at the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research in Western Australia (WA) and led various studies investigating the epidemiology of hypospadias, a common urogenital birth defect amongst boys, using the linked population health data. She was also involved in supervising doctoral, honours and junior research staff in the application of linked cross jurisdictional government data from the Departments of Health, Child Protection & Disability Services Commission. This led to her involvement in a range of studies investigating the impact of social & racial determinants and environmental exposures on birth outcomes; & identification of risk factors & child health outcomes of children affected by maternal alcohol in pregnancy, intellectual disability, autism & child abuse and neglect. In 2006, Dr Nassar completed her PhD and was involved in the design and application of clinical studies to answer gaps in research evidence related to the management of breech presentation, with findings informing content reviews and clinical practice guidelines. Since 2002, Dr Nassar has published over 35 peer-review articles in national and international journals, and CI on 4 successful NHMRC project grants, 3 NHMRC Personal Support & 4 local grants totaling $2.6M; & supervisor of 4 PhD students, 6 medical students/ research staff.