Our research
<p>Expertise in medical sciences </p>
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Our researchers from the School of Medical Sciences aim to improve overall human health across seven multidisciplinary themes that reflect the strength, diversity, and depth of our research.
These themes signify keys areas of importance to the Australian community, our international communities, and reflect our partnership with stakeholders such as research institutes, Local Health District partners, granting bodies, government organisations, and philanthropists.
Sydney academics elected as fellows to the Australian Academy
Professor Vanessa Hayes has been elected as fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (AAHMS) in recognition of her significant contributions to advancing health and medical research.
Over 160,000 new virus species discovered by AI
161,979 new species of RNA virus have been discovered using a machine learning tool that researchers believe will vastly improve the mapping of life on Earth and could aid in the identification of many millions more viruses yet to be characterised. This research involves Professor Edwards Holmes.
Sydney student discovers critical flaw in global cancer research
Danielle Oste's passion for animal science and student research project turns into the discovery of phantom cell lines under the guidance of Professor Jennifer Byrne, questioning the legitmacy of hundreds of academic cancer research papers.
We're pursuing a future in which health data and information are seamlessly integrated into biomedical discovery and the continuous improvement of health and healthcare delivery.
Our research focuses on developing, applying, implementing, and evaluating informatics tools used to support human health.
It spans applications in omics and precision medicine, applied machine learning and other computational methods applied to data from patients and people in the community, to the implementation and evaluation of digital health technologies.
We have research groups working in cyberpsychology and virtual reality, human factors research, implementation science, bioinformatics, wearables and sensors, clinical pharmacology, and applied machine learning and data science.
We are the largest comprehensive teaching and research group of its kind in Australia.
Our researchers draw on a diverse set of multidisciplinary strengths across health, medicine, science, and engineering to produce high-quality research and translate research into changes in practice and policy.
Research Groups
Cancer cells exhibit specific hallmarks that distinguish them from normal cells, including an unrestrained capacity to divide, survive and spread throughout the body.
Our aim is to identify and describe the mechanisms that drive the development, progression and dissemination of human tumours and to exploit this information to develop new biomarkers and therapeutic strategies.
This project aims to harness the power of cutting-edge multi-omic, including ‘genomic’ (genome, epigenome, transcriptome, microbiome) and ‘exposomic’ (the totality of non- genetic exposures of an individual in a lifetime) technologies, with ‘big-data computational analytics’, including extensive ‘patient-matched’ and ‘African-relevant’ clinicopathological and lifestyle data, in an innovative African co-led ‘Precision Health Research Model’ to uncover the etiology of high-risk PCa and associated health disparities in African men, while make meaningful contributions to under-resourced African countries from awareness to scientific development.
Funding body: US Department of Defence (USA)
Our researchers perform world-class research in numerous cancer-related disciplines and investigate various types of human malignancies.
We are committed to the training of the next generations of internationally competitive cancer researchers and promote multi-disciplinary networks addressing cancer-related questions both internally and externally, interacting with healthcare professionals and the broader community.
Chronic diseases are common, long-lasting conditions with major social and economic consequences. Over 50% of hospitalisations in Australia are due to chronic diseases and the burden on the healthcare system is significant.
The ten major chronic diseases listed by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare include arthritis, asthma, back pain, cancer, cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, mental health conditions and osteoporosis.
Improved insights into the causes and mechanisms underlying these diseases, as well as the pathological processes that progress and sustain them, are critical for the design of better preventive and therapeutic strategies including, drug treatments and implants.
We're developing a research pipeline to progress new solutions from discovery, through pre-clinical validation towards better translational outcomes.
Our leaders
We are supported by exceptional research labs and teaching spaces including the Charles Perkins Centre, Kolling Institute and Westmead.
We focus on the systemic study of teaching and learning, using established or validated criteria of scholarship to better understand how teaching (beliefs, behaviours, attitudes, and values) can maximise learning outcomes.
Our research also seeks to develop a more accurate understanding of learning processes, resulting in products that are publicly shared for critique and use by peers, with the goal to have a demonstrable impact on the educational endeavour.
The University of Sydney has the Wilson Anatomy Museum, which hosts cadaveric materials to help students learn anatomy. Many factors (e.g., cultural, learning strategy preferences, comfort in viewing cadavers) may influence on how students use the anatomy museum resources. Here, we plan to:
1. Document the visit frequency and perceived usefulness of the resources of the Wilson Anatomy Museum,
2) Determine how museum visit frequencies are associated with preferred strategies in learning anatomy and perceived academic stress,
3) Determine variables that predict the frequencies of visiting the Wilson Anatomy Museum,
4) Gather feedback on how the Museum resources can be improved. Data from this research will provide insights on who use the anatomy museum resources.
This information will be useful in how the museum resources can be used for anatomy education at the University of Sydney, as well as an opportunity to gain feedback to improve the museum resources.
Our area of focus is the way in which the Aboriginal students approach, interact with and reflect on the use of VR technology, and the experiences it delivers, both as participants in the curated VR experience and as bystanders. We plan to use video ethnographic techniques to capture how our participants create new social norms to manage the intrusion of VR technology
Funding body: Facebook Research
Current resources used to teach students human surface anatomy are limited in their depiction of age-related body variations. Without exposure to diverse representations of human surface anatomy, students may be insufficiently prepared to deal with patients of various ages and body morphologies in their future clinical work.
It is also unclear whether students' biological sex influences their perception of anatomical regions or body types that they may find uncomfortable to view or engage with during their learning.
Using an eye-tracking device, male and female anatomy students from The University of Sydney will be shown surface anatomy images of subjects from three age groups (young adult/middle-aged/elderly). Participants' visual attention to different anatomical regions will be determined from recorded gaze data.
Sex differences in visual attention will contribute to data-driven recommendations for designing health professional curriculum that can effectively educate students on diverse, human surface anatomy.
Our research focuses on the interplay between the host immune system and a wide range of medically important human diseases.
By understanding the mechanisms that enable the development of both infectious and non-infectious diseases, as we all as the inflammatory conditions that develop, we can provide a rational basis for the development of novel treatments, immunotherapies, vaccines and other preventative measures to lessen the impact of such diseases on the human population.
Our research expertise lies in the study of a range of pathogen driven and other diseases, including cancer and autoimmune diseases, and the host immunological responses to these conditions.
Tuberculosis and leprosy represent a major health burden globally. Granuloma formation is well recognised as a pivotal tissue response regulating bacterial survival and host tissue pathology. However, cellular structure governing the diverse granuloma function is unknown. This project employs spatial biology technologies to determine lesion structures with single-cell scale. The findings will provide new knowledge in disease pathogenesis and assist in developing new therapies and animal models.
Funding body: National Institutes of Health (USA), National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), Department of Defense (USA)
Genome sequence data has transformed the study of emerging diseases. However, large-scale metagenomic data are cumbersome to analyse and have not been widely used for virus surveillance. This research programme will transform our understanding of the disease threat to Australian and global populations by developing a new bioinformatics pipeline to rapidly and identify viruses of potential public health impact and by performing a metagenomic survey of viruses at the animal-human interface.
Funding body: National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Investigator Grant
Our research focuses on understanding the structure, properties, and function of biomolecules, including proteins, peptides, DNA, RNA, lipids, carbohydrates, and metabolites, within the cellular environment. We use a wide variety of technology platforms for the analysis including mass spectrometry-based proteomics/lipidomics/metabolomics, crystallography, NMR, and cryo-EM.
A deep understanding of this molecular and cellular orchestra allows us to better understand mechanisms of disease when one or more components of a pathway is dysregulated.
We dissect molecules and cells put them back together in new ways as a powerful platform for innovating and designing new technologies, including diagnostics, cellular factories, therapeutics, chemical probes, chemical tools, and imaging agents.
Our molecular and cellular discovery-based research uncovers new disease paradigms, disease targets, and treatment approaches.
The modification of proteins with carbohydrates (glycosylation) plays a key role in most biological pathways of eukaryotic cells, but many glycosylation events remain uncharacterised. This project builds upon a novel type of O-glycosylation we have discovered in platelets using unbiased mass spectrometry-based proteomics, within specific domains of secreted proteins.
We will establish the function of this modification for platelet function and its dysregulation in disease states such as type II diabetes. This project will benefit the community by expanding our knowledge of glycosylation functions and regulation, which can affect the activity of many different cell types and organisms.
Funding body: National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Ideas Grant
We aim to understand the structure and function of the nervous system and the underlying pathophysiology of neurological disorders.
Applying cellular and molecular biology, genomics, neural imaging and integrated anatomical, physiological and pharmacological approaches in both humans and animal models, we aim to understand the fundamental properties of neurons, glia, neural circuits and integrated systems.
We aim to apply both basic and clinical neuroscience research to translate or develop into novel therapies and clinical applications for nervous system disorders and to impact and improve health and well-being more broadly.
The key translational target areas are neurocognitive, neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders; movement disorders; neuroinflammatory conditions; headache, pain and spinal cord injury.
