Student Achievements - August 2025
The Department of Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Newborn Health celebrate the recent achievements of their Graduate Research students.
Pictured L-R: Maya Robertson, Stefan Botha & Dr Madhura Jayasingam
The Department of Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Newborn Health celebrate the recent achievements of their Graduate Research Students.
Maya Robertson
Department of Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Newborn Health PhD student Maya Robertson (Supervisor Prof Natalie Hannan) presented their work from the first year of their PhD at the International NanoMedicine Conference in Sydney (June) and 16th Annual Victorian Scientific Meeting for the Australian Society for Medical Research (July). Maya has developed a lipid nanoparticle formulation designed to deliver siRNA to the placenta as a potential treatment for preeclampsia, these results were part of the ongoing work with the Therapeutic Discovery and Vascular Function in Pregnancy Group, aiming to create a placenta-targeted therapeutic to address the current lack of medical treatment for preeclampsia.
Maya won 'Best Poster Presentation' in the 3MT competition at the International NanoMedicine Conference in Sydney (June) and a 'Communication Excellence Award' at the 16th Annual Victorian Scientific Meeting for the Australian Society for Medical Research (July). Maya has also receive the Henry and Rachael Ackman travelling scholarship so they can attend IFPA in September.
Maya was also recently on RRR show Einstein a Go-Go speaking about their work. You can listen to the interview here: https://www.rrr.org.au/explore/programs/einstein-a-go-go/episodes/34800-einstein-a-go-go-10-august-2025
Stefan Botha
Department of Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Newborn Health PhD student Stefan Botha (Supervisor Prof Tu'uhevaha Kaitu'u-Lino) has been awarded a - Stillbirth Centre of Research Excellence (CRE) PhD Top-up scholarship awards for 2025. We are so proud of Stefan being amongst the 3 awardees for this award.
This award supports Stefan’s project investigating fetal growth restriction (FGR) a major contributor to stillbirth worldwide. The research aims to uncover the molecular and cellular pathways driving placental dysfunction, using advanced computational tools, multi-omics methodologies, and in vitro models to analyse placental samples from global cohorts.
By identifying novel, non-invasive biomarkers of placental insufficiency, this work seeks to improve early detection of pregnancies at risk, enabling timely interventions to prevent stillbirth and adverse neonatal outcomes. The goal is to develop a clinically applicable biomarker panel and/or identify therapeutic targets through the integration of molecular and clinical data. In the end, we hope to contribute to more personalised antenatal careand improve outcomes for mothers and their babies.
Dr Madhura Jayasingam
Department of Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Newborn Health PhD student Dr Madhura Jayasingam (Supervisor A/Prof Yasmin Jayasinghe) received the Richard Lovell Travel Scholarship to attend the 5th Asian society for fertility preservation (ASFP 2025) Conference, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in August 2025. Madhura was awarded 1st Runner-up for poster presentation for their poster ‘Development of a human non-growing follicle density percentile chart’.
We also congratulate Mahnaz Sharifi who presented an oral virtually and Aisyah Shamsuddin who presented a poster presentation at ASFP 2025 as well.
Pictured above Dr Madhura Jayasingam & Dr Debra Gook at ASFP 2025