Lachlan McMillan |
School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health PhD student
Lachlan McMillan has received a competitive grant to attend the prestigious
Stanford SPARK Biomedical Innovation and Entrepreneurship Course in Tokyo this
August.
Established ten years ago and a unique partnership between
university and industry, the Stanford
SPARK program aims to advance new biomedical research discoveries into promising
new treatments for patients.
Lachlan’s PhD is focused on improving bone health in older
adults.
“There is currently a crisis in the treatment of
osteoporosis, with prescription and adherence to pharmacological regimes at an
all-time low,” Lachlan said.
“As such it's imperative we understand how else to best
influence bones, in the goal of preventing or attenuating the development of
osteoporosis.”
Lachlan is developing a wearable device that will accurately
and objectively quantify activity which is most beneficial for bones, i.e.
weight-bearing activity such as jumping or hopping.
“We ultimately hope to deploy our device to research
institutions around the world who are investigating the effect of physical
activity on a range of outcomes, delivering a commercial result.”
Some of the benefits Lachlan hopes to gain from the SPARK
program include a much greater understanding of innovation and development in
medical technology in fields outside his area of research.
“I hope that I'll get a better understanding of the key
medical problems currently being addressed, and how the process works,” Lachlan
said.
“I also expect that networking with researchers and medical
innovation experts from all over the world will provide me with a unique
opportunity to learn from people with varied backgrounds, hopefully leading to
future cross-institutional collaborations.”
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