Preeclampsia researcher takes world stage

Dr Sarah Marshall with ANZMS President,
Dr Marianne Tare
 

Research Fellow Dr Sarah Marshall was recognised for her research into preeclampsia recently, taking out the top prize for young investigators—the Michael Perry invited speaker award—at the recent Australia New Zealand Microcirculation Society (ANZMS) annual scientific meeting in Queensland.

Dr Marshall joined the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health in June this year. Her research is focused on establishing whether the pregnancy hormone relaxin could be a potential treatment for the pregnancy disorder preeclampsia.

“During this investigation I established an ex vivo model to replicate the vascular dysfunction of preeclampsia in a lab setting, eliminating the need for more invasive and expensive research techniques,” Dr Marshall said.

“The model I have now established provides us with a new way of assessing whether drugs are capable of protecting or reversing the widespread vascular dysfunction of women with preeclampsia.”

“This will enable us to perform pre-clinical screening of a variety of drugs already known to be safe in pregnancy, and establish which should be looked into further.”

Dr Marshall said her prize win will allow her to present her work to an international audience. 

As part of her award, Dr Marshall receives a paid trip to and will be an invited speaker at the 11th World Congress for Microcirculation in Canada in 2018.

Dr Marshall’s research was completed at both Monash University and the University Melbourne, in collaboration with Professor Euan Wallace, Dr Marianne Tare and Professor Laura Parry.