Congratulations to Justin Cole, Daniel Merlo and Lin Zhang on their graduate research degree completions!

L-R: Daniel Merlo, Justin Cole and Lin Zhang have recently
completed their graduate research degrees.

Congratulations to Justin Cole, Daniel Merlo and Lin Zhang on completing respectively their graduate research degrees! The awards were conferred on 11 June for Daniel Merlo, 29 September for Lin Zhang and 6 October for Justin Cole.

Dr Justin Cole's PhD is titled "Physiology of inflammation, coronary microvascular dysfunction and myocardial injury resulting from percutaneous coronary intervention". Dr Cole was supervised by Professor Velandai Srikanth and Dr Jamie Layland (Department of Medicine, Peninsula). Dr Cole is a cardiologist.

He writes, "Treatment of coronary artery narrowing with balloons and stents has many beneficial results. However, the treatment can also activate multiple pathways that can have unintentional harmful consequences. The role of inflammation in this remains unclear. My thesis examines the effect that colchicine, a safe and widely available anti-inflammatory medication, has on inflammation and injury associated with stenting coronary arteries. Additionally, this thesis examines if anti-inflammatory medications can improve the function of the coronary microvessels. The coronary microvessels are too small to be fixed with stents, yet when their function is impaired, heart injury is worse." Abstract link 

Mr Daniel Merlo's PhD is titled, "Early diagnosis, monitoring, subjective performance and predictors of subclinical cognitive decline in Multiple Sclerosis". He was supervised by Professor Anneke van der Walt, Professor Helmut Butzkueven, Dr David Darby (Department of Neuroscience) and Dr Tomas Kalincik (University of Melbourne). Dr Merlo is a Research Fellow in the Department of Neuroscience.

He says, "The focus of my PhD was the integration of a computerised cognitive screening test into several multiple sclerosis outpatient clinics around Australia. My aim was to determine how the tests could be used in hospitals and if people living with multiple sclerosis enjoyed doing the tests and found them interesting. I also investigated if the tests could measure changes in memory and the speed that people with multiple sclerosis can process information. I found that the tests were very practical and easy to use; and were sensitive to changes in memory and speed of thinking in people with multiple sclerosis." Abstract link

Dr Lin Zhang's Master of Biomedical Science is titled "Chronic migraine and cervical dystonia". She was supervised by Dr Elspeth Hutton and Professor Terry O'Brien (Department of Neuroscience). Dr Zhang is a neurologist.    

She writes, "Neck pain with cervical muscle tension is common in patients with chronic migraine (CM). These symptoms seem to share common features with cervical dystonia (CD), which is characterised by abnormal neck muscle contractions in the neck affecting head posture. Migraine and cervical dystonia can co-exist, but their link is little-known. This research project was designed to explore the link between chronic migraine and cervical dystonia. It composes two parts: part one of the project is a comprehensive review of literature, and part two is an observational study to investigate disease prevalence." Abstract link