Congratulations to our recently completed PhD students!

L-R: Antonia Reale, Himawan Fernando and Sabrina Salberg

Congratulations to our recently completed PhD students Antonia Reale, Himawan Madhumantha Fernando and Sabrina Salberg! See below for their thesis topics, departments and supervisors.

Congratulations to Erica Plummer and Sabrina Salberg on Bridging Postdoctoral Fellowships

L-R: Dr Erica Plummer and Ms Sabrina Salberg

Congratulations to Dr Erica Plummer and Ms Sabrina Salberg who have been awarded Bridging Postdoctoral Fellowships. It was a very competitive round.

The Bridging Postdoctoral Fellowships (BPF) support the career development of promising newly-qualified postdoctoral researchers and final year PhD students. They are intended to provide initial support for recent PhD graduates and final year PhD students while they apply for externally-funded fellowships.

Intergenerational and lifelong chronic pain starting in early life

2nd year PhD students Jennaya Christensen (left)
and Sabrina Salberg (right)

Chronic pain is a costly public health issue that is highly prevalent and causes a great burden to people who are affected, their families, their workplaces and the health system. 

New research from the Monash Trauma Group at the Department of Neuroscience, Central Clinical School, Monash University shows that there is a difference both in gender and type of adverse childhood experience in the expression of specific biomarkers linked to chronic pain. 

Additionally, early life stress such as maternal separation, and a high-fat, high-sugar diet lead to higher pain sensitivity, increased anxiety-like behaviour and changes in the neurobiology (structural and functional level) of the brain.

Chronic pain often occurs during childhood, with 1 in 5 children or adolescents having reported it and it being more prevalent in females than males.