Lab focus: Reducing anaemia from bench to village
Anaemia – a reduction in the blood’s oxygen carrying capacity – affects up to 800 million women and children worldwide, with the majority of this burden falling in low income countries. However, anaemia also affects 4.5 per cent of Australians. Iron deficiency is one of the most common causes of anaemia.
Our lab seeks to discover new therapies to prevent and treat anaemia by making fundamental discoveries into how the body regulates its iron stores. We also undertake field studies in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia to test new solutions and influence policy to address anaemia in babies and pregnant mothers.
Very little progress has been made in alleviating the global burden of anaemia over recent decades. Our lab aims to address this problem through a combination of approaches, including;
– Innovative field trials to develop evidence which can be used for public health policies
– Translational studies which apply cutting edge methods to samples from these studies to make new insights
– Experimental laboratory projects to uncover fundamental processes in iron metabolism