Raine Visiting Professor Lecture – 14 November 2019
Professor Mary Wlodek
The University of Melbourne, Australia
will present a Lecture entitled:
Critical periods and lifestyle interventions programming developmental disease risk
on Thursday 14 November 2019, 12 – 1 pm
at The University of Western Australia Bayliss Building, G33 Lecture Theatre
All welcome
Mary Wlodek is a Professor in the Department of Physiology, School of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, The University of Melbourne. She graduated with a BSc(Hons) and MSc from the University of Western Ontario, London, Canada and subsequently was awarded her PhD in Physiology from Monash University in Australia. Mary is a global leader in developmental origins physiological research and Head of the Fetal, Postnatal & Adult Physiology & Disease Laboratory. She is renowned for her successful experimental model that mimics human growth profiles, organ deficits, and phenotypes observed in babies born small who are susceptible to adult diseases. Her laboratory is recognised as one of the few in the world performing complex whole animal physiological studies exploring the adult, pregnancy and transgenerational consequences of being born small. Critical to translational outcomes, Professor Wlodek experimentally incorporates various innovative treatments and interventions including nutritional (cross-fostering, diet), exercise, pregnancy (gestational diabetes, obesity, stress, and alcohol) and transgenerational impacts. Her studies have substantially advanced the understanding of the consequences of pregnancy complications, early postnatal growth and lactation and adolescent life on health and disease risk. Her research has transitioned to human cohorts In Australia and Singapore where she is exploring breastfeeding and breastmilk composition and production after pregnancy complications and implications for child growth and disease risk. Mary has recently secured US Allen Foundation funding to support these research efforts, leading to an ongoing and accelerating series of highly cited publications in top journals in the field, including Nature, and supported by international and national research funding.
Professor Wlodek has demonstrated her strong commitment to the vitality of ongoing research and the criticality of inspiration for all students and researchers through her many senior leadership roles at University and Faculty levels. These include Deputy Dean of the Melbourne School of Graduate Research, Coordinator Research Development with Melbourne Research and Associate Dean (Research) Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences. Professor Wlodek’s strong commitment to mentoring has also been recognised through prestigious awards, including the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences Excellence Award for Equity and Staff Development (2012), the University’s James Angus Award for Outstanding Research Higher Degree Supervision and subsequently the Australian Government, Office for Learning & Teaching, Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning (2013).
University Host:
Associate Professor Donna Geddes
School of Molecular Sciences,
University of Western Australia
Telephone: 6488 1208
Email: donna.geddes@uwa.edu.au
