Dr Megan Wallace
Research Group Head
The Ritchie Centre
Hudson Institute of Medical Research
Australia
Biography
Dr Wallace completed her PhD at Monash University investigating fetal lung liquid secretion and its clearance at birth. She was awarded a prestigious Canadian Medical Research Council/Canadian Lung Association fellowship for her postdoctoral studies at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto (1994-1997) where she was the first to identify a role for the protein PTP (Wallace et. al. Nature Genetics 1999). She then returned to Monash University, before joining The Ritchie Centre at Hudson Institute of Medical Research in 2010, where she leads the Lung Development Group. Dr Wallace is also an Adjunct Senior Lecturer in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Monash University where she convenes a third year undergraduate unit (BME3082) called Fetal and Neonatal Development.
Research Interest
The main aim of Dr Wallace’s research has been to determine the factors that regulate normal and abnormal lung development before and after birth, and the transition to air breathing at birth. To achieve this, she has developed sophisticated molecular techniques, live-cell and X-ray imaging approaches and intricate surgical procedures to manipulate, image and analyse lung development.
Publications
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McDougall A.R.A., Hooper S.B., Zahra V.A., Sozo F., Cole T.J., Doran T.and Wallace M.J. The oncogene TROP2 regulates fetal lung cell proliferation. (2011) American Journal of Physiology – Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology 301: L478-L489.
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Filby C.E., Hooper S.B. and Wallace M.J. (2010) Partial pulmonary embolization disrupts alveolarization in fetal sheep. Respiratory Research 11: article 42
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Wallace M.J., Probyn M.E., Zahra V.A., Crossley K., Cole T.J., Davis P.J.G., Morley C.J. and Hooper S.B. (2009) Early biomarkers and potential mediators of ventilation-induced lung injury in very preterm lambs. Respiratory Research10: article 19
