Dragana Stanley

Biography

Dr Stanley is one of Australia’s highest contributors to the field of poultry intestinal microbiota. Using sequencing technology and 16S rRNA gene to study microbial diversity is a relatively new approach that requires substantial knowledge of microbiology, molecular biology and bioinformatics. Dr Stanley’s research on intestinal microbiota in health and disease focuses on the role of microbiota in poultry and other agricultural animals, as well as rodent models of human disease. She reported a relationship between intestinal bacteria and the ability of agricultural animals to retain energy from feed as well as the identification of phylotypes responsible for improved weight gain per unit of feed. She is currently developing probiotics with enhanced epigenetic effects to be used in agricultural breeding stock. Complementary to the role of microbiota in health, she is investigating the role of microbiota in disease prevention. Necrotic enteritis (NE) cost the international agricultural industry over $2 billion annually. Although it is widely accepted that Clostridium perfringens is the cause of NE, she proposed in her recent work that NE is considerably more complex than previously realised. She published on NE in 3 manuscripts, noting that 1) Induction of clinical symptoms requires the abundant intestinal bacteria, Weisella confusa, to be removed. She hypothesised that W. confusa, producer of gut epithelium protective mucous, prevents C. perfringens attaching to mucosa. 2) Although C. perfringens numbers increased in sick birds, the other unknown and unclassified order of Mollicutes, also involved in the onset of irritable bowel syndrome, increased much more than C. perfringens. 3) Virulent strain of C. perfringens administered in high doses during an experimental challenge is not capable of establishing itself in healthy birds but only in immuno-compromised hosts. 4) Well-known immunomodulating segmented filamentous bacteria (SFB) play a key role in preventing expansion of C. perfringens.

Research Interest

Microbiology - Bacteriology