Melanie Mcdowall
Medicine
University of Adelaide
Australia
Biography
Dr Mel McDowall (Sutton-McDowall) is a Senior Research Associate within the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale BioPhotonics (CNBP), The University of Adelaide, which brings together the physics and chemistry of light to solve biological questions. Her role within the CNBP is to devise non-invasive, non-toxic diagnostics for predicting oocyte and embryo health and quality, stemming from Mel’s strong history in studying the metabolism of oocytes and embryos. To date, Mel has 33 research and review articles detailing oocyte and embryo metabolism (1267 citations, H-index = 16), including two reviews in Human Reproduction Update and Reproduction that has been cited 274 and 205 times respectively. Mel received her PhD in 2005 from the University of Adelaide (glucose metabolism in cattle cumulus oocyte complexes), under the supervision of A/Prof Jeremy Thompson. Pivotal work includes identifying the role of the fuel-sensing pathway, the hexosamine biosynthetic pathway, in post-translational modifications of proteins within oocytes, a mechanism through which high glucose environments compromise oocyte and embryo health. After a brief postdoctoral position within the Department of Animal Sciences (2004-2008) investigating the role of the maternal environment on fetal wool development, Mel returned to A/Prof Thompson’s group as a senior research associate. Her work translates to both human and livestock assisted reproduction and she is currently involved in the reproduction steering committee of Dairy Australia. In addition, Mel is passionate about science communication and outreach. She has received a Young Tall Poppy Award in recognition of her outreach activities, has written for websites such as “The Conversation” and "I Quit Sugar", was involved in the “Fertility is Ageist” campaign (yourfertility.org.au) and has just completed a three year term as the public relations secretary for the Society for Reproductive Biology.
Research Interest
Medicine,Medical Education,Research,etc
