Central Clinical School

Waled Shihata at the 2016 CCS Graduate symposium By Eliza Watson Waled Shihata is a Monash University PhD student in the Vascular Pharmacology Laboratory and the Haematopoiesis and Leukocyte Biology Laboratory at the Baker Research Institute, where he is supervised respectively by Prof Jaye Chin-Dusting and A/Prof Andrew Murphy. He completed his Honours in the same lab at Baker Institute before beginning his PhD where he is currently researching high blood pressure in cardiovascular disease and the role of caveolae/caveolin proteins.

L-R: Prof Karin Jandeleit-Dahm, Dr Stephen Gray and Dr Jay Jha are researching inhibition of enzymes known to cause injury in diabetes. Image: Life Scientist By Eliza Watson Diabetes affects around 1.7 million Australians. Sufferers with the disease are unable to control blood glucose levels either through failure to produce insulin (Type 1) or resistance of cells to insulin (Type 2). It can have a range of serious complications affecting the major arteries (macrovascular diseases) potentially leading to stroke, as well as causing kidney disease, nerve damage and loss of vision (microvascular diseases). The seriousness of these complications highlights the need for effective preventive measures.