PhD Students

Wayne Soon

BSc, BMedSci (Hons)

PhD student/research assistant

Areas of research expertise: Type 1 Diabetes and exercise physiology

Wayne began working at the Telethon Kids Institute in 2012 and is currently a PhD candidate and research assistant for the Children’s Diabetes Centre.

Wayne’s PhD program involves investigating the blood glucose response to different types of exercise in order to determine the best ways to manage blood glucose levels during exercise for people living with Type 1 Diabetes. Wayne is also responsible for the exercise testing components of other research studies conducted within the Centre. 

Visit https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayne-soon-51544143/ for more information.

Matthew Cooper

BSc/BCA (Statistics, Applied Statistics and Marketing), PhD candidate

PhD student

Following undergraduate education in New Zealand, Matt started work as a biostatistician with the University of Western Australia in 2008, working in the field of genetic epidemiology with data from a number of large Western Australian cohort studies.

Matt joined the Telethon Kids Institute in 2010 and has been involved in a variety of studies across different health-related outcomes, predominately with a focus on epidemiology (including population-based cohort studies) and clinical research (including clinical trials). These projects have involved varied statistical modelling techniques including the modelling of complex longitudinal data. Matt's own research has made extensive use of the Statewide hospitalisation data made available through the Western Australian Data Linkage Branch.

Currently, he is working towards a Doctorate of Philosophy characterising the co-morbidities and complications associated with paediatric Type 1 Diabetes within a modern clinical setting, with a focus on identifying patients at increased risk for the development of co-morbidities to inform the targeting of interventions.

Selected publications:

Cooper, M. N., de Klerk, N. H., Greenop, K. R., Jamieson, S. E., Anderson, D., Van Bockxmeer, F. M., et al. (2012). Statistical adjustment of genotyping error in a case-control study of childhood leukaemia. BMC Medical Research Methodology, 12(1), 141. doi:10.1186/1471-2288-12-141

Cooper, M. N., de Klerk, N. H., Jones, T. W., & Davis, E. A. (2014a). Clinical and demographic risk factors associated with mortality during early adulthood in a population-based cohort of childhood-onset Type 1 diabetes. Diabet Med, n/a-n/a. doi:10.1111/dme.12522

Cooper, M. N., McNamara, K. A., de Klerk, N. H., Davis, E. A., & Jones, T. W. (2014b). School performance in children with type 1 diabetes: a contemporary population-based study. Pediatr Diabetes, n/a-n/a. doi:10.1111/pedi.12243

Cooper, M. N., O'Connell, S. M., Davis, E. A., & Jones, T. W. (2013). A population-based study of risk factors for severe hypoglycaemia in a contemporary cohort of childhood-onset type 1 diabetes. Diabetologia, 56(10), 2164-2170. doi:10.1007/s00125-013-2982-1

Cooper, M. N., O'Connell, S. M., Davis, E. A., & Jones, T. W. (2014c). A population-based study of risk factors for severe hypoglycemia in a contemporary cohort of childhood-onset type 1 diabetes. Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics, 16(SUPPL. 1), S21-S22.

Dastani, Z., Hivert, M.-F., Timpson, N., Perry, J. R. B., Yuan, X., Scott, R. A., et al. (2012). Novel loci for adiponectin levels and their influence on type 2 diabetes and metabolic traits: a multi-ethnic meta-analysis of 45,891 individuals. PLoS Genetics, 8(3), e1002607. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1002607

Johnson, S. R., Cooper, M. N., Davis, E. A., & Jones, T. W. (2013a). Hypoglycaemia, fear of hypoglycaemia and quality of life in children with Type 1 diabetes and their parents. Diabetic Medicine. doi:10.1111/dme.12247

Johnson, S. R., Cooper, M. N., Jones, T. W., & Davis, E. A. (2013b). Long-term outcome of insulin pump therapy in children with type 1 diabetes assessed in a large population-based case-control study. Diabetologia. doi:10.1007/s00125-013-3007-9

McKnight, J. A., Wild, S. H., Lamb, M. J. E., The Scottish Diabetes Research Network Epidemiology Group, Cooper, M. N., Jones, T. W., et al. (2014). Glycaemic control of Type 1 diabetes in clinical practice early in the 21st century: an international comparison. Diabet Med. doi:10.1111/dme.12676

Strawbridge, R. J., Dupuis, J., Prokopenko, I., Barker, A., Ahlqvist, E., Rybin, D., et al. (2011). Genome-wide association identifies nine common variants associated with fasting proinsulin levels and provides new insights into the pathophysiology of type 2 diabetes. Diabetes, 60(10), 2624-2634. doi:10.2337/db11-0415

Dr Vinutha B Shetty

MBBS, DCH, DNB, MD, FRACP

Paediatric endocrinologist

Areas of research expertise: Diabetes and exercise research

Dr Vinutha Shetty got her medical degree from Mysore Medical College, India and specialised in Paediatrics from Lokamanya Tilak Municipal Medical College, Mumbai, India. After completing her training in paediatrics, she worked in Kasturba Medical College in India and New Medical Centre Hospital in Abu Dhabi. She arrived in Perth in 2007 and completed her training in paediatric endocrinology. Currently, while working as a consultant, she is doing her PhD from the University of Western Australia in the field of exercise and Type 1 Diabetes focusing on glucose requirements to prevent hypoglycaemia during exercise.

During her training program, Dr Shetty was awarded several research awards, including the prestigious trainee research award from the Royal Australasian College of Physicians in 2013 and Australian Paediatric Endocrine Group Young Investigator Award in 2014. Dr Shetty will be coordinating a number of studies related to exercise and diabetes using insulin clamp techniques.

Dr Jacqueline Curran

BSc, MBChB, FRACP

Dr Curran is a Paediatric Endocrinologist and research fellow at Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH) and a Senior lecturer in Paediatrics, Notre Dame University.

Dr Curran studied pre-clinical medicine at The University of St Andrews, Scotland and undertook her clinical studies through Manchester University, England. She trained in Paediatrics  at The Women's and Children's hospital  Adelaide and PMH. In addition to her paediatric endocrinology training at PMH she has undertaken a fellowship in Type 2 diabetes in indigenous youth at the Health Sciences Centre, Winnipeg, Canada.

Dr Curran is currently undertaking a PhD at the University of Western Australia studying the effect of a novel treatment for weight loss in obese adolescents.  

Publications:

Bell LM, Curran JA, Byrne s, Roby H, Suriano K, Jones TW, Davis EA. High Incidence of obesity co-morbidities in young children: a cross-sectional study. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health. 2011 Dec;47(12):911-7.

Curran J, Hayward J, Sellers E, Dean H. Severe vulvovaginitis as a presenting problem of type 2 diabetes in adolescent girls:a case series. Pediatrics. 2011 Apr;127(4):1081-5

Suriano K, Curran J, Byrne SM, Jones TW, Davis EA. Fatness, fitness, and cardiovascular risk in young children. J Pediatrics. 2010 Oct; 157 (4):552-8.