2005 Young Tall Poppy Science Award Recipient

Dr Janette Burgess
School of Medical Sciences, University of Sydney

Australia has the third highest prevalence of childhood asthma in the world. An astounding 2.2 million Australians have asthma, including 1 in 6 children and 1 in 10 adults. Dr Janette Burgess, a biochemist, is conducting research into proteins that cause scar tissue formation in the lungs of asthmatic patients. This finding could be used in the treatment of asthma by developing new drugs to target scar tissue formation and thereby assist asthmatics who have trouble breathing.

 “Scar tissue is a major contributor during an asthma attack. It builds up inside the airways and makes it hard for asthmatics to breathe by reducing the amount of air that can get into the lungs,” says Dr Janette Burgess. Janette’s team have shown that asthmatic cells in human lungs produce significantly greater quantities of this scar creating protein, called connective tissue growth factor, than normal airways.

After completing a BSc with honours at the University of Adelaide, Janette moved to Sydney to the Centre for Thrombosis and Vascular Research and was awarded a PhD from UNSW with a thesis entitled ‘Drug-Induced Thrombocytopenia: Characterisation of Antibody-Platelet Interactions’. Janette joined the asthma research group at the University of Sydney, in the Department of Pharmacology, and has taken up a Peter Doherty Fellowship at the Institute of Biomedical Research at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research.

Since joining the asthma research group, Janette has established a molecular biology group which currently consists of seven full time researchers involved in studies aimed at identifying differences between cells from asthmatic and non-asthmatic lungs, as well as trying to determine what causes asthmatic cells to react to triggers. 

Janette has also been active in promoting science both inside and outside the university. She has presented to local community groups and in 2003 was selected for a Fresh Science Award. She is strongly involved with Australian Society for Medical Research.

Janette received a Young Tall Poppy Science Award in 2005.