Capstone Editing is excited to announce the winner of The Capstone Editing Grant for Mid-Career Researchers: Dr Bridgette Semple.
The high calibre of applications we received created a competitive selection process and awarding a winner was an incredibly difficult task.
Dr Semple is the Head of the Paediatric Neurotrauma Group in the Department of Neuroscience at Monash University. The grant funding will contribute to her worthy research into understanding the key biological mechanisms that contribute to poor long-term outcomes after a traumatic brain injury, particularly during early childhood. Dr Semple noted that brain injuries in young children often result in severe consequences, including those that may emerge over time as the brain matures. Her research will investigate the role of an enzyme known as SHIP-1, and the funding will help her acquire pilot data.
Capstone Editing is proud to support research, like that of Dr Semple’s, that has a direct impact on the community.
Thank you to all of our applicants. We wish you all the best for your future projects. Congratulations Dr Semple and thank you for your important contribution to children’s health!
Dr Bridgette Semple
Dr Semple is Head of the Paediatric Neurotrauma Group in the Department of Neuroscience at Monash University and is the current recipient of a career development fellowship from the National Health and Medical Research Foundation in Australia. After completing her undergraduate studies and PhD at Monash University in 2010, Dr Semple conducted postdoctoral research training at the University of California in San Francisco, US, where she developed expertise in early-life brain injuries. Since returning to Australia in 2015, she established a small team at the University of Melbourne and came full circle back to Monash in 2018 with the opening of the new Department of Neuroscience at the Monash University Central Clinical School campus at the Alfred Hospital, Melbourne.
Her research aims to understand the key biological mechanisms that contribute to poor long-term outcomes after a traumatic brain injury, particularly during early childhood. Brain injuries in young children often result in debilitating and chronic consequences, including psychosocial and cognitive deficits that may persist or emerge over time as the brain matures. Her team's work focuses on better understanding how the immature brain responds to injury, both acutely and chronically, with an emphasis on neuroinflammation and behavioural outcomes. The Capstone Editing Grant for Mid-Career Researchers will fund the acquisition of pilot data for an exciting new collaboration between Dr Semple and Associate Professor Margaret Hibbs from Monash University's Department of Immunology. They will investigate the role of the SHIP-1 enzyme, which is important for immune cell activation in other organs, but which has not been previously examined in the brain. They posit that SHIP-1 plays an important role in how microglia, one of the resident immune cells in the brain, respond to a brain injury.