OCAGI Researchers leading the way in diagnostic tools for Oesophageal Cancer

Nafiseh Mirabdolhosseini is a biomedical engineer from the prestigious Tehran Polytechnic University in Iran. She has worked in several medical start-up companies before joining our research team. Her PhD is to develop a nano-endoscopy system for rapid oesophageal screening in a primary care setting. Nafiseh’s project secured competitive funding from SPHERE Frontier Technology to upgrade her system with predictive AI technology to automate the screening procedure. In 2020, Nafiseh undertook the NSW Health Medical Device Commercialisation Program to further accelerate her project. Currently, she has built a working prototype and is getting ready to start clinical trials. Nafiseh presented her project to an audience of entrepreneurs and investors at the 2022 AusBiotech conference.

Next literation of prototype

Ethics application for pilot study

Declan Power grew up in Razorback and completed his Masters Degree at Western Sydney University. He brings his expertise in mass spectrometry, a machine capable of detecting trace compounds in solution. Declan is developing a early screening test to detect oesophageal cancer by analysing the gases exhaled from breath. These gas profiles provide a non-invasive and scalable technique to identify at risk individuals within a population for further testing. Declan is currently recruiting participants as part of his study at Campbelltown Hospital and Camden Hospital. When not in the lab, Declan can be found working at his local Bunnings, matching and mixing paint samples.

Prapti Shrestha is an Ingleburn local. She worked as a nurse before returning to post-graduate research. Her passions in microbiology and patient-care led to her project profiling the oesophageal microbiome in patients with reflux-associated diseases and oesophageal adenocarcinoma. Over the course of her PhD, she profiled over 300 samples and identified distinct bacterial profiles associated with Barrett’s oesophagus, non-erosive reflux, and oesophageal adenocarcinoma. Her results were published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine in 2020, currently accumulating over 1,000 reads and 11 citations. Her work has laid the foundations for Declan to identify microbe derived metabolites as a diagnostic tool in his breath tests.

The Translational Gastroenterology Laboratory at School of Medicine, Western Sydney University is run by Vincent Ho MBBS Bsc(Med) MMed (Clin Epi) FRACP FACP, Clinical Project Director and Dr Jerry Zhou BSc (Hons) PhD, Lecturer. We are passionate about our research program because it holds the promise of improving symptoms, improving the quality of life and returning to patients with gastrointestinal disorders the meaningful lives they deserve. Our focus is on bench-side to bed-side research using the latest innovations and technology in the scientific field.