Unravelling the mechanisms driving liver fibrosis

Divya Ramnath, Postdoctoral Fellow – Institute for Molecular Bioscience, University of Queensland

Stories_insci Stories_insci on July 29, 2018

Divya Ramnath

Question
In less than 200 words, what main research questions are you working on? Please make sure to first include a brief context and background to your research, articulate your question(s) and conclude with why you think it’s important to study the them (i.e., the potential broader impacts).
Answer
Liver disease affects up to a third of the world’s population and currently has no approved treatments! Irrespective of the underlying cause for liver disease, repeated injury to this vital organ leads to excessive wound healing response and fibrosis – or scarring of the liver. Therefore, my research aims to address the question – What are the core set of genes that drive fibrosis in the liver across all types of liver disease? Answer to this important question will enable us to develop new avenues for treatment and /or management of this disease, which is rapidly increasing in incidence globally.   Follow me onTwitter.