Dr Anushi Rajapaksa

Dr. Rajapaksa's research interests are in advanced biomedical engineering and nanotechnologies for child health, particularly improving pulmonary function in sick infants.

Her vision is to improve the delivery of specific respiratory therapies directly to the target sites within the respiratory system using different novel non-invasive techniques. Through a coordinated research program at the Murdoch Childrens, and utilising her mentors and collaborations at RMIT and Monash University, she aims to provide evidence-based solutions to the key challenges facing non-invasive delivery of important respiratory therapies in infancy.

Dr. Rajapaksa believes that improving current clinical practices requires sound research questions driven by the collaboration of informed scientists, and investigated through the amalgamation of high quality basic science, translational and clinical collaborative research.

Her work addresses three critical areas in respiratory problems of early infancy needing research to improve outcomes; these being 1) delivery of surfactant non-invasively to preterm infants, 2) developing methods of delivering new stem cell therapies for debilitating neonatal conditions and 3) vaccination against influenza during the high risk period of infancy, where parental methods cannot be used. Her work has direct clinical applicability to the paediatric population in many environments, including intensive care, ED, ambulatory settings and the developing world.