Dr Silvia Luiza Saggiomo

I am an early career post-doc within the Hepatic Fibrosis Group. I completed a Bachelor of Zoology (2011) at James Cook University (JCU), and after a hiatus I completed my PhD at JCU in 2022. During my PhD I focused on venomous marine animals and worked at three different laboratories. I studied cardiac pathologies in envenomations caused by the irukandji jellyfish (Carukia barnesi) and the big box jellyfish (Chironex fleckeri, aka the sea wasp) for first-aid and medical treatment. I used the Doppler echocardiography to study real-time envenomations in a mouse model. Then, I studied the venom from two species of stonefish (Synanceia horrida and S. verrucosa) for drug discovery purposes. I used immunological and analytical tools to search for potential drug leads, including ELISA, HPLC, LC-MS and NMR.

Currently, I drive cellular- and molecular-based studies supporting research into liver fibrosis (scarring) at QIMR Berghofer under the supervision of Prof Grant Ramm.