Dr Erin McGillick is a NHMRC Peter Doherty Early Career Research Fellow in the Fetal and Neonatal Health research group at The Ritchie Centre, Hudson Institute of Medical Research and Adjunct Research Fellow in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Monash University.

Dr McGillick’s research uses an integrative approach at the molecular and functional physiology level to understand how a compromised intrauterine environment affects lung growth and the transition from fetal to newborn life. Her research has discovered previously unrealised molecular mechanisms causing delayed lung development and subsequent predisposition to respiratory complications at birth in complicated pregnancies (gestational diabetes, maternal overnutrition, intrauterine growth restriction). 

Dr McGillick’s current work using cutting edge pre-clinical models and state-of-the-art synchrotron X-ray imaging techniques is aimed at understanding mechanisms causing newborn cardiorespiratory dysfunction and identifying new/improved strategies to assist compromised babies successfully make the transition from fetal to newborn life. Dr McGillick’s research involves collaborations with physiologists, physicists and clinicians towards generating the necessary pre-clinical evidence that can be translated into future clinical trials to improve newborn cardiorespiratory outcomes.