A/Prof. Wallace is the Director of Medical Student Research for the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences and academic lead for undergraduate Biomedical Science teaching and Continuing Professional Development in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, at Monash University. Megan also leads the Lung Development research group in The Ritchie Centre, Hudson Institute of Medical Research.

Megan is interested in lung development around the time of birth because survival at the time of birth depends on the lungs being adequately developed. The lung undergoes an incredible transition at the time of birth because the placenta performs the role of gas exchange during fetal life, but the moment that the umbilical cord is cut, the lung must take on the role of gas exchange, a role that it has never performed before. If the lung does not perform this role adequately, the newborn infant may die or may suffer significant organ damage, such as brain damage, due to a lack of oxygen. If babies are born before the lungs are adequately developed, they often require respiratory support, which is necessary for their survival but it can injure the lungs and cause them to develop abnormally. This abnormal lung development is called Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia (BPD) and it is thought to be permanent.

Megan's research is aimed at identifying the mechanisms by which the lung develops normally, by which lung injury leads to BPD and trialling new therapies to accelerate normal lung development and prevent abnormal lung development. Megan collaborates widely with other researchers in the Ritchie Centre, the Dept's of Biochemistry and Physics at Monash University and with Obstetricians and Neonatologists internationally and nationally, to achieve these aims.

In her role as the Director of Medical Student Research, Megan is responsible for a new research unit in the final year of the Monash BMedSc/MD degree (~ 500 students/yr), the Honours degree for medical students (BMedSc(Hons); ~ 100 students/yr) and overseeing the intercalated MD-PhD pathway. In the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Megan runs an extremely successful undergraduate unit (BME3082; Fetal and Neonatal Development) for Biomedical Science and Science students (~120 students/year) which consistently ranks in the top 10% of units at Monash University. She also runs short courses for health professionals working in Women's Health (~ 10 short courses/year). Megan has an emerging educational research stream focussing on outcomes from the courses that she convenes and on the development of online education modules.

Megan is an author on >100 publications and has been a Chief or Principle Investigator on >60 successful grants. She has supervised 12 PhD/Masters students to completion and 22 Honours students (20 received H1 and 4 were the highest marked students in their cohort).