Melinda Coughlan

Coughlan research group: www.med.monash.edu/cecs/diabetes/research/coughlan-group.html

Associate Professor Melinda Coughlan has a BSc (Biology) with Honours in Human Nutrition from Deakin University, and a PhD in Obstetrics & Gynaecology from the University of Melbourne. Her PhD focused on mediators of inflammation and oxidative stress in the development of gestational diabetes (Mercy Hospital for Women). After completing her PhD, Melinda joined the Baker Heart Research Institute as a postdoctoral researcher in Prof Mark Cooper’s Diabetes Complications Division. In 2012, she became the Head of the Glycation, Nutrition and Metabolism Laboratory at the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute. In 2016, she was recruited to Monash University’s Central Clinical School to establish the Department of Diabetes. Associate Professor Coughlan holds a Career Development Fellowship from the JDRF and has research grants from the NHMRC.

Achievements and Awards

• JDRF Career Development Award
• Roche-Australian and New Zealand Society of Nephrology Senior Scientist Career Development Award
• Australian Diabetes Society Skip Martin Early Career Fellowship
• National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC) New Investigator Project Grant
• Registered Nutritionist (Nutrition Society of Australia)

Dietary factors in the initiation of diabetes and its complications:

• Maillard reaction products/advanced glycation end-products (AGEs).
• Dietary constituents and incretins (GLP-1).
• Dietary AGEs and gut microbial ecology.

Mitochondrial health in diabetes:

• Mapping the mitochondrial bioenergetic signature of individuals with diabetic kidney disease.
• Investigating pathways of mitochondrial quality control.
• Validation of mitochondria-targeted therapies in pre-clinical models.