Projects per year
Personal profile
Biography
Position
Head of Lymphatic Medicine Laboratory, Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Associate Professor, Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Research interests
Dr Trevaskis’ research group is focussed on the role of lymphatics in immune-metabolic disease and drug delivery to the lymphatics to treat these diseases.
The lymphatic system has physiological functions in dietary fat absorption, immune response and fluid balance. Importantly, the lymphatic system has recently been found to play important roles in a range of diseases including immune and inflammatory diseases, cancers and metabolic disease. Dr Trevaskis’ research group is particularly focussed on understanding the mechanisms by which lymphatic dysfunction contributes to diseases such as arthritis, pancreatitis, neuroinflammation, atherosclerosis, obesity and type 2 diabetes. Her group is also advancing the design of drug delivery systems to target the lymphatics and treat these diseases including orally administered lipid prodrugs and parenterally administered nano-systems such as liposomes, lipoprotein mimetics and polymer systems.
Research publications
Dr Trevaskis has published >65 research papers (>5000 cites, H index 27, FWCI 3.2 in 2021) including in top journals Nature Metabolism (2021), Nature (2020), Nature Nano (2020), Angewandte Chemie (2016) and Journal of Controlled Release (x4 front covers).
She has contributed to highly cited invited reviews on lipid based and lymphatic drug delivery including in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery x2, Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews x3 and Pharmacological Reviews.
Patents
Dr Trevaskis is an inventor on over 12 PCT for oral lipid prodrugs to target lymphatics granted in 2015-2019. The patents were licensed to Puretech Health in 2017 and further sub-licensed to Boehringer Ingelheim.
Prizes
Dr Trevaskis received the MIPS Future Research Leader Award (2018), AK McIntyre prize from the Australian Physiological Society (2015), Mollie Holman Doctoral Medal for thesis excellence (2006) and Gold Medal for top BPharm student (2001) at Monash University.
Research team supervision
Dr Trevaskis’ research group currently includes 2 post-doctoral fellows, 7 PhD and 2 honours students. She has supervised 13 student completions (8 PhD, 5 Honours). Her PhD students have received major international awards including two Lipid-Based Drug Delivery student awards from the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists and an Oral Drug Delivery award from the Controlled Release Society. All have secured employment in industry or academia.
Professional involvement
Dr Trevaskis has been a member of Australian Physiological Society (AuPS) council and led the local organizing committee for their annual meeting in 2017. She co-led the organizing committee for the Australasian Pharmaceutical Science Association (APSA) annual meeting in 2019. Dr Trevaskis has organized annual Melbourne Lymphatic Symposiums since 2016.
She is an editor for Pharmaceutical Research and the Journal of Pharmaceutical Science.
Within Monash, Dr Trevaskis currently serves as a category B member on the MIPS animal ethics committee. She is Secretary of Her Research Matters Ewhich aims to foster the development of women in science at Monash. She also sits on Faculty Education Committees and is the alternate Associate Dean Research.
Invited presentations
Dr Trevaskis presented invited symposiums at the International Lymphatic Forum (2021), Gordon Research Conference on Lymphatics (2020), Australasian Vascular Biology Meeting (2019), Australian Neuro-Gastrointestinal Motility Association (2017), FIP world congress (2015) and Australian Physiological Society meeting (2013).
Monash teaching commitment
Unit coordinator of PHR1022 How Medicines Work 2, Master of Pharmacy
Lecturer in Pharmacokinetics and Drug Delivery in PHR1022 How Medicines Work 2, Master of Pharmacy
Lecturer in Drug Delivery and Formulation in PHR2021 How Medicines Work 3, Master of Pharmacy
Lecturer in Pharmacokinetics adn Drug Delivery in PHR1011 Bridge to Practice 1, Master of Pharmacy
Lecturer in Drug Delivery and Formulation in PHR1101 Bridge to Practice 2, Master of Pharmacy
Supervisor for Bachelor of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Science student lab placements
Supervisor for Honours Degree in Pharmaceutical Science
Supervisor for Enhanced Doctoral Training Program in Pharmaceutical Sciences
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Research area keywords
- Lymphatic Biology
- lymphatics
- Drug delivery
- Pharmacokinetics
- Obesity
- Metabolic disease
- Diabetes
- Acute illness
- organ failure
- Formulation
- Lipid Metabolism
- lipid
- lipid based self-assembled matrices, as novel drug delivery
- Pharmacy
- Pharmaceutical Science
Network
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Translating treatments for lymphatic dysfunction associated with organ failure
Phillips, A. R. J., Windsor, J. A., Tawhai, M., Trevaskis, N., Huang, W., Astle, F., Hickey, A., Campbell, D., Jiang, Y., Green, C. R., Burrowes, K., Clarke, R. B., Ali Mirjalili, S., Boyd, B., Paton, J. F. R., Clark, A., Pendharkar, S., Hong, J. & Porter, C.
Health Research Council of New Zealand
1/09/21 → 31/08/26
Project: Research
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Impact of Biological Coatings on Nanoparticle – Immune Cell Interactions
Caruso, F., Kent, S., Trevaskis, N., Ju, Y., Davenport, M. P. & Webb, A. I.
3/05/21 → 2/05/24
Project: Research
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Evaluating sites of absorption and biodistribution of peptide therapeutics
17/12/21 → 17/06/22
Project: Research
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Systems biology-augmented, stem cell-derived, multi-tissue panel for rapid screening of approved drugs as potential COVID-19 treatments
Vasan, S., Godde, N., O'Brien, C., Balasubramanian, N. S., Beale, D., Athan, E., Blasdell, K., Chandra, R., Wilson, L., Kumar, A., Creek, D., Trevaskis, N. & Kirkpatrick, C.
8/01/21 → 8/01/22
Project: Research
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Association of a vaccine adjuvant with endogenous HDL increases lymph uptake and dendritic cell activation
Gracia, G., Cao, E., Kochappan, R., Porter, C. J. H., Johnston, A. P. R. & Trevaskis, N. L., Mar 2022, In: European Journal of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics. 172, p. 240-252 13 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
Open Access1 Citation (Scopus) -
Smart design approaches for orally administered lipophilic prodrugs to promote lymphatic transport
Elz, A. S., Trevaskis, N. L., Porter, C. J. H., Bowen, J. M. & Prestidge, C. A., Jan 2022, In: Journal of Controlled Release. 341, p. 676-701 26 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Review Article › Research › peer-review
Open Access2 Citations (Scopus) -
Vmeasur: A software package for experimental and clinical measurement of mesenteric lymphatic contractile function over an extended vessel length
Russell, P. S., Hucklesby, J. J. W., Hong, J., Cao, E., Trevaskis, N. L., Angel, C. E., Windsor, J. A. & Phillips, A. R. J., 2022, (Accepted/In press) In: Microcirculation. 14 p., e12748.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
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From influenza to COVID-19: Lipid nanoparticle mRNA vaccines at the frontiers of infectious diseases
Pilkington, E. H., Suys, E. J. A., Trevaskis, N. L., Wheatley, A. K., Zukancic, D., Algarni, A., Al-Wassiti, H., Davis, T. P., Pouton, C. W., Kent, S. J. & Truong, N. P., 1 Sep 2021, In: Acta Biomaterialia. 131, p. 16-40 25 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Review Article › Research › peer-review
Open Access34 Citations (Scopus) -
Impact of gastrointestinal tract variability on oral drug absorption and pharmacokinetics: An UNGAP review
Vinarov, Z., Abdallah, M., Agundez, J. A. G., Allegaert, K., Basit, A. W., Braeckmans, M., Ceulemans, J., Corsetti, M., Griffin, B. T., Grimm, M., Keszthelyi, D., Koziolek, M., Madla, C. M., Matthys, C., McCoubrey, L. E., Mitra, A., Reppas, C., Stappaerts, J., Steenackers, N., Trevaskis, N. L. & 5 others, , 1 Jul 2021, In: European Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences. 162, 33 p., 105812.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
Open Access50 Citations (Scopus)
Activities
- 1 Submissions to industry or govt committees, commissions and inquiries
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Drug Delivery, Disposition and Dynamics
Natalie Trevaskis (Member)
30 Nov 2011Activity: External Academic Engagement › Submissions to industry or govt committees, commissions and inquiries