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Thursday Nov 28, 2024
Wednesday, 18 March 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Dr. Yugeesh Lankadeva works in Melbourne. He was born in Sri Lanka and studied at Royal Institute. He pursued his higher education at Deakin University (Burwood Campus), completing his PhD as a Research Fellow in a collaborative project between Monash University and Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health. This was in 2013. Florey is one of the world’s leading brain research centres. That’s where Dr. Lankadeva works today.
His credits are impressive. Seven articles in peer-reviewed journals probably isn’t a lot. It is for his age, however. His work has been presented in 14 conferences. Top that with presentations a
t three top-notch seminars and you tend to feel that he has gone beyond his years. Consider that he’s only 29 and you’ll realise that this is true. And there’s more. He won the British Hypertension Society Award last November. That’s one award among many. He’s young and has seen more years than those older than him have.
Dr. Lankadeva works as a systems physiologist. Systems physiology is about improving therapy while understanding how pathological conditions change. He began working as a post-doctoral Research Fellow and has been working there ever since. His research focus has shifted through the years but he hasn’t let off his scholarship. He has investigated hypertension and kidney disease in children, with six publications including a review in the American Journal of Physiology (Renal Physiology) to his name. He is currently engaged with another area in physiology. He is focusing on a disease.
Sepsis kills one in four people affected by it. It kills 15,000 people in the UK and 210,000 in the USA. It occurs whenever the immune system reacts badly to an infection. Septic shock kills more people than do prostate cancer, breast cancer, and AIDS combined. While it has readily been acknowledged as a major problem, the fight against it in terms of research and scholarship has been feeble. Therapy is essential because it provides ballast to that fight. It provides a way of combating it, always.
Dr. Lankadeva is leading that fight. He believes that this problem can be eliminated. Sepsis arises through infections like pneumonia. Patients suffering from septic shock remain in a hypotensive state. That’s low blood pressure. Vasopresser drugs are normally used to fight it, but very often hypotension doesn’t respond effectively to them. Dr. Lankadeva on the other hand has come up with a solution. He thinks it works.
Clonidine is a drug that acts on the brain and inhibits septic nerve activity. Dr. Lankadeva has demonstrated that it can also maintain blood pressure. He calls this a new approach and for good reason. The drug hasn’t been used for sepsis before. He believes it can be. While he concedes that his finding is radical, he remains convinced that clinodine can be used to get rid of sepsis.
Dr. Lankadeva currently works under Professor Clive May, who leads the only laboratory in the world with the technology needed for his research. He has also been helped by Professors Robin McAllen and Michael McKinley, both of whom he thanks for supporting his current research. He wants to establish his own laboratory some day to consolidate all what he has done. By his own admission, maintaining a strong track record at this stage is vital if he is to achieve what he wants to. In short, he has ambition and knows what it is, laudably.
