Roxanne Hastie
‘Ectopic pregnancies - wrong place, wrong time’
Research summary:
Roxanne's research looks at the ways ectopic pregnancies (the number one cause of death in early pregnancy) are currently treated across the world. If successful, Roxanne's research outcomes would mean that an ectopic pregnancy (life threatening to a female) could be resolved by tablet medication, negating the need for hospital stay/risky operations. This tablet has already proved successful in the lab, and Roxanne has already secured funding for a clinical trial.
Bio:
Roxanne is a PhD student at the University of Melbourne, working within the Translational Obstetrics Group at the Mercy Hospital for Women. She is strongly focused on improving maternal and foetal outcomes globally, through medical research. As part of her PhD she is working on uncovering new medical treatments for ectopic pregnancy, a potentially life threating pregnancy complication, occurring when a pregnancy implants outside of the womb. They effect 1-2% of all pregnancies and currently, the majority are removed surgically. Finding a new medical treatment would have a great impact on women suffering from this complication, reducing the need for surgery and therefore the cost and risks associated too. Roxanne’s work has already uncovered one potential tablet/medical treatment for ectopic pregnancies that has proved very successful in the laboratory, with funding for a clinical trial now secured.