Career Opportunities
The Baird Institute is expanding to take on two further PhD students and an annual Masters student. These three positions will be fully funded by the Institute itself and medical technology companies and will have direct clinical applications in line with The Baird Institute?s Mission.
The Baird Institute and St. Jude Medical recently announced two inaugural scholarships of $50000 per annum for the next three years. The first of these will be a tissue engineering project to develop new biocompatible vascular conduits. This is collaboration with the Heart Research Institute, the Department of Biochemistry University of Sydney and The Baird Institute. It will commence in January 2007 although preparatory work is already being done by Dr Steve Wise of the HRI.
The second project is a collaboration with the George Institute to optimise delivery of care to the indigenous population. It is a multicentre epidemiological study investigating the reasons for the high level of heart and vascular disease in the indigenous population and is geared for future improvement in care. It is now funded and senior researchers are now being interviewed for the position.
Finally an annual Masters/Clinical position has been created for potential trainee as surgeons funded by the Baird Institute where the successful applicant completes a closely supervised research/epidemiology degree followed by an operative year with the surgeons of RPAH.
A further two externally funded positions are proposed for South-East Asian Surgical Trainees commencing in 2007. Discussions are currently being held with the Hong Kong and Singapore Colleges of Surgeons. One of these positions will be an aortic pathology fellowship in conjunction with the Vascular Surgical team and the department of Cardiology.
The heart-lung machine, although necessary in so many cardiac procedures has been shown to affect the body in many ways producing organ damage and even cardiac dysfunction. Recent collaborative work with Prof. Mike Davies and Prof David Celermajer of the Heart Research Institute has shown that certain oxidized proteins in the bloodstream may play a role in this process. This work is to be extended in 2006 to modulating this response in an attempt to make longer, more complicated surgery safer for the patient.
Finally the Baird Institute in 2006 will play a major role in the formation of a new working party with representation from the various cardiac researchers within the University of Sydney campus and Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. This group will facilitate communication, collaboration and direction of research. Its proposed title is Health, Education And Research Team