CCRG researchers named recipients of Metro North Health Scholarship and Fellowship
CCRG’s Clinical Nurse Researcher Claire Wilson and Preclinical Research Lead A/Prof Gianluigi Li Bassi (pictured) have been announced as recipients of a Scholarship and a Fellowship from Metro North Health Services, the largest hospital and health service in Queensland.
Above: CCRG Nurse Researcher Claire Wilson, and A/Prof Gianluigi Li Bassi, Lead, CCRG PRIMELab
One of Metro North’s initiatives to create integrated research career pathways is through their Pre-Research Higher Degree (RHD) Scholarships. The RHD Scholarships are designed to enable clinicians to further develop their research plan, methodology and supervision plans, with the goal of achieving enrolment in a Research Higher Degree (Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) or Masters of Philosophy (MPhil)).
Congratulations to Claire Wilson who has been named as a recipient for a 2025 Metro North RHD Scholarships.
Claire, who is part of the CCRG Clinical Research team, will look further into alcohol use disorders and alcohol withdrawal syndrome. Her PhD project will focus on how accurate screening, assessment, and treatment of alcohol withdrawal can impact patient length of stay in ICU and hospital, invasive ventilation hours, sedation and analgesia levels, morbidity, and mortality.
“Our aim is to create an alcohol withdrawal assessment tool sensitive to the critical care environment that reflects care priorities identified by consumers,” explains Claire.
Similarly, the Metro North Fellowship program is designed to allow clinicians to develop and advance a body of work aimed at creating a strong foundation of evidence-based healthcare.
A/Prof Gianluigi Li Bassi, who lead's CCRG’s PRIMELab has been announced as a recipient of the Fellowship for 2025 for his study A Breath of Fresh Air in ARDS: From the Sunshine State to the World - New Pathophysiology Discoveries, Treatments and Reducing Harm/Costs.
This program of research will seek to advance the understanding of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) pathophysiology, enhance treatment and reduce iatrogenic harm/costs. He will lead a program to characterise dissemination of infection/inflammation through the airways, during the early-stage of ARDS, distinguishing the process from dissemination via the bloodstream.
“We will achieve this by using an innovative model of P. aeruginosa ARDS that we have recently developed, in which single-lung ventilation/perfusion is fully isolated,’ explains A/Prof Li Bassi.
“Furthermore, we’ll investigate the use of adjunctive nebulized-amikacin alongside intravenous-antibiotics in preclinical studies to provide insight for the design of future clinical trials.”
Metro North Health (MNH) is the largest hospital and health service in Queensland. MNH operates several hospitals, dental facilities, and community health services to a population of over 1,000,000 in Brisbane and the surrounds, including the covering the area north of the Brisbane River through to Kilcoy. One of MNH’s hospitals is The Prince Charles Hospital, Chermside, Queensland, where CCRG is headquartered.