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Dr Megan Wallace

BSc (Hons) (Monash), PhD (Monash)

Senior Research Officer - Department of Physiology

Staff photo for Dr Megan Wallace, Department of Physiology

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 Address:  Department of Physiology
   Monash University  VIC 3800  Australia
   
 Located:  Room F221, Building 13F (Physiology)
 at:  Clayton Campus
 Tel:  +61 3 990 52643
 Fax:  +61 3 990 52547
 Email:  Megan.Wallace@med.monash.edu.au

Megan Wallace completed her BSc (Hons) at Monash University in 1988, spending her Honours year in the Department of Physiology. In 2000, Megan returned to the Department of Physiology at Monash to undertake her PhD, examining the factors that regulate the secretion and reabsorption of lung liquid in the fetus. Following the completion of her PhD in 1994, she accepted a postdoctoral fellowship at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada where she investigated the role of the protein tyrosine phosphatase sigma (PTP) in the regulation of embryonic and postnatal development. Since her return to Monash, Megan has incorporated her knowledge of signal transduction pathways and molecular biology skills from Toronto, with her physiological background in fetal and neonatal lung development.

Current Research Interests

Dr Wallace's primary area of interest is identifying the factors that regulate normal and abnormal development of the lung before and after birth. Her work is performed in collaboration with the members of the Fetal and Neonatal Lung Development Laboratory. This research group is interested in lung development because having adequately developed lungs by the time of birth is critical for the survival of the newborn. Inadequate lung development at the time of birth can be due to either to premature birth, or to specific defects in lung development during fetal life. 

Specifically, Megan is currently involved in the following research projects: 

  1. identifying factors that are produced in response to stretch of the fetal lung and which are involved in stretch-induced acceleration of fetal lung growth,
  2. identifying factors that are produced following injury of the premature lung and that lead to chronic lung disease of the newborn,
  3. identifying the factors that regulate the phenotype of the type-I and type-II alveolar epithelial cells,
  4. using synchrotron phase contrast x-ray imaging to visualise and measure the clearance of lung liquid and the aeration of the lung at the time of birth,
  5. the role of, and mechanisms underlying, remodelling of the lung extracellular matrix during accelerated fetal lung growth and ventilator-induced lung injury,
  6. the development of the pulmonary vasculature prior to birth and its role in lung dysplasia following ventilator-induced lung injury,
  7. determining which forms of resuscitation and ventilation cause the least damage to the immature lung.

Teaching Interests

Dr Wallace currently supervises three PhD students and presents lectures on Physiology of the Respiratory System to 1st year Radiography and Medical Imaging students and on Development of the Gastrointestinal System to 3rd year BSc and BMS students.  Megan also gives guest lectures to 1st and 2nd year Medical (MBBS) students on Fetal and Neonatal Lung development and on How medical research will transform medical practice this century.  

Publication Highlights: Top 10

  1. Wallace M.J., Lines A.M., Thiel A.M., Polglase G.R. and Hooper S.B.  Role of PDGF-B, VEGF, IGF-II, MAPK and TGF-b1 in expansion-induced lung growth in fetal sheep.  (Under review; 2005)
  2. Filby C.E., Hooper S.B., Sozo F, Zahra V.A. and Wallace M.J.   VDUP1, a potential regulator of lung growth and maturation in the ovine fetus.  (Under review; 2005)
  3. Wallace M.J., Sozo F., Filby C.E., Zahra V.A. and Hooper S.B.   Identification of genes regulating lung growth and development in the ovine fetus.  (under review; 2005)
  4. Hooper S.B. and Wallace M.J.  Chapter 9: Role of physical, endocrine and growth factors in lung development.  In: The Lung: Development, Aging and the Environment.  (2004) Ed. R. Harding, K.E. Pinkerton & C.G. Plopper.  Elsevier Academic Press, London UK.  p131-148
  5. Flecknoe S.J., Wallace M.J., Harding R. and Hooper S.B. (2002) Determination of alveolar epithelial cell phenotype in fetal sheep: evidence for the involvement of basal lung expansion. Journal of Physiology.  542 (1): 245-253
  6. Gillett A.M., Wallace M.J., Gillespie M.T. and Hooper S.B. (2002) Increased expansion of the lung stimulates calmodulin 2 expression in fetal sheep.  American Journal of Physiology.  282: L440-L447
  7. Wallace M. J., Henderson J. T., Fladd C. F., Batt J., Skarnes W. C. and Rotin D. (1999) Neuronal defects and posterior pituitary hypoplasia in mice lacking the receptor tyrosine phosphatase PTPs.  Nature Genetics 21: 334-338
  8. Wallace M. J., Fladd C., Batt J. and Rotin D.  (1998) The second catalytic domain of protein tyrosine phosphatase d (PTPd) binds to and inhibits the first catalytic domain of PTPs.  Molecular and Cellular Biology 18: 2608-2616
  9. Wallace M.J., Hooper S.B. and Harding R.  (1996) Role of the adrenal glands in the maturation of lung liquid secretory mechanisms in fetal sheep.   American Journal of Physiology 270: R33-R40
  10. Wallace M.J., Hooper S.B. and Harding R.  (1995) Effects of elevated fetal cortisol concentrations on the volume, secretion and reabsorption of lung liquid.   American Journal of Physiology 269: R881-R887

Successful Grant Applications

2005-2008
S.B. Hooper, T.J. Cole & M.J. Wallace. National Health and Medical Research Council Project Grant “Alveolar epithelial cell differentiation and apoptosis: effects of preterm birth, corticosteroids and stretch”. $159,000 per year

2003-2005
S.B. Hooper and M.J. Wallace. National Health and Medical Research Council Project Grant “Physical determinants of lung development before and after birth”. $140,000 per year

2002-2004
S.B. Hooper, M.J. Wallace and R. Harding. National Health and Medical Research Council Project Grant “Control of alveolar epithelial cell differentiation before and after birth”. $125,000 per year

2002
S.B Hooper and M.J. Wallace. Monash University, Faculty Research Grant “Control of lung growth before and after birth”. $25,000 (1 year)

1999
S.B. Hooper and M.J. Wallace. Rebecca L. Cooper Research Foundation Equipment Grant. “Identification of genes responsible for lung growth in the fetus”. $15,000 (1 year).

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