Dr Annabel Sorby-Adams - Stroke Research
Dr Sorby-Adams is dedicating her life to discovering improved treatments for this very common medical emergency. She explains below.
"While studying for my first-year exams, I experienced a stroke. Thankfully it was minor, however, at only 19 this experience had a profound impact on me. I was compelled to understand what had happened, to learn more about the human brain and how lives can be changed so drastically when it is damaged.
"In pursuit of this knowledge my passion for neuroscience was ignited. After a full recovery, I continued my undergraduate degree in Health and Medical Sciences at the University of Adelaide, majoring in Neuroscience, Pathology, and Physiology, ultimately leading me to my Honours and PhD, with a focus on post-stroke complications and treatment development.
"Over 15 million people worldwide experience a stroke each year (one person every 2 seconds), two thirds of which will die or be left permanently disabled as a result. My PhD research was focused on investigating new therapeutic interventions to treat stroke and its complications and improve outcomes for those affected.
"Specifically, in my PhD I researched the development of brain swelling and associated rise in brain pressure, complications which can arise post stroke and how this contributes to death and disability. Unfortunately, limited treatment options for these processes currently exist. That’s where my research comes in! I am seeking to evaluate a new treatment to halt these damaging complications and improve stroke outcomes,” she said.
“I hope that my research will lead to new stroke treatments and improved stroke management practices. Unfortunately, as we have an ageing population here in Australia, the number of individuals suffering from stroke is predicted to rise in the next 30 years.
"Developing new therapies for stroke and its complications has the potential to be impactful for both current and future generations, and I hope my research will improve the lives and outcomes for those affected in years to come,” she said.
“In 2021, I was awarded $43,000 in NRF funding for my new research titled, ‘A novel therapy for ischaemia reperfusion injury post-stroke’. This project is allowing me to continue important research between the Universities of Cambridge and Adelaide. It would not have happened, however, without donations from people just like you.”
Please donate to the NeuroSurgical Research Foundation and help us further this important research. Your support means the world to researchers like me, as it is crucial funding that allows us to continue our work to reduce death and disability from stroke in Australia.
Every donation makes a difference – in fact last year, the NRF funded over $1 million of neurosurgical research across 27 projects at South Australia’s teaching hospitals, universities and research institutes. You can be sure that every cent of every dollar donated to the NRF goes directly to research and not administration, so please, donate now.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
Dr Annabel Sorby-Adams, PhD Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Cambridge and Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Adelaide.
