CCRG researchers named recipients of Metro North Health scholarship and fellowship
CCRG Clinical Nurse Researcher Claire Wilson and Preclinical Research Lead Assoc /Prof Gianluigi Li Bassi
In 2025, Clinical Nurse Researcher Claire Wilson and Preclinical Research Lead Associate Professor Gianluigi Li Bassi from the Critical Care Research Group are recipients of a Scholarship and a Fellowship from Metro North Health.
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 Master of Philosophy (MPhil)).
Claire Wilson was named as a recipient for a 2025 Metro North RHD Scholarship.
Ms Wilson, who is part of CCRG’s Clinical Research team, will look further into alcohol use disorders and alcohol withdrawal syndrome. Her PhD project focuses on how accurate screening, assessment and treatment of alcohol withdrawal can impact patient length of stay in ICU and hospital, including 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,” Ms Wilson said.
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.
Assoc Prof Gianluigi Li Bassi, who lead’s CCRG’s Preclinical Innovative Medical and Engineering Laboratory (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 body of research seeks 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 ARDS that we have recently developed, in which single-lung ventilation/perfusion is fully isolated,” Assoc Prof Li Bassi said.
“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.”