Professor Sarah Spencer
Professor
Details
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College: School of Health and Biomedical Sciences
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Department: Health and Biomedical Sciences
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Campus: Bundoora West Australia
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sarah.spencer@rmit.edu.au
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ORCID: 0000-0001-8832-4824
Open to
- Masters Research or PhD student supervision
About
My research focusses on understanding the how lifestyle factors contribute to brain inflammation and how brain inflammation causes disease. I am in the top 1% of the world’s most cited scientists for any field (Scopus) with a body of work showing how early life challenges, like poor diet, disrupt neuroimmune function, stress and anxiety.
Supervisor projects
- Unravelling the potential for mammalian brain regeneration
- 3 Jul 2024
- Lifetime imaging for non-invasively tracking brain inflammation and injury
- 12 Mar 2024
- Unravelling the Potential for Mammalian Brain Regeneration
- 6 Mar 2024
- The role of microglia in synaptic remodeling in females
- 12 Oct 2023
- Visualising gut immune cells as a window into gut health
- 12 Jul 2023
- The Mental Health Impact of Childhood SARS-CoV-2
- 14 Apr 2023
- Specialised pro-resolving mediators as a target to prevent cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s Disease
- 23 Feb 2023
- Visualising retinal microglia to understand brain health
- 19 Sep 2022
- Studying changes in glial glucocorticoid and C/EBPB signalling caused by inflammatory brain injury as candidate therapeutic targets
- 11 May 2022
- What shapes our brain? Mechanisms that drive cortical folding
- 6 Jun 2019
- The Role of Intestinal Macrophages in Gastrointestinal Homeostasis
- 12 Mar 2019
- The Role of Microglia in the Initiation and Resolution of Central Inflammation; Implications for Obesity
- 8 Jun 2018
- Novel Pharmacological Strategies to Treat Cognitive Dysfunction in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
- 1 Mar 2018
- Therapeutic, Genetic, and Dietary Manipulation of Microglia to Understand the Pathogenesis of Female Neurological Disorders
- 1 Feb 2018
- The Role of Monocytes in the Maintenance Of Ovarian Follicle Health
- 3 Jul 2017
- The Early Life Programming of Neuroimmune Function
- 11 Jul 2016
- Role of c-Cbl in skeletal muscle energy metabolism in relation to obesity
- 9 Jul 2015
- The role of satiety hormones in developmental programming of obesity, stress, and neuroimmune function
- 2 Mar 2015
- Western diet and its effect on motivation, learning and memory
- 1 Aug 2014
- Targeting central inflammation to treat obesity and obesity related disorders
- 3 Mar 2014
Teaching interests
Supervisor interests
1) Risk factors and markers for early detection of Alzheimer’s Disease.
2) Visualising retinal microglia as a window into brain inflammation.
3) Understanding glial scarring in brain repair.
4) The mental health Impact of juvenile SARS-CoV-2.
1) Risk factors and markers for early detection of Alzheimer’s Disease.
2) Visualising retinal microglia as a window into brain inflammation.
3) Understanding glial scarring in brain repair.
4) The mental health Impact of juvenile SARS-CoV-2.
Research interests
Prof. Sarah Spencer is a neuroendocrinology researcher with approximately 18 years’ research experience. Her core research focus is on understanding the how lifestyle factors contribute to brain inflammation and how brain inflammation causes disease. She has expertise in the fields of developmental, stress, and neuroimmune physiology, including a body of work showing how early life challenges, like poor diet, disrupt neuroimmune function and revealing how metabolic hormones control stress and anxiety. Current projects in the lab investigate
1) Risk factors and markers for early detection of Alzheimer’s Disease.
2) Visualising retinal microglia as a window into brain inflammation.
3) Understanding glial scarring in brain repair.
4) The mental health Impact of juvenile SARS-CoV-2.
She earned her BSc (Hons), at Otago University in New Zealand and her Ph.D at the University of Queensland in Australia. She has worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Calgary University in Canada and as a research academic at Monash University, Australia. She is currently a Professor in the School of Health and Biomedical Sciences at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.
1) Risk factors and markers for early detection of Alzheimer’s Disease.
2) Visualising retinal microglia as a window into brain inflammation.
3) Understanding glial scarring in brain repair.
4) The mental health Impact of juvenile SARS-CoV-2.
She earned her BSc (Hons), at Otago University in New Zealand and her Ph.D at the University of Queensland in Australia. She has worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Calgary University in Canada and as a research academic at Monash University, Australia. She is currently a Professor in the School of Health and Biomedical Sciences at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.
