Position
Lecturer

Qualifications
BSc (Hons) MScVetSc PhD

Teaching

Dr Diana Oakes teaches Biochemistry and Toxicology and Anatomy to Undergraduate students and Toxicology and Laboratory Safety to Post-Graduate students. 

Research Activity

My current research, in collaboration with Dr Helen Ritchie (Discipline of Biomedical Science) and Professor WS Webster (Reproductive Toxicology Laboratory in the Discipline of Anatomy and Histology) is investigating hypoxia during embryonic development as a mechanism by which some drugs and other chemicals cause birth defects. 

Research methods include:

• Applications of DNA technology to examine the relationship between drugs (eg anticonvulsant drugs) that block inward rectifying potassium currents and embryonic hypoxia and birth defects.
• Immunohistochemical analysis of key proteins involved in hypoxia and embryonic development. 
• Rat embryo culture 

A second key area of research interest is exploring the relationship of exposures to toxic chemicals and ageing on mitochondrial DNA using Drosophila as a model.

Professional affiliations

Dr Oakes is currently Secretary of the Australian Birth Defects Society (ABDS) (formerly the Australian Teratology Society).  Diana is also a member of the Australian Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) and the Australian Society for Clinical Experimental Pharmacologists and Toxicologists (ASCEPT).

Titles of some of her recent publications are available.

For more information:

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