
Dr Samantha Barton is an NHMRC-ARC Dementia Research Development Fellow working in the Motor Neurone Disease Laboratory at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health.
Dr Barton completed her PhD in 2015 at Monash University studying white matter damage in a model of preterm birth. Her keen interest in neurobiology prompted her to spend the first two years of her fellowship at the University of Edinburgh with Prof Siddharthan Chandran learning cutting-edge techniques in the handling on patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells allowing her to delve more in-depth into the underlying pathomechanisms of white matter dysfunction.
Dr Barton's fellowship has focussed on the motor neurone diseases, more specifically amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemperal dementia, and her research goals are to understand the role of non-neuronal cells like oligodendrocytes (the major cell type of the white matter) in motor neurone disease. She uses human iPSC from patients with motor neuron disease and differentiates them into oligodendrocytes to allow phenotypic and functional analysis, comparing to iPSC-derived oligodendrocytes from otherwise healthy control patients. She also utilises mouse models and human post-mortem tissue to validate her findings.
Key collaborators
Prof Siddharthan Chandran, University of Edinburgh, UK
Prof Colin Smith, University of Edinburgh, UK
Dr Bhuvaneish Selvaraj, University of Edinburgh, UK
Dr Jenna Gregory, University of Edinburgh, UK
Awards and achievements
Fellowships and Grants
2017 Deanery of Clinical Sciences Funding Challenge Award
2016 NHMRC-ARC Dementia Research Development Fellowship
2016 Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Foundation Project Grant
2015 Discovery Laboratories Educational Grant
Prizes and Awards
2018 FPA Career Development Award
2014 MIGR Postgraduate Travel Grant Award
2014 Harold Mitchell Foundation Travel Fellowship
2014 Second Prize Oral Presentation at The Ritchie Centre Colloquium
2013 PSANZ Early Research Career Travel Grant
2013 Best Poster Prize at The Ritchie Centre Colloquium
2013 Cerebral Palsy Alliance highest commended abstract
2013 Conference Education Award from National Stem Cell Foundation of Australia
2013 Highly Commended Oral Presentation Award at Australian Society for Medical Research (ASMR) Student Symposium
2012 Cerebral Palsy Alliance highest commended abstract
2012 - 2015 Australian Postgraduate Award
Research Papers
Showing 10 of 23. VIEW ALL
-
Impact of delivered tidal volume on the occurrence of intraventricular haemorrhage in preterm infants during positive pressure ventilation in the delivery roomArchives of Disease in Childhood: Fetal and Neonatal Edition
-
Effects of intrauterine inflammation on cortical gray matter of near-term lambsFrontiers in Pediatrics
-
Physiologically based cord clamping stabilises cardiac output and reduces cerebrovascular injury in asphyxiated near-term lambsArchives of Disease in Childhood: Fetal and Neonatal Edition
-
Diffusion tensor imaging colour mapping threshold for identification of ventilation-induced brain injury after intrauterine inflammation in preterm lambsFrontiers in Pediatrics
-
The Effect of Antenatal Betamethasone on White Matter Inflammation and Injury in Fetal Sheep and Ventilated Preterm LambsDevelopmental Neuroscience
-
Dose-dependent exacerbation of ventilation-induced lung injury by erythropoietin in preterm newborn lambsJournal of Applied Physiology
-
Could an impairment in local translation of mRNAs in glia be contributing to pathogenesis in ALS?Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience
-
Dysregulation of AMPA receptor subunit expression in sporadic ALS post-mortem brainJournal of Pathology
-
Familial t(1;11) translocation is associated with disruption of white matter structural integrity and oligodendrocyte–myelin dysfunctionMolecular Psychiatry
-
Transplanted t(1;11) patient-derived OPCs form shorter myelin internodes in the hypomyelinated shiverer miceMolecular Psychiatry
Showing 10 of 23. VIEW ALL
Support us
Brain health affects all Australians. You can support our research by making a donation or a bequest.
- Give todayDonate now
- Pledge over timeJoin our brains trust
- Plan for the futureMake a gift in your will
Newsletter
Latest breakthroughs, news, events & more.