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[Music]
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from the Faculty of Medicine Nursing and
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Health Sciences is lecture Niecy
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Wickramasinghe who is looking at eyes
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lungs and wonder baby Stevie Wonder is a
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legend not only can he sing but he is
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also an inspiration achieving everything
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that he has despite losing his vision as
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a baby but exactly how did he become
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blind
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well when Stevie was born he didn't come
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out kicking and screaming like any other
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healthy baby
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oh no instead he came out silent blue in
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the face
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struggling to breathe he needed oxygen
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immediately so the doctors quickly put
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Stevie into a glass chamber and exposed
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him to high oxygen and within seconds
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life was returning back to his body this
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life and death scenario is one faced by
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15 million babies born premature or
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preterm each year around the world as
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the earlier a baby is born during
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pregnancy the less likely their bodies
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will be ready for life outside of the
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womb just like Stevie who was born six
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weeks too early as a consequence these
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babies have a greater dependency on high
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This study source was downloaded by 100000806294841 from CourseHero.com on 04-26-2022 08:19:04 GMT -05:00

https://www.coursehero.com/file/144047452/2019-Monash-3MT-Finalist-Lakshanie-Wickramasinghe-Medicine-Nursing-and-Health-Sciencestxt/
 oxygen for survival but this life-saving
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oxygen can lead to two severe diseases
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the first is an eye disease called
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retinopathy of prematurity ROP which
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causes damage to the retina leading to
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blindness this is how stevie lost his
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vision the second is a lung disease
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called bronchopulmonary dysplasia BPD
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which can lead to breathing difficulties
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even as an adult so consider this Steve
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he lost his vision but imagine if he
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also lost his ability to breathe
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properly this is the reality for 72% of
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preterm babies and no cure exists for
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either disease despite such a high
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incidence the relationship between the
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eyes and the lungs has not been well
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researched and one of the major reasons
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for this is that there isn't a no
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suitable animal model available that
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looks at the eyes and the lungs
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concurrently but for my PhD
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I aim to address this gap in research by
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establishing a new model that developed
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the eye disease ROP and the lung disease
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BPD simultaneously in one animal to do
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this I will take newborn mice and put
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them into a high oxygen chamber to mimic
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a preterm baby in the hospital
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afterwards I will look at their eyes and

This study source was downloaded by 100000806294841 from CourseHero.com on 04-26-2022 08:19:04 GMT -05:00

https://www.coursehero.com/file/144047452/2019-Monash-3MT-Finalist-Lakshanie-Wickramasinghe-Medicine-Nursing-and-Health-Sciencestxt/
 2:44
their lungs to see if the damage
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accurately reflects disease in a human
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baby
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if successfully developed this unique
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animal model will allow us to further
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research the relationship between the
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eyes and the lungs bringing us closer to
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the ultimate goal which is to develop a
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single treatment that can prevent two
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devastating diseases that affect preterm
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babies I think even good ol Stevie would
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be singing along to this team wouldn't
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you
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[Music]

This study source was downloaded by 100000806294841 from CourseHero.com on 04-26-2022 08:19:04 GMT -05:00

https://www.coursehero.com/file/144047452/2019-Monash-3MT-Finalist-Lakshanie-Wickramasinghe-Medicine-Nursing-and-Health-Sciencestxt/
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