Rachel McQuade

I completed my PhD in 2017 investigating chemotherapy-induced enteric neuropathy and gastrointestinal dysfunction in mouse models of colorectal cancer. I undertook my first postdoctoral position at Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MIPS) where I worked as a lead investigator in an academic-industry alliance optimising the use of bile acid receptor agonists as new therapeutics for chronic constipation. I joined the University of Melbourne in February 2018 as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Digestive Physiology and Nutrition Laboratory. My current research aims to explore the relationship between gut and brain impairment in Parkinson’s disease. This work uses mouse models of Parkinson's disease to systematically investigate structural and functional deterioration throughout the nervous system and seeks to understand the temporal and causal relations between development of enteric nervous system injury, central nervous system injury, motor symptoms and gastrointestinal dysfunction.