Disorders of the stomach, gastroparesis and other challenges

• Dr Madeleine Di Natale, Professor John Furness

  Project Leader/Supervisor

  j.furness@unimelb.edu.au
  

Project Details

Gastroparesis is a debilitating chronic condition that causes severe abdominal pain, early satiety, nausea and vomiting. Underlying these symptoms is slowed gastric emptying without a physical obstruction.

There is currently no cure and symptom management treatments are largely ineffective with low patient satisfaction. A very poor understanding of disease pathophysiology contributes to the lack of a cure and inadequate treatment of symptoms.

Consistently associated with gastroparesis is changes in pacemaker cells of the stomach, the Interstitial cells of Cajal (ICC). These cells generate and propagate rhythmic slow waves that are essential for gastric emptying. Changes in these cells have been associated with idiopathic and diabetic induced gastroparesis. Recent increased use of GLP-1 agonist to treat diabetes and obesity have revealed a new type of gastroparesis, drug-induced (iatrogenic) gastroparesis that is of great concern.

In this project, you will use novel approaches to investigate the underlying pathophysiology of gastroparesis across the different gastroparesis subtypes; idiopathic, diabetic and drug-induced.

Researchers

Dr Madeleine Di Natale, Professor John Furness, Ms Billie Hunne

Collaborators

Dr Xiaokai Wang and Professor Zhongming Liu (University of Michigan, USA)

Dr Lincon Stamp and Dr Marlene Hao, Department of Anatomy and Physiology, The University of Melbourne

Dr Vincent Ho, Western Sydney Hospital

Research Opportunities

This research project is available to PhD students, Masters by Research, Honours students, Master of Biomedical Science, Post Doctor Researchers to join as part of their thesis.
Please contact the Research Group Leader to discuss your options.

Research Publications

Di Natale, MR, Hunne, B, Stebbing, MJ, Wang, X, Liu, ZM, Furness, JB: Characterization of neuromuscular transmission and projections of muscle motor neurons in the rat stomach.  Am J Physiol – GI and Liver 326, G78-G93 (2024). doi.org/10.1152/ajpgi.00194.2023

Di Natale MR, Athavale ON, Wang X, Du P, Cheng LK, Liu Z, Furness JB: Functional and anatomical gastric regions and their relations to motility control. Neurogast Motil, e14560 (2023) doi.org/10.1111/nmo.14560

Di Natale MR, Hunne B, Liew JJM, Fothergill LJ, Stebbing MJ, Furness JB:Morphologies, dimensions and targets of gastric nitric oxide synthase neurons.  Cell and Tissue Research 388, 19-32 (2022) doi.org/10.1007/s00441-022-03594-0.

Di Natale MR, Patten L, Molero JC,Stebbing, MJ, Hunne, B, Wang, X, Liu Z, Furness, JB: Organisation of the musculature of the rat stomach.  J Anat. 240, 711-723 (2022) doi: 10.1111/joa.13587

Wang X, Cao J, Han K, Choi M, She Y, Scheven U, Avci R, Du P, Cheng LK, Di Natale MR, Furness JB. Diffeomorphic Surface Modeling for MRI-Based Characterization of Gastric Anatomy and Motility. EEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, 70, 2046-2057 (2023) doi: 10.1109/TBME.2023.3234509.