Amy Bleakley
Research assistant / PhD student
Qualifications:
Bachelor of Science (Honours), University of Plymouth, UK, 2015
Location:
Darwin - Royal Darwin Hospital
Biography:
Amy is a biomedical scientist in the Child Health Division. Her research involves investigation of the microbiological and immunological processes underlying the development of ear and lung infections in children and aims to understand how early-life immune development contributes to an increased risk of respiratory infection. She is currently leading the laboratory component of a randomised control trial evaluating the use of perinatal vitamin D supplementation (D-Kids) as a preventative strategy against early childhood respiratory infections.
She is also undertaking a PhD nested within the D-Kids trial. Her PhD will characterise neonatal immune responses to common paediatric respiratory pathogens with a focus on the immunomodulatory role of vitamin D supplementation.
In addition to her PhD research, she continues part-time employment within the Child Health Division Laboratory team.
Research Themes
- PneuMatters Study: Preventing early-onset pneumonia in children through maternal immunisation: a multi-centre randomised control trial (RCT)
- Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) schedules for the Northern Territory (NT): randomised controlled trial of booster vaccines to broaden and strengthen protection from invasive and mucosal infections (Study name: PREV-IX_BOOST)
- IHEARBETA - Indigenous Healthy EARs- BEtadine, Tissues and Antibiotics study: a 2x2 factorial randomised controlled trial
- Vitamin D insufficiency in Indigenous infants and the risk of hospitalisation for acute lower respiratory infection (ALRI)
- Bleakley AS, Licciardi PV, Binks MJ. Vitamin D Modulation of the Innate Immune Response to Paediatric Respiratory Pathogens Associated with Acute Lower Respiratory Infections. Nutrients. 2021 Jan 19;13(1):276. doi: 10.3390/nu13010276. PMID: 33478006; PMCID: PMC7835957.
- Binks MJ, Bleakley AS, Rathnayake G, Pizzutto S, Chang AB, McWhinney B, Ungerer J. Can dried blood spots be used to accurately measure vitamin D metabolites? Clin Chim Acta. 2021 Jul;518:70-77. doi: 10.1016/j.cca.2021.03.003. Epub 2021 Mar 10. PMID: 33713691.
- Beissbarth J, Wilson N, Arrowsmith B, Binks MJ, Oguoma VM, Lawrence K, Llewellyn A, Mulholland EK, Santosham M, Morris PS, Smith-Vaughan HC, Cheng AC, Leach AJ. Nasopharyngeal carriage of otitis media pathogens in infants receiving 10-valent non-typeable Haemophilus influenzae protein D conjugate vaccine (PHiD-CV10), 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) or a mixed primary schedule of both vaccines: A randomised controlled trial. Vaccine. 2021 Apr 15;39(16):2264-2273. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2021.03.032. Epub 2021 Mar 23. PMID: 33766422. Note: Maiden name used in this publication.
- Llewellyn A, Foey A. Probiotic Modulation of Innate Cell Pathogen Sensing and Signaling Events. Nutrients. 2017 Oct 23;9(10):1156. doi: 10.3390/nu9101156. PMID: 29065562; PMCID: PMC5691772. Note: Maiden name used in this publication.