Rate My Professor Audra Shadforth

Dr. Audra Shadforth serves as a Lecturer in Biosciences in the School of Environment and Science at Griffith University, leading the Macular Regeneration Laboratory. Her expertise centers on tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, particularly developing biomaterials and cell therapies to address age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and reduce macular scarring to prevent vision loss. She earned her PhD from the School of Biomedical Sciences at Queensland University of Technology from April 2012 to December 2015, and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Queensland. Earlier in her career, Shadforth worked as a research associate at the Queensland Eye Institute, where she received the Bette Forgan-Smith Postdoctoral Fellowship, a three-year award supporting her postdoctoral research.

Shadforth plays a key role in undergraduate education at Griffith University, convening the course Human Anatomy and Physiology 1 (2007NSC) and contributing to teaching in the Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Biomedical Science, and Bachelor of Forensic Science programs. She is appointed to the University Biosafety Committee for the Sciences Group, with her term extending until December 31, 2026. Her research outputs include significant publications such as 'Treatment of Silk Fibroin with Poly(ethylene glycol) for Surface Modification' (2015), 'Incorporation of Human Recombinant Tropoelastin into Silk Fibroin Films' (2015), 'Mounting of Biomaterials for Use in Ophthalmic Cell Therapies' (2017), 'Immunological Molecular Responses of Human Retinal Pigment Epithelium to Interleukin-17A' (2019), and 'Stromal cells cultivated from the choroid of human eyes display mesenchymal stromal cell characteristics in vitro' (2020). She has obtained funding including a $126,000 grant from the Macular Disease Foundation Australia in 2019 for her project investigating scar-less wound healing in AMD. Additionally, she was awarded a Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning. Shadforth's contributions extend to professional activities, including participation in the Flying Scientist program, advancing knowledge in ocular regenerative therapies and bioscience education.