At home in the Sunshine State

Dr Linda Gallo

By Medicine Faculty

A fascination with how the kidneys work saw Dr Linda Gallo move from Melbourne to Brisbane to pursue her research at the interface of basic and translational research.

An NHMRC and Heart Foundation Early Career Fellow, Dr Gallo initially came to Queensland to work with Professor Jo Forbes - an international leader in the field of kidney disease in diabetes.

Three years later, she is now part of Professor Karen Moritz's lab and is working towards understanding why the heart and kidneys are affected in diabetes and how novel treatments may help to protect them.

"I am fascinated by how the body works and, also, what we are yet to find out about it.

"This motivated me to enter a career where I could learn and be challenged each day. And help contribute to our understanding of the human body."

A big believer in the benefits of healthy eating and living an active lifestyle, Linda enjoys making the most of Queensland's weather and fresh produce.

"I enjoy being outside to reconnect with nature, especially after a long week inside the lab.

“I enjoy doing yoga and Pilates. I like cooking as well, using fresh fruit and vegetables, because I think that's also very important in terms of our health. I also ride my bike to work.

“The work that I'm doing at the moment is focusing on type 2 diabetes and the complications that are associated with diabetes.

“I think it's pretty exciting, not knowing what you're going to find out that day. We do experiments most days, and I don't know what the result's going to be.

Dr Linda Gallo

“We have hypotheses and we test those, and generally you have an expectation but, a lot of the time it's not what you expect and I think that's quite exciting.

“At the moment I'm focusing on looking at what particular therapies are available, and whether these can be used to also try and prevent the complications that generally come with diabetes afterwards.

“Scientists are working incredibly hard. We are trying to figure out what it is that causes disease and what we can do to try and prevent it.

Dr Linda Gallo

“It is challenging, the body's one of the most complex things I've ever come across.

“It's a slow process but we are working towards finding cures for many different diseases, and treatments.”

Dr Linda Gallo

Dr Linda Gallo is one of seven early career researchers profiled for UQ’s 2017 Research Week. To meet the other researchers and learn more about higher degrees at UQ, visit the Research Week page.

Watch Linda's Story