Abbie Francis

Dr Francis completed her PhD in Immunology/Emergency Medicine at The University of Western Australia (2017). Her PhD thesis is titled “Investigating the immune mechanisms of anaphylaxis” and describes evidence of neutrophil activation during anaphylaxis for the first time. During her PhD candidature, Abbie was awarded 4 competitive prizes for conference presentations including the Paul Clarke Poster Award ($1500) for her abstract “Neutrophil activation during human anaphylaxis” presented at the Australasian Society for Clinical Immunology and Allergy Annual Symposium, Gold Coast. This work was also awarded the Best Paper Prize from the Royal Perth Hospital Medical Research Foundation ($1500).

Dr Francis is currently working on a Centre for Research Excellence grant, led by Prof Geoff Isbister (University of Newcastle) investigating anaphylaxis to snake antivenom. Dr Francis is also working on a project investigating the mechanism of sudden collapse following snakebite through the development and application of 3D human blood vessels.