Research fellows

Dr Aveni Haynes

BA (Hons), MBBChir, PhD

Epidemiology research theme lead

Dr Haynes is a Senior Research Fellow based at The Kids Research Institute Australia in Perth, where she leads the epidemiology research theme in the Children’s Diabetes Centre. Dr Haynes is also an investigator and epidemiology theme leader in the Australia-wide Environmental Determinants of Islet Autoimmunity (ENDIA) pregnancy early-childhood type 1 at risk cohort study, scientific steering committee member of the Western Australian ORIGINs pregnancy birth cohort study, member of the APEG AIHW diabetes registry committee and an investigator in the 2021-2025 JDRF Global Centre of Excellence based in Perth.

Her research interests include the aetiology and natural history of childhood type 1 diabetes with a particular focus on the role of factors during pregnancy and early life, and informing future strategies aimed at predicting, delaying and/or preventing this condition. 

View Dr Haynes' full bio and publications here and her googlescholar page here

Twitter: @AveniHaynes1

Dr Mary B Abraham

MBBS, DCH, MD Paediatrics, FRACP

Technology research theme lead

Areas of research expertise: Type 1 diabetes, hypoglycaemia, insulin pump therapy and continuous glucose monitoring

Dr Abraham has been with the department of diabetes and endocrinology since 2012 and is currently a Research Fellow for the Children’s Diabetes Centre.

Dr Abraham is a clinician with strong research interest in the field of hypoglycaemia and type 1 diabetes. She has been involved with technology trials in type 1 diabetes and conducted the in-clinic and home studies testing the efficacy of the Predictive Low Glucose Management (PLGM) System in the prevention of hypoglycaemia.

View Dr Abraham's full bio and publications here.

Dr Vinutha B Shetty

MBBS, DCH, DNB, MD, FRACP

Exercise research theme lead

Paediatric endocrinologist

Areas of research expertise: Diabetes and exercise research

Dr Vinutha Shetty got her medical degree from Mysore Medical College, India and specialised in Paediatrics from Lokamanya Tilak Municipal Medical College, Mumbai, India. After completing her training in paediatrics, she worked in Kasturba Medical College in India and New Medical Centre Hospital in Abu Dhabi. She arrived in Perth in 2007 and completed her training in paediatric endocrinology. Currently, while working as a consultant, she is doing her PhD from the University of Western Australia in the field of exercise and type 1 diabetes focusing on glucose requirements to prevent hypoglycaemia during exercise.

During her training program, Dr Shetty was awarded several research awards, including the prestigious trainee research award from the Royal Australasian College of Physicians in 2013 and Australian Paediatric Endocrine Group Young Investigator Award in 2014. Dr Shetty will be coordinating a number of studies related to exercise and diabetes using insulin clamp techniques.

Dr Keely Bebbington

MClinPsych/PhD

Mental health and wellbeing research theme lead

Dr Keely Bebbington is the McCusker Postdoctoral Research Officer in Type 1 Diabetes. Her work aims to understand and significantly improve mental health and psychosocial functioning in youth with T1D and their families. She has a particular interest in helping young people and their families adjust to living with T1D and to reduce the burden of managing this chronic condition.

Keely completed her Masters and PhD in Clinical Psychology at the University of Western Australia and her PhD focused on understanding the social transmission of negative information by people with elevated levels of anxiety. Keely also spent four year as a Research Assistant to the Western Australian Autism Register, based at The Kids Research Institute Australia where she was involved in research exploring the behavioural and cognitive characteristics of children and young people diagnosed with autism. In addition to her work as a researcher Keely continues to work part-time in private practice with people across the lifespan.

Dr Amelia Harray

PhD, PostGradDip (Diet), BSc (Nutr), APD, AN

Nutrition research theme lead

Dr Amelia Harray is a Research Fellow in the Children’s Diabetes Centre at The Kids Research Institute Australia. Amelia’s research focuses on the impact of nutrients and food in the management of diabetes in children in Western Australia.

Amelia is an Accredited Practising Dietitian and Accredited Nutritionist, registered with the Dietitians Association of Australia. She has experience as dietitian in research, clinical dietetics, university lecturing, public health nutrition, advocacy and policy. Amelia also holds positions as Adjunct Research Fellow and Sessional Lecturer in nutrition and dietetics at Curtin University.

Amelia is motivated to translate evidence-based findings into policy and practice, through conducting high quality nutrition research, establishing strong relationships with stakeholders, advocating for change, and ensuring research projects are applicable and transferrable to dietetic practice.

Dr Leanne Fried

BSc DipEd MSpED EdD

Schools and education research theme lead

Leanne Fried is an experienced educator with a background in teaching at primary, secondary and tertiary levels of education. Most of her teaching focus in the school system has been working with students at educational risk. Since completing a PhD her research areas of interest have included investigating adolescent use of emotion regulation strategies and more recently the psychosocial wellbeing of children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes, in the school context, using research that employs both quantitative and qualitative methods. Her current projects include trialling a model of psychosocial support for students with type 1 diabetes in schools and investigating the implementation of a mentor program for parents of children with type 1 diabetes.

Dr Craig Taplin

Honorary Research Associate

Dr Craig Taplin studied medicine at the University of NSW and trained in paediatrics and paediatric endocrinology at The Children’s Hospital, Westmead in Sydney. From 2006- 2009 he completed clinical and research fellowships at The Children’s Hospital, Colorado, USA and The Barbara Davis Centre for Childhood Diabetes where he began working in the area of exercise and type 1 diabetes, as well as studying the early markers of coeliac disease as part of longitudinal studies of youth at high genetic risk for type 1 diabetes.

He then spent 10 years on the staff at Seattle Children’s Hospital  as a paediatric endocrinologist, and while there directed the paediatric endocrinology fellowship program at The University of Washington where he was an Associate Professor of Paediatrics. While in Seattle he and his team investigated and published methods to improve the quality of exercise education in paediatric diabetes clinics, how levels of fear of hypoglycaemia may impact exercise, and published data related to how often youth with type 1 diabetes follow safety guidelines around exercise. He is a co-author of two international consensus statements on exercise and type 1 diabetes, and was a member of the Performance in Exercise and Knowledge (PEAK) program funded by JDRF to develop materials for patients and professionals around exercise.

Since joining the team at Perth Children’s Hospital and The Kids Research Institute Australia, he has been working with the exercise team on methods to systematically evaluate physical activity levels in youth with T1D, with the goal to incorporate this metric into routine clinical care and to identify those youth who might benefit from interventions to increase activity and fitness.