Victoria Cogger
Victoria completed a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in 1999 followed by a PhD with Professor David Le Couteur on the ultrastructure of the ageing liver, graduating from the University of Sydney in 2003. She was awarded an Australian Government Postdoctoral Fellowship and travelled to the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda MD USA (2005-2006) to complete studies on confocal and live cell imaging of the liver in the laboratories of Professor Irwin Arias and Dr. Jennifer Lippincott-Schwarz.
Since her return to Australia Victoria has been in the Biogerontology laboratory at the ANZAC Research Institute investigating the biology of the liver sinusoid in health, ageing and disease; with particular focus on the endothelial cell and their fenestrae. In 2009 she worked with Professor Thomas Huser at UC Davis on refinement of the prototypic super resolution Structured Illumination Microscope (3D SIM). This work led to the discovery of the role of lipid rafts in regulating fenestrae in the liver endothelial cell and the development of the “sieve-raft theory”.
Victoria’s research is focussed on uncovering the underlying biology of the ageing process and how ageing changes in the impact upon health. We now understand that ageing is a programmed and modifiable process which creates opportunities for the development of disease and disability and that external factors like diet and activity levels can be manipulated to increase health into older age. Much of Victoria’s research focusses on the liver and the central role it plays in maintaining health into older age. In particular, her research characterises ageing changes in the blood vessels of organs like the liver and brain and how changes significantly in these vessels affect hepatic metabolism of insulin, lipids and drugs, leading to diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cognitive impairment.
Abstracts this author is presenting: