\u201cSepsis is a complication of a severe infection, such as pneumonia,\u201d Velma explained.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s characterised by symptoms such as dangerously low blood pressure, rapid heart rate, fever, and difficulty breathing.\u201d<\/p>\n There is no test for early detection of sepsis, meaning early warning signs may go unnoticed until symptoms become critical. However, in the future Velma\u2019s research could help develop a simple blood test that could reduce mortality rates.<\/p>\n \u201cSepsis needs to be dealt with immediately, because it can go from the initial symptoms, to a life-threatening condition in a short time span,\u201d Velma said.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m analysing the metabolic profile of blood samples taken from sepsis patients, then comparing these profiles to the severity of infection and sepsis to look for patterns,\u201d Velma said.<\/p>\n So far, Velma has found that patients with more severe sepsis have more reduced mitochondrial function. Eventually, Velma hopes to find a biomarker that can help predict sepsis.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t know which patients will develop sepsis and which won\u2019t,\u201d Velma said.<\/p>\n \u201cA test would allow us to give more aggressive treatment to at-risk patients to reduce the likelihood of sepsis developing.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Velma will present this research at the conference in October.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m actually very nervous \u2013 there\u2019s going to be a lot of people there!\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s intimidating to know that I\u2019ll be asked questions by some of the world leading sepsis researchers.<\/p>\n \u201cBut, I\u2019ve attended the conference before and am really interested in sepsis and infectious diseases, so it should be a good experience.\u201d<\/p>\n Good luck, Velma! We hope the presentation goes well.<\/p>\n Velma is supervised by Dr Benjamin Tang and Professor Anthony McLean, co-supervised by Dr Ya Wang and Dr Maryam Shojaei.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Velma Herwanto, a PhD student from the Westmead Institute and University of Sydney, has received best international abstract in the upcoming International Sepsis Forum. The abstract was based on Velma\u2019s research on developing a test for sepsis, a potentially life-threatening condition. \u201cSepsis is a complication of a severe infection, such as pneumonia,\u201d Velma explained. \u201cIt\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2810,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"categories":[19],"class_list":["post-2809","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cat-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/2809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Velma-Herwanto_2.jpg\")