Issues around young people and social media are well documented – including the mental health and wellbeing impacts. Dr Hannah Jarman, Senior Research Fellow in the Deakin Lifespan Institute at Deakin University, is focused on the task of prevention: helping young people build better relationships with social media and their own bodies, preventing body image concerns from escalating, and ultimately reducing the risk of eating disorders. 

“Social media is central to the lives of young people, and we know that certain ways of engaging online, particularly appearance-focused content, comparing yourself with others, and editing your appearance, can be harmful.” 

More than 90% of young people aged 12-18 have some level of body image concern, the 2024 BodyKind Youth Survey from Butterfly Foundation has shown. 

“Unfortunately a lot of social media content is highly appearance-focused, which places enormous pressure on young people. When young people are placing a lot of value on how they or others look, and frequently comparing themselves, this can lead to poor body image,” says Jarman.  

Dr Jarman’s sights set on making social media safer 

Australia’s social media age restrictions represent one attempt to reduce young people’s exposure to online harms. However, early evidence suggests many young people are continuing to access social media platforms. 

A recent publication found that more than 85% of participants aged under 16 reported still using restricted social media platforms after the legislation came into effect. 

“There has understandably been a lot of attention on restricting young people’s access to social media. But restricting access alone won’t address all of the risks young people encounter online.” 

“We also need to focus on making social media itself safer – for young people and for everyone.” 

Shared responsibility for making social media safer

Dr Jarman suggests this means shifting a degree of responsibility away from individuals and towards the platforms themselves.

“We need to hold platforms accountable and embed safety into the way these environments are designed, rather than expecting young people to protect themselves from systems designed to capture their attention and exploit their vulnerabilities.” 

“At the same time, young people need practical skills to navigate the online world, including recognising appearance pressures, critically evaluating the content they see online, and building resilience to and mitigating appearance comparisons.” 

Reducing body image concerns and preventing the onset of eating disorders 

 Eating disorders impact approximately 10% of Australians, with severe medical, personal, and economic consequences. An estimated 1.1 million Australians, or 4.5% of the population, are currently living with an eating disorder, with 10.5% experiencing an eating disorder at some point in their lifetime.  

One of the strongest predictors for eating disorder onset is body dissatisfaction. Concerningly, these types of concerns are common.  

“Body image begins developing during childhood. By adolescence, many young people are already struggling with how they feel about their bodies. We want to get in earlier and create environments that support positive body image from childhood,” says Dr Jarman. 

Dr Jarman’s work seeks to reduce body image concerns and prevent the onset of eating disorders. To do this, she has partnered with Butterfly Foundation to evaluate Butterfly Body Bright, a whole-of-school program designed to promote positive body image and healthy relationships with eating and physical activity in Victorian primary schools. 

Rather than focusing only on individual children, the program works across the school environment, involving students, teachers, families, and school culture. 

An initial pilot involving 114 Year 4-6 children produced promising results. After receiving just one lesson, improvements were reported in body satisfaction, body appreciation, confidence in managing appearance-based teasing, and intentions to seek help. 

 Understanding what works in schools  

 Today, Butterfly Body Bright is available nationally, with over 800 schools registered to take part. Dr Jarman and her team are now conducting a larger Medical Research Future Fund-supported randomised controlled trial in Victorian primary schools to evaluate not only the program’s effects, but how it can be successfully implemented in everyday school settings. 

“The aim is not simply to determine whether the program works, but to understand how it can be successfully implemented in real schools, what gets in the way, and, ultimately, how effective approaches can be scaled more widely.” 

Vicious cycle: studying the impact of social media on body image  

 Another focus of Dr Jarman’s work is understanding the impact of social media on body image. Her research has shown that greater social media use leads to greater appearance comparisons, which in turn makes teens feel worse about their body. But poorer body image can also predict greater subsequent social media use, creating a vicious cycle. 

National Taskforce turning research into change 

 Dr Jarman is co-founder and chair of the National Taskforce for Social Media, Body Image, and Eating Disorders, which brings together researchers, clinicians, lived-experience experts, and eating disorder organisations to drive coordinated, evidence-informed action. 

The Taskforce has developed recommendations for reducing body image and eating disorder risks on social media and consulted with governments in Australia and New Zealand, social media platforms, and key regulators such as the eSafety Commissioner. 

Risk reduction: promising signs of change, more work to be done 

There are promising signs of change. Recent developments in the US have included commitments to remove beauty filters for teenagers, an approach the Taskforce has also advocated for, but Dr Jarman says there is considerably more to do at a local level. 

“It’s encouraging to see changes that align with recommendations we’ve been advocating for. But there is considerably more to do, including here in Australia.” 

The continued push for change 

Across her research and advocacy, her work is united by a simple goal: preventing body image concerns before they escalate and creating environments that make it easier, rather than harder, for young people to develop a positive relationship with their bodies. 

“We can give young people skills and resilience, but we also have to change the environments around them. Prevention works best when we do both.” 

Building on this, Hannah also co-created @The.Wellbeing.Doctors Instagram account with her former PhD student Claudia Liu, translating research into accessible information and practical guidance about body image, eating disorders, and social media.  

Sources and further reading

Assessing early effects of Australia’s Social Media Minimum Age Act on adolescents’ social media use: observational study
https://www.bmj.com/content/393/bmj-2026-363695

2024 BodyKind Youth Survey from The Butterfly Foundation
https://butterfly.org.au/get-involved/campaigns/youthsurveyfindings/ 

Alarming growth in both the prevalence and cost of eating disorders
https://butterfly.org.au/news/new-report-reveals-alarming-growth-in-both-prevalence-and-cost-of-eating-disorders/

Developing and Evaluating a Universal Primary School Body Image Program: An Uncontrolled Pilot Study of Butterfly Body Bright 

https://www.mdpi.com/2076-328X/16/8/1306 

Direct and indirect relationships between social media use and body satisfaction: A prospective study among adolescent boys and girls 

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14614448211058468 

A prospective examination of relationships between social media use and body dissatisfaction in a representative sample of adults 

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1740144521001327 

The Wellbeing Doctors
https://www.instagram.com/the.wellbeing.doctors/ 

National Taskforce for Social Media, Body Image, and Eating Disorders
On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/national-taskforce-for-social-media-body-image-and-eating-disorders/posts/?feedView=all 

National Taskforce for Social Media, Body Image and Eating Disorders – Recommendations
https://butterfly.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Taskforce-full-report_FINAL.pdf 

Written by Ella Le

Hospitality SMEs’ misconceptions about people with intellectual disability (PWID), together with a lack of connectivity between people with intellectual disability and disability employment services, are holding these businesses back from recruiting more PWID for mainstream jobs, a study has found. 

Ashokkumar (Ashok) Manoharan is Associate Professor – Strategic Management at Flinders Business School. He led a research study funded by Endeavour Foundation through the Endeavour Foundation Disability Research grant 2022-2023 with a twofold aim: firstly, stimulating demand for employing people with intellectual disabilities in the hospitality SME sector, and secondly, providing a toolkit to facilitate the employment of people with intellectual disability in hospitality SMEs. 

“In our study we were seeking to develop strategies for businesses to foster inclusive environments and create sustainable employment outcomes for people with intellectual disability, ” explains Manoharan. 

“We analysed the challenges faced by both job seekers with disabilities and the dynamics facing hospitality SMEs, exploring attitudes towards and/or lived experiences of employing people with intellectual disabilities.” 

Thirty-five hospitality employers were interviewed and participants included SME business owners and senior staff in hotels, clubs and restaurants in South Australia, industry peak bodies such as AHA and Clubs SA, disability employment service providers and education providers. 

Values and attitudes shaped by lived experience 

“What often shapes peoples’ values and attitudes towards people with intellectual disability is lived experience and our research supported this,” says Manoharan. 

“Owners/managers who employ PWID identified positive outcomes from employing people with intellectual disabilities including loyalty, strong work ethic and a commitment to the job.” 

“Some stated that co-workers were not interested or available to support a person with intellectual disability and there could be a negative attitude toward people with intellectual disabilities in the workplace. However, many owners/managers found working through challenges ultimately rewarding.” 

Others were not confident employing PWID, expressing concerns surrounding the fast-paced nature of the hospitality sector and safety risks within hospitality environments such as kitchens.  

Similar concerns were raised by owners and managers who had never employed PWID. Most indicated they were prepared to consider employing PWID in the future. 

Employer and employee barriers leading to PWID being back of house

Disability employment in Australia indicates that people with intellectual disability often experience a restricted employment pathway. Many commence with volunteer work or supported employment before transitioning to open employment, where opportunities are predominantly limited to back-of-house roles, such as retail, warehousing, or kitchen hand positions.

“People with intellectual disability have largely been given back of house roles and there are common pervasive myths that are among the roadblocks to PWID being customer facing,” says Manoharan.

SMEs slower to support recruitment 

“The hospitality industry is a potentially attractive employer of people with intellectual disability, but barriers still exist. Some large organisations in the industry employ PWID but 76% are small and medium sized enterprises and have been slower to support their recruitment.” 

“In the SME hospitality sector where most organisations have little in-house human resource or diversity management experience, it is expected that positive engagement with disability employment service providers is needed to create more opportunities for people with disabilities.” 

Smaller businesses were more risk averse and concerned about the costs associated with recruiting, training and supporting a potential employee with disabilities. 

Awareness of government support programs another roadblock

“Many of these costs can be covered by existing government support programs, a fact that employers without experience seemed unaware of. Business associations and peak bodies can also play an important role in raising awareness about the employment of people with disabilities. In the current climate of labour shortages and high turnover, the hospitality sector can no longer afford to ignore this potential talent pool.” 

Online toolkit devised to dispel common myths 

Manoharan, together with representatives from the hospitality sector in South Australia,* in a bid to help pave the way to mainstream employment for people with an intellectual disability, has devised common myths around employing PWID. 

“It’s our intention to facilitate practical connections between hospitality SMEs with Inclusive Employment Australia.” 

“One prominent myth is that hiring someone with intellectual disability means higher recruitment, employment, and training costs. In reality, evidence shows there are typically no additional costs. The assumption of financial burden is one of the biggest and least-founded barriers employers carry.” 

Several studies and reviews in the hospitality sector have identified that one of the largest barriers to the employment of people with disabilities is concerns over the costs of accommodations, a concern that is shared by employers in other sectors. 

In a survey of 320 hospitality companies in the US, the cost of accommodations was a significant barrier for most businesses, though reported as a particular concern for smaller businesses. However, studies reporting the actual costs of accommodations in the hospitality sector observed that many accommodations were free or relatively low-cost (e.g., less than US$500). 

“Another myth is that most people with intellectual disability have severe intellectual disability. Data shows that 85% of people with intellectual disabilities have only a mild intellectual disability – meaning minor challenges that do not prevent them from being employed.” 

*Owen Webb, Deputy Chief Executive Officer – AHA (SA), Rhys Braybrook from Clubs SA, Greg Hobby, CEO of Taylor & Holmes 

Osteoarthritis (‘OA’) is a $3.5 billion burden in Australia and a leading cause of pain and disability globally. Pain and impairment from OA means extensive time-loss from work, with people relying on pain medication and in some circumstances major surgery to manage the condition.

A/Prof Myles Murphy is a Sport and Exercise Physiotherapist and researcher at the University of Notre Dame Australia. His research explores what drives pain and impairment in people with lower-limb musculoskeletal injury, and how we can better prevent and treat these conditions.

Fresh perspective on an old problem

Best-practice management for OA involves building strength, increasing range of motion and improving proprioception (body awareness). But despite doing all of these things, not everyone achieves a satisfactory outcome. During his work as a sports physiotherapist, A/Prof Murphy knew there had to be more to this condition and that thinking ‘outside the box’ was needed to improve outcomes for people with OA.

“This suggested to me that looking at the joint structure and function alone was too narrow a view, and we weren’t seeing the complete picture.”

Therefore, his latest research has demonstrated that people with hip OA not only have peripheral issues with the joint structure and function, but they also experience changes in the brain that are associated with their OA pain.

Misconceptions about pain at the heart of OA

“There’s a misconception about OA that pain severity and function are related to the degree of structural damage,” says Murphy.

“Evidence actually shows that pain severity with OA has a poor relationship with the degree of structural damage visible on imaging.”

Working with elite athletes, Dr Murphy saw this play out time and time again: people with ‘bone-on-bone’ OA living completely pain-free with full function, and others with only minor degeneration rating their pain 11 out of 10.

“What we were seeing on the x-ray or MRI wasn’t accurately reflecting how clients were feeling, or how their limb was functioning.”

“Improvements in pain can even occur while visible “damage” on a scan remains completely unchanged. We have seen this in other musculoskeletal conditions, where changes in disability aren’t necessarily tied to improvements in muscle function either.”

Research has shown that imaging has a poor relationship to function in many musculoskeletal conditions, such as lower back pain or tendinopathy.

OA brains are hitting the ‘brakes’

“People with OA are unable to fully activate the muscles around their affected joint, because the brain is actively applying a ‘brake’ to stop them from using the muscle,” Dr Murphy explains.

“We don’t yet know why that is. But the brain seems to be doing this to protect the joint by reducing the ability of the muscle to produce force. However, this is a maladaptive change as strong muscles actually help reduce joint pain.”

“If we describe this in clinical terms, when people with persistent OA pain try to actively contract muscles around the affected joint, they show impaired voluntary muscle activation. To produce maximum strength, the motor cortex, which is the part of the brain that activates muscles, needs to send a clear signal down through the spinal cord to the muscle. When that signal is reduced, the result is muscle weakness that has nothing to do with damage in the muscle itself.

The exact mechanism driving these changes in the brain, and the lack of activation in the muscle, are not yet fully understood.

“What we know is that the pain associated with OA is complex and not solely related to signals sent by damaged joint tissue. The central nervous system plays an important role.”

“Understanding the different ways in which the nervous system contributes to muscle dysfunction in OA, will help inform the design of more targeted treatments for pain, muscle weakness, and function.

Measuring the brain’s role: Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)

To measure the degree of inhibition and facilitation of the brain’s motor cortex researchers use transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Magnetic pulses stimulate the motor cortex, and EMG sensors on the leg muscles record the level of activation. This provides insight into whether the brain-to-muscle pathway is underactive, or overactive.

“Think of inhibition and facilitation as a brake and accelerator,” says Dr Murphy. “TMS lets us see how those pathways are working — whether they’re operating normally, or whether activity is excessive.”

With alterations in these brain pathways, resulting in a lack of strong signal to the muscles, people with OA cannot properly activate their muscles and this limits their ability for improvements in pain and restoring normal function. A/Prof Murphy’s research is now looking at how innovative technological approaches can be used to normalise brain pathways.

Turning measurement into treatment: the ACL study

Similarly to OA even with best-practice exercise rehabilitation, patients commonly struggle to recover following Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) Injury and Reconstruction. Previous research has shown the changes that occur in the brain in people with OA, are also present in people following ACL reconstruction.

“This is largely because the brain ‘dials down’ the drive to those leg muscles, making rehab less effective,” says Dr Murphy.

Dr Colin Sylvester, a physician with the Fremantle Football Club, investigated this under the supervision of A/Prof Murphy, and discovered these changes in the brain occur as early as two weeks following the ACL surgery.

A/Prof Murphy, alongside Dr Casey Whife, West Coast Eagles Chief Medical Officer, tested whether they could reverse these changes by applying a small, externally-delivered electrical current to the brain region controlling the leg muscles, at the same time as standard rehab exercises. This is a simple approach, and all participants feel is a light tingling or itchiness at the site of the electrodes on the head.

Findings indicated that muscle strength could be maintained while reducing the brain’s inhibitory “brake”. Marking a substantial step forward in our understanding of how to best rehabilitation people with musculoskeletal injuries.

What’s next

Myles is now trialling the same electrical stimulation approach for people with hip OA, testing whether the positive changes he has observed following ACL surgery can be replicated in people with hip OA.

“This is early-stage research, and brain stimulation isn’t yet a standard clinical tool. But it’s paving the way for a potentially simple, low-cost, accessible add-on to existing exercise rehab — not a replacement for it, but a way to help rehab actually work the way it’s supposed to.”

Read about Myles Murphy’s latest work here:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266633762400101X

https://eor.bioscientifica.com/view/journals/eor/8/12/EOR-23-0092.xml

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266633762500099X

https://bmjopensem.bmj.com/content/10/4/e002080

Dr Myles Murphy is open to speaking on the topics of ankle, knee and hip pain as well as musculoskeletal injury prevention in physically active populations.

 When Dr Karen Massel, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Crop Science, part of UQ’s Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) is working with cutting edge biotechnological tools to edit the genes of grains, she has globally significant goals in mind. 

Goals such as securing food supplies in the face of climate challenges and global population growth. By improving crops for productivity, climate resilience (against drought tolerance, abiotic stress tolerance) and sustainability.

“Farmers have been manipulating the DNA of plants using conventional breeding technologies for millennia, and now with emerging gene-editing technologies, we can do this with unprecedented safety, precision and speed,” says Dr Massel.

“If you want to bring in a trait from a wild crop and bring it into a commercial breeding line, it takes 10-15 years. It is now possible to substantially compress the time it takes to bring about crop improvements … I can do it in one year in my lab.” 

“Using biotech tools such as CRISPR9, instead of putting large fragments of genes from other species we are making extremely small, targeted changes to the genome to tweak the genetic code and get rid of traits you don’t want..”

“This type of gene editing mimics the way cells repair in nature.” 

Energy-rich cereal crops such as wheat, rice, maize and sorghum provide two-thirds of the world’s food energy intake. 

“Just 15 plant crops provide 90 per cent of the world’s food calories,” Dr Massel said. 

“It’s a race between a changing climate and plant breeders’ ability to produce crops with genetic resilience that grow well in adverse conditions and have enriched nutritional qualities. 

“The problem is that it takes too long for breeders to detect and make that genetic diversity available to farmers, with a breeding cycle averaging about 15 years for cereal crops.” 

“Plus CRISPR allows us to do things we can’t do through conventional breeding in terms of generating novel diversity and improving breeding for desirable traits.”

Gene editing to prevent white button mushrooms from browning 

One example of gene editing improving crop production is preventing white button mushrooms from browning. 

“When you slice or bruise a white button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus), it turns brown in minutes. This browning happens due to an enzyme called polyphenol oxidase (‘PPO’) being released from damaged cells and reacting with oxygen, producing brown pigments.

Using CRISPR-Cas9 the researchers were able to successfully disable one of the genes that codes for PPO to prevent discolouring. 

“Less PPO means the mushroom resists browning and holds its fresh, creamy-white look much longer after being cut or handled and therefore extending shelf life,” she explains. 

Going with the grain: genetic modifications on Queensland sorghum

Driving through southern and central parts of Queensland it’s easy to mistake fields of sorghum for corn. Sorghum, worth an estimated $1.2 billion in annual exports in 2024-25, is a staple for more than half a billion people worldwide.

In sorghum, Dr Massel and her research team have developed genetic modifications that double grain protein digestibility, improve water-use efficiency through canopy redesign, and enhance planting density for higher yields. 

“Sorghum’s grain protein is hard to digest…due to a family of storage proteins called kafirins… .. we edited the plant’s genes to unlock the digestibility level of the available proteins and to boost its nutritional value for humans and livestock.”

“In places such as Queensland, crop production quality and yield is influenced by impacted by climate variability including drought, flooding and high temperatures.”

“Our work is significant because it shows how using these tools we can be used to stack a variety of edits together for broad improvements in the crops,” says Massel. 

“This has allowed researchers to also develop more nutritious crops with improved drought resistance, which is becoming increasingly important as climate variabilities, which will have large impacts for dryland crops such as sorghum.”  

“In efforts to improve drought resilience we have modified the canopy architecture and root architecture of both sorghum and barley using gene editing to improve water use efficiency.” 

“Altering how the plant’s leaves are arranged and angled (‘canopy’) can improve light capture for photosynthesis and reduce its water requirements. Similarly, through changes in root system architecture, the plant should be able to access more water and nutrients from different soil profiles to capture better inputs especially during times of drought,” she explained.

Productivity and sustainability: expanding reach into tropical pasture grasses

Dr Massel’s research is expanding into tropical pasture grasses, with a focus on improving both productivity and environmental sustainability.

Reducing agriculture’s carbon footprint by developing low-emissions solutions is an important step that toward a more sustainable and climate-resilient production system. 

In her research, Dr Massel’s team are developing novel tissue culture protocols and gene edited pasture grasses aimed to improve livestock nutrition while also introducing anti-methanogenic traits to reduce the methane produced during digestion.  

Dr Massel describes the next 10 years as an exciting window in which to mature tools such as CRISPR9.

“We have a real opportunity to explore the potential of these tools in less studied crops and get products into the field.”

Along the west coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria, in East Arnhem Land, the Easterly winds send plastic tumbling along the shorelines. Hundreds of pieces of flotsam and jetsam nudge the feet of the Dhimurru Rangers.

The Dhimurru Rangers are part of a collective of First Nations ranger groups from across Arnhem Land undertaking programs to remove ghost nets. They are protectors and nurturers of Sea Country, its people and wildlife, carefully removing plastic waste reaching deep into the Gulf from places as far flung as the Arafura and Timor Seas and the Torres Strait.

The Rangers’ utes feature specialised equipment such as cranes to hoist bigger pieces, like ghost nets, off the sands. Ghost nets are just one part of a much  bigger waste problem, with an assortment of items, from microplastics to bottles, cigarette lighters, fishing lures, toothbrushes, and lolly wrappers to fishing ropes and fuel canisters. Thousands of tonnes of rubbish is strewn along hundreds of kilometres of coastline, which is a daily reality faced by First Nations rangers from Broome to Cape York.

Tackling ocean plastic pollution and educating communities 

“The ghost nets and the debris accumulate, posing a threat to ocean life… and the consequences for communities and Country are significant,” says Dr Nina Wootton, a marine researcher at Adelaide University’s Gillanders Aquatic Ecology Lab in the School of Biological Sciences. Dr Wootton is dedicated to tackling ocean plastic pollution and helping to educate communities. She leads research on microplastics in seafood, helps develop better ways to study marine plastics, and is the lead author on a microplastic sampling manual in coastal environments in Australia. 

Plastic pollution in the marine environment is a pervasive and escalating problem, impacting ecosystems from coastal habitats to the deep sea. Persistent plastics can smother habitats, introduce toxic compounds, and be ingested by marine life, leading to injury, reduced fitness, and even mortality across a wide range of species. 

Ghost nets are abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gear in oceans, lakes and rivers. These nets drift through the water, snagging and smothering coral and other critical habitats, while entangling and killing marine animals. These durable synthetic materials can take hundreds of years to break down, continuing to cause harm long after they are lost. 

Gulf of Carpentaria a hotspot for marine debris

Global expansion is suspected as the source of many of the nets and over 15,000 nets have been found and documented in the Gulf of Carpentaria alone, CSIRO figures reveal.

“The impacts are everywhere in the natural environment … places where Traditional Owners hunt, the animals, culturally significant sites, too,” says Wootton.

Toys for Turtles: transforming and repurposing plastic debris 

Dr Wootton, through the North-east Arnhem Land community, leads a marine conservation and education initiative, Toys for Turtles. The initiative was designed in collaboration with the Dhimurru Aboriginal Corporation and engages schools and the Northeast Arnhem Land community.

Through Toys for Turtles, plastic debris collected during beach cleanups is being repurposed into new, usable items. Pot plant holders, games, keyrings and soap dishes are just some of the items being made with specialised plastic recycling machinery. Ranger groups have helped design specialised moulds with local language names or symbols and these finished goods are sold at local festivals, or via other channels. 

“Marine debris is a huge problem for the environment and wildlife in Northern Australia, including the culturally significant sea turtle,” Dr Wootton says. “With the turtle representing the marine life we want to protect, this project works with the Dhimurru Rangers, Yirralka Rangers and local students to combat the plastic problem.”

On science excursions and in other settings, local students learn about marine debris by removing and surveying plastics. Recycling machinery is processing up to 5kg of plastic per hour at recycling hubs in three locations across north-east Arnhem Land. This project is funded through the Ghost Nets Innovative Solution Grants, funded through Parks Australia (DCCEEW). There is also funding through the Max Day Environmental Fellowship (Australian Academy of Sciences) and the Cybec Foundation to further expand the work, looking at microplastic contamination in local seafood sources, and expanding locations to the Tiwi islands.

Turning the tide, scratching the surface 

Toys for Turtles is one part of a broader body of work being undertaken by Wootton, including quantifying microplastics in seafood, investigating the impacts of plastics on wildlife health, and partnering with fisheries and aquaculture to reduce plastic use and loss across supply chains.

“Encouragingly, there is growing momentum in this space,” says Wootton. 

“Initiatives led by researchers, Indigenous ranger groups, industry stakeholders, and organisations such as the Ghost Nets program are demonstrating that collaborative, on-ground action can make a tangible difference.” 

Co-ordinated, sustained effort by government, industry and community is needed

Wootton suggests that while these efforts are beginning to turn the tide on marine debris, they are only scratching the surface of what is needed.

“Addressing marine debris at scale will require stronger, coordinated action, including greater investment, improved policy frameworks, and meaningful partnerships that centre local and Indigenous knowledge. A sustained push from governments, industry, and the broader community is essential to reduce plastic production, improve waste management, and prevent debris from entering marine ecosystems in the first place.” 

Ghost Nets Australia has three main goals related to the reduction of marine debris. By 2030, they want no ghost gear from international sources washing up in Northern Australia, no ghost gear from recreational fishing and a circular program for end-of-life fishing gear in the commercial sector.

Read more about Dr Nina Wootton’s work here:
https://researchers.adelaide.edu.au/profile/nina.wootton 

Read about Toys for Turtles:
https://www.toysforturtles.com/about 

Explore products made by Ranger groups from recovered plastics:
https://yirralkamiyalk.com/products/marine-debris-soap-dish
 

The treatment of burns and other injuries requiring skin grafts is slated for significant improvements following a world-first innovation by researchers at Metro North Health and UQ’s Frazer Institute.

The breakthrough is the development of a complete skin replica containing blood vessels and immune cells. By incorporating these critical components, the model more closely replicates real human skin, allowing researchers to better study wound healing, inflammation, infection, and gain insight into how patients may respond to treatments before they attend a clinic.

Stem cells were used to successfully grow a ‘replica’ of human skin, known as skin organoids, complete with all skin layers. These include hair follicles, sebaceous glands, pigmentation, and nerves, and now, blood vessels, capillaries and immune cells.

“Advancements in stem cell research have enabled us to grow mini versions of skin by taking human skin cells and reprogramming them into induced pluripotent stem cells*, which can be turned into almost any type of cell in the body,” explains Dr Abbas Shafiee, UQ Frazer Institute Researcher and Metro North Health Practitioner.

“We used these same stem cells to create vascular organoids, tiny living networks of blood vessels, and added these into the growing skin organoids to generate vascularised skin organoids.”

Transforming understanding of human skin development

Dr Shafiee said the research is an exciting step forward that will transform researchers’ understanding of human skin development, wound healing, inflammatory skin diseases, and future regenerative treatments.

“For many years, recreating the complexity of real human skin, particularly the integration of blood vessels, has been a significant challenge. Bringing together advances in stem cell biology, vascular biology, and organoid engineering developed over many years of research is what made our innovation possible.”

Skin graft transplants transformed by innovation

“Looking ahead, having these skin replica for research will transform how we study skin diseases and develop new therapies. In the longer term, they have the potential to revolutionise skin graft transplants and regenerative medicine, particularly for patients with severe burns, chronic wounds and genetic skin disorders.

“Unlike traditional biological skin models, our skin organoids closely mimic the structure of real human skin, including blood vessels and immune cells. This is critical, as successful skin grafting relies on how well transplanted skin integrates with the patient’s body, establishing blood supply, responding to inflammation and resisting infection.

“Our model allows the study of living human skin in ways that were not previously possible,” Dr Shafiee said.

“The skin organoids can grow and change over time in the laboratory. This enables us to study how human skin develops, how diseases emerge and progress, and how different treatments affect skin function over time.”

Learnings from this research could be used to accelerate the development of new treatments for skin wounds, and the next generation of skin grafts.

“Burns and treating burns is complex. There are so many variables in terms of how a burn will behave, likelihood of infection, extent of scarring, frequency/volume of skin grafts and revision surgery – as well as longer term complications such as chronic inflammation before skin ‘products’ are considered safe and reliable.

“Our technology changes that by providing a more predictive platform for developing new therapies before they are tested in patients.”

Dr Shafiee said that previously when researchers wanted to study skin, animals, particularly rodents, were used to study skin biology and test treatments. While valuable, rodent skin differs from human skin in structure, composition, immune response, healing processes and hair follicle biology, limiting how well findings translate to patients.

The Burns Registry of Australia and New Zealand for example records around 3,000 major burns admissions annually. Of these, approximately 70% of adult patients and over 50% of paediatric patients who undergo surgical wound procedures require skin grafts.

“This skin model will enable us to further progress those treatments, along with wound healing, regenerative medicine and precision dermatology by providing a more realistic human platform for testing therapies and understanding diseases. At the same time, we are continuing to improve the functionality of our skin organoid models.”

A new generation of research and regenerative therapies

Achieving the successful integration of blood supply and immune cells to this skin model was a six-year undertaking**.

While this innovation is already providing new opportunities to study human skin development, its use as a therapeutic skin graft for patients is still some years away.

“The possibilities are incredibly exciting,” Dr Shafiee says. “This breakthrough opens the door to a new generation of research and regenerative therapies, and it is a space worth watching closely in the years ahead.”

Further information

The research received funding from Metro North Health and was conducted at the Translational Research Institute.

• Vascularised skin replica model
• Skin replica model developed before the vascularised version:
  • Development of Physiologically Relevant Skin Organoids from Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells
  • The empowering influence of air-liquid interface culture on skin organoid hair follicle development

• Dr Shafiee’s commentary on the potential of Skin Organoids as a New Biological Standard

*Pluripotent stem cells are remarkable cells that can continuously renew themselves and develop into almost any cell type in the human body. This unique ability makes them a powerful tool for researchers seeking to understand embryonic development, uncover disease mechanisms, and develop new treatments.

**Team members included Jane Sun, and Mitchell Mostina, who were Research Assistant and PhD candidate, respectively, at the time of this discovery. The study was co-led by Professor Kiarash Khosrotehrani, a clinician scientist and dermatologist at the UQ Frazer Institute.

Within interactive gaming, it remains uncommon for players to engage with virtual experiences that portray significant cultural ceremonies. 

But this is exactly what Rhett Loban set out to do through Torres Strait Virtual Reality (TSVR), with a storyline based on the Tombstone Opening ceremony, a significant cultural gathering held at the end of the mourning period for loved ones who have passed away. 

The project demonstrates how virtual reality (VR) can become a vehicle for deep cultural representation and communication to audiences.  

Communicating culture through immersive technology 

The ceremony depicted in TSVR is the Tombstone Opening, a deeply significant Torres Strait Islander cultural practice that brings together families from across the Islands and mainland Australia to pay respects and remember a family member or loved on who has passed away. 

Within the virtual environment the player takes on the role of someone involved in the Tombstone Opening preparation.  

The player participates in activities connected to cultural life and preparation for the ceremony. Gathering dugong and turtle for the feast, travelling to northern islands to obtain items from Papua New Guinean traders, and encountering native flora and fauna. 

The project also incorporates Torres Strait stories and cosmologies through constellation imagery, narrated storytelling (by an Elder) and encounters with Torres Strait Islander story characters. 

Respectfully sharing Torres Strait stories in immersive media 

“There was not much Torres Strait Islander representation or knowledge depicted in digital game or interactive immersive media.” Rhett says.  

“I created the game because I felt Torres Strait Islander culture was not widely known or depicted in interactive immersive media. I wanted to help young people and students engage with Torres Strait Islander culture.”

Developing a digital experience that is culturally sound 

To help ensure the experience was both well designed as a digital experience and aligned with cultural protocols, and an Elder and the Torres Strait Islander community were involved throughout the game development.  

The team was led by a Torres Strait Islander (Rhett) with an Elder embedded into the team who was helping shape the game and also creating game assets in the form of narrator’s voice and drawings of constellations that would be depicted at night. During playtests and quality assurance process, the team engaged with community for input as a part of an iterative cultural protocol and the software development process. 

“The Torres Strait stories, knowledge practices and depictions were constructed from the Elder and various community members’ input, external research, cultural stories/knowledge passed down and the product of interactions between Rhett,  the Elder and community. 

From game design into new contexts 

The game is being applied in a wide range of educational contexts. 

For example, Rhett worked with a fellow academic to implement TSVR in an environmental policy course. TSVR showed how different laws, policies and treaties were established to facilitate various existing cultural practices and relationships which were depicted through the VR experience. 

“You’re engaging the senses in a variety of ways – seeing environments change from day to night, being guided from one environment to the next, collecting drums, mats, harpoons and spears, being led by a narrator. You are immersed in the story and environment. This is very powerful and could help provide a greater understanding and context to what’s being studied or read in a book.” 

For Rhett, the broader goal is to create digital experiences shaped by Indigenous perspectives and cultural understandings. 

“The cultural focus is key to integrating culture into games where cultural depictions are more than visual objects, but rather, reflections of deep cultural understandings of the world,” he says.

Dr Rhett Loban is the Director of Indigenous Education in the School of Computer Science, and Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology at the University of Technology Sydney.   

He is the author of ‘Embedding Culture into Video Games and Game Design’, a book that helps game designers and those interested in games to thoughtfully embed culture into video games and the game design process.