ANDRA TSANG

Andra Tsang is a PhD student in her 3rd year under Distinguished Professor Brian Oliver. She completed a Bachelor of Medical Science and Honours at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). Her Honours project, which was also supervised by Distinguished Professor Brian Oliver at the Woolcock Institute, involved investigating the effect of e-cigarettes on asthma therapies.  

Andra’s PhD project involves investigating the effect of the combination of both stone dust and cigarette smoking on the lungs, with the main concern in regards to the stone dust being the silica dust within it. Andra did this by establishing cell co-cultures, to test the described conditions. Two of her cell co-cultures were: Fibroblasts and macrophages; and fibroblasts with epithelial cells. 

In these cell co-cultures she analysed the inflammation and fibrosis, that occurred when under these combined conditions (stone dust and cigarette smoke).

• The fibrotic response and inflammation observed include:

  • An increase in fibronectin production (ECM component), which may indicate fibrosis.

  • An increase in interleukin 6 and 8, which may indicate a pro-inflammatory response.

Andra aims to have finished the PhD in about 18 months and in the future aspires to be a university lecturer.

Andra loves animals and has a cat, She also enjoys boxing for fitness.