Come behind the laboratory doors and meet some of the scientists behind the work we do every day to keep our communities healthy and safe here at NSW Health Pathology.

Meet Dr Beth Caru­a­na at the NSW Health Statewide Biobank

Tell us about your role and why it matters

I lead the lab­o­ra­to­ry team at the NSW Health Statewide Biobank, a cen­tralised, high-through­put facil­i­ty that process­es and stores human biospec­i­mens for research across Aus­tralia. We’re not just stor­ing tubes we’re deliv­er­ing high-qual­i­ty, stan­dard­ised pro­cess­ing that under­pins dis­cov­er­ies in can­cer, car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­ease, inflam­ma­to­ry dis­or­ders and more. In the past year alone, we’ve added near­ly 100,000 new sam­ples to our col­lec­tion and sup­port­ed 38 stud­ies across acad­e­mia, gov­ern­ment, and industry.

Our work may not always be vis­i­ble, but it’s foun­da­tion­al. We’re often the go-to mod­el for oth­er groups look­ing to estab­lish biobanks or biospec­i­men collections—researchers come to us because we’ve built a rep­u­ta­tion for qual­i­ty, scale, and trust­ed expertise.

What was your sci­en­tif­ic career path?

I start­ed in aca­d­e­m­ic research, com­plet­ing a PhD in Bio­chem­istry and Mol­e­c­u­lar Genet­ics before mov­ing into the phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal indus­try. But it was biobanking—this fas­ci­nat­ing inter­sec­tion of sci­ence, logis­tics and qual­i­ty that tru­ly hooked me.

Over the last few years, I’ve built a team, inte­grat­ed automa­tion and rebuilt our core lab process­es to han­dle high­er vol­umes with pre­ci­sion. I didn’t fol­low a straight path, but I’ve fol­lowed the work that matters.

What are you most proud of?
Pub­lish­ing our pro­to­col in JOVE: Iso­lat­ing Human Periph­er­al Blood Mononu­clear Cells from Buffy Coats was a huge mile­stone. The method was devel­oped in response to the ProSPect study’s require­ment for high-through­put periph­er­al blood mononu­clear cell iso­la­tion. As part of the pub­li­ca­tion, JOVE filmed the pro­to­col and we part­nered with Stem­Cell™ to present the method in a webinar.

It was a proud moment not just for the sci­ence but for what it rep­re­sent­ed in terms of team devel­op­ment and visibility.

Meet Alexan­dra New­man – sci­en­tist at the Drug Tox­i­col­o­gy Unit (pho­to to come)

Tell us about your role and why it matters

I’m a Sci­en­tif­ic Offi­cer at the Drug Tox­i­col­o­gy Unit in North Ryde. What we do mat­ters because we are ulti­mate­ly about pro­tect­ing lives through reduc­ing the impact of drugs in our community.

What was your sci­en­tif­ic career path?

I com­plet­ed a Bach­e­lor Sci­ence degree at Syd­ney Uni­ver­si­ty in 2004. My first sci­en­tif­ic job was at Lab­mark Envi­ron­men­tal (now known as Eurofins|mgt) which is an ana­lyt­i­cal envi­ron­men­tal test­ing lab­o­ra­to­ry. After some trav­el, I then start­ed work­ing at the Drug Tox­i­col­o­gy Unit in 2009. I have been there now for 16 years.

Share some­thing you are proud of

A proud moment in my career was hav­ing a key role in devel­op­ing a suit­able method for the drug analy­sis of oral flu­ids col­lect­ed by the NSW police dur­ing road­side drug test­ing. Our state-of-the-art equip­ment and rapid test­ing capa­bil­i­ties enable the NSW Police to increase road­side test­ing efforts, enhanc­ing road safe­ty across the state.

Meet Lola Hamid – sci­en­tist at the Drug Tox­i­col­o­gy Unit

Tell us what you do and why it matters

I am a Sci­en­tif­ic Offi­cer at the Drug Tox­i­col­o­gy Unit- Foren­sic and Ana­lyt­i­cal Sci­ence Ser­vice (DTU.) By pro­vid­ing com­pre­hen­sive test­ing to deter­mine the use of illic­it sub­stances as well as com­pli­ance test­ing for indi­vid­u­als receiv­ing treat­ment for drug addic­tion, our work is crit­i­cal to the vital oper­a­tions of our clients includ­ing the NSW Police Force, Drug Court of NSW, Cor­rec­tive Ser­vices NSW and var­i­ous drug reha­bil­i­ta­tion facil­i­ties through­out the state in order to uphold jus­tice and pro­mote safe­ty in the community.

What was your sci­en­tif­ic career path?

I was award­ed a Bach­e­lor of Foren­sic Sci­ence (Hon­ours), major­ing in Chem­istry in 2020. From there, I worked in dif­fer­ent labs across Syd­ney and Mel­bourne, advanc­ing my skills in extrac­tion tech­niques and instru­men­ta­tion used at labs such as DTU, from rac­ing chem­istry to work­place and com­mu­ni­ty drug testing.

Share an inter­est­ing case you’ve worked on

I am cur­rent­ly work­ing on an inter­est­ing project, where we are look­ing to devel­op a ful­ly auto­mat­ed com­pre­hen­sive test­ing pro­to­col for gam­ma-hydrox­y­bu­tyrate (GHB), a ner­vous sys­tem depres­sant, that can be used recre­ation­al­ly and mali­cious­ly due to its relax­ation and seda­tion effects.

Meet Tiruni Ama­ras­inghe – sci­en­tist from Lithgow.

Tell us what you do and why it matters

I am a Med­ical Lab­o­ra­to­ry Tech­ni­cian at Lith­gow Hos­pi­tal. The essen­tial test­ing I per­form in haema­tol­ogy, clin­i­cal chem­istry, micro­bi­ol­o­gy, and trans­fu­sion sci­ence helps doc­tors diag­nose and treat patients.

What was your sci­en­tif­ic career path?

My jour­ney into lab­o­ra­to­ry sci­ence actu­al­ly start­ed with ani­mals! I began with a Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence (Spe­cial) in Zool­o­gy, fol­lowed by a Mas­ter of Lab­o­ra­to­ry Med­i­cine from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Tas­ma­nia. I recent­ly fin­ished a clin­i­cal place­ment at NSW Health Pathology’s lab at Nepean Hos­pi­tal, where I rotat­ed through all major pathol­o­gy dis­ci­plines. This hands-on expe­ri­ence com­bined with the sup­port of amaz­ing men­tors helped me tran­si­tion into my cur­rent role and gave me a deep appre­ci­a­tion for the com­plex­i­ty and impact of diag­nos­tic science.

Share an inter­est­ing case you’ve worked on

I got to present a haema­tol­ogy case study to the senior team, which was an incred­i­ble oppor­tu­ni­ty to share what I’d learned, receive feed­back, and engage in dis­cus­sion with expe­ri­enced pro­fes­sion­als. It gave me a real sense of belong­ing in this field and affirmed my pas­sion for lab­o­ra­to­ry science.

Meet Dominic Flem­ing – senior sci­en­tist from Griffith

Tell us what you do and why it matters

I am the senior sci­en­tist in charge of the Trans­fu­sion Depart­ment in the brand-new lab­o­ra­to­ry at Grif­fith Base Hos­pi­tal. Trans­fu­sion is the sci­ence behind match­ing the right blood prod­uct to the right patient to treat a wide range of dis­eases. Patients might need a life­sav­ing trans­fu­sion if they are in surgery, oncol­o­gy, the emer­gency depart­ment or dur­ing their pregnancy.

What was your sci­en­tif­ic career path?

I start­ed with uni­ver­si­ty stud­ies in ana­lyt­i­cal chem­istry and work­ing casu­al­ly in the lab as a casu­al tech­ni­cal offi­cer, before work­ing in haema­tol­ogy, bio­chem­istry, micro­bi­ol­o­gy and trans­fu­sion. I also have a post grad­u­ate degree in med­ical sci­ence and data sci­ence and pro­gressed to senior sci­en­tist in charge of transfusion.

Proud­est moment?

I’m so proud of the ded­i­cat­ed team I work with – who show up every day with com­mit­ment and integri­ty. As the sci­en­tists behind the diag­no­sis, every per­son should be very proud of the work they do for their patients and community.

What would make your job easier?

My job is heav­i­ly impact­ed by blood dona­tions. With­out the blood and blood prod­ucts donat­ed by the com­mu­ni­ty, we would not be able to do the life­sav­ing work we do. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, Aus­tralia is fac­ing a donor short­age, so I encour­age every­one to roll up their sleeves and donate if they can. Your dona­tions do mat­ter and real­ly save lives!

Meet Dr Ani­la Hash­mi, med­ical sci­en­tist from Liverpool.

Tell us what you do and why it matters

I’m a med­ical sci­en­tist from NSW Health Pathology’s Bio­chem­istry Depart­ment at Liv­er­pool, and I have over 20 years’ expe­ri­ence work­ing in labs, men­tor­ing oth­ers and con­duct­ing research. My work bridges diag­nos­tic test­ing and trans­la­tion­al research, focus­ing on improv­ing ear­ly can­cer detec­tion of sol­id tumours through inno­v­a­tive bio­mark­er val­i­da­tion. Because late tumour diag­no­sis remains one of the great­est chal­lenges when it comes to a person’s sur­vival. We want to trans­form these research dis­cov­er­ies into clin­i­cal tools can sig­nif­i­cant­ly enhance patient care and save lives.

What was your sci­en­tif­ic career path?

I com­plet­ed a degree in diag­nos­tic lab­o­ra­to­ry sci­ence, a Mas­ter of Sci­ence in Med­i­cine (Lab­o­ra­to­ry) from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Syd­ney and I’ve just fin­ished my PhD in Can­cer Bio­mark­ers. I’m a RCPA Clin­i­cal Sci­en­tist Fel­low­ship trainee in Chem­i­cal Pathol­o­gy and Hon­orary Vis­it­ing Fel­low at UTS, where I sup­port men­tor­ing and edu­ca­tion of future med­ical sci­en­tists. I’m pas­sion­ate about fos­ter­ing inno­va­tion and grow­ing and sup­port­ing future scientists.

Meet David Moss­man – senior sci­en­tist in Newcastle

Tell us about your role and why it matters

I’m a senior sci­en­tist in our Genomics Statewide Sequenc­ing Ser­vice and Mol­e­c­u­lar Med­i­cine Depart­ment locat­ed at John Hunter Hos­pi­tal, New­cas­tle. My team is per­form­ing test­ing for PrOSPeCT (Pre­ci­sion Oncol­o­gy Screen­ing Plat­form enabling Clin­i­cal Tri­als), Australia’s largest can­cer genomics ini­tia­tive. It will pro­vide faster access to the most advanced can­cer fight­ing treat­ments – genom­ic pro­fil­ing and match­ing to pre­ci­sion treat­ments, includ­ing ear­ly-stage clin­i­cal trials.

What was your sci­en­tif­ic career path?

My inter­est in sci­ence start­ed in high school and I com­plet­ed a Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence (Biotech­nol­o­gy) at the Uni­ver­si­ty of New­cas­tle, before going onto to place­ments in the Mol­e­c­u­lar Genet­ics Lab in New­cas­tle, work­ing in clin­i­cal tri­als, and a stint as a researcher at the Hunter Med­ical Research Institute.

Share an inter­est­ing case you’ve worked on

We don’t always hear how our work helps a patient, but one case stands out. A cou­ple of years ago, an oncol­o­gist con­tact­ed us for an urgent test for a patient who was rapid­ly dete­ri­o­rat­ing with an aggres­sive tumour. We were able to per­form rapid test­ing and pro­vide a result that enabled tar­get­ed ther­a­py. The patient respond­ed well and was able to return home short­ly after. The oncol­o­gist called us to thank us for our help, which is the best feed­back a lab could receive.

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