Fakhria Kakar, or Hila as she’s better known, is a hospital scientist and trainee clinical scientist at NSW Health Pathology’s Immunopathology Laboratory at Westmead Hospital. She was recently awarded a grant from the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (RCPA) to further her studies.

Hila is the lead sci­en­tist on a ground-break­ing project at NSW Health Pathol­o­gy that has seen the organ­i­sa­tion devel­op Australia’s first NATA-accred­it­ed blood test, serum Neu­ro­fil­a­ment light (NfL), to mon­i­tor neu­rode­gen­er­a­tive dis­eases like mul­ti­ple sclerosis.

In late 2024, the RCPA select­ed Hila as the inau­gur­al recip­i­ent of its Fac­ul­ty of Sci­ence Finan­cial Sup­port Grant, designed to assist those cur­rent­ly study­ing the RCPA Fac­ul­ty of Sci­ence (FSc) Fel­low­ship train­ing program.

Hila says she’s grate­ful for the finan­cial assis­tance as she enters the final year of the five-year train­ing program.

In addi­tion to her stud­ies, Hila serves as an RCPA FSc trainee rep­re­sen­ta­tive. One of her biggest achieve­ments as a trainee rep­re­sen­ta­tive was advo­cat­ing for a reduc­tion in exam and reg­is­tra­tion fees for RCPA FSc trainees. This achieve­ment was cel­e­brat­ed by over 50 RCPA FSc trainees across Aus­tralia and New Zealand.

Hila says that work­ing as a trainee clin­i­cal sci­en­tist means active­ly par­tic­i­pat­ing in and learn­ing about var­i­ous aspects of the Immunopathol­o­gy discipline.

“Some days, I’ll be work­ing on the bench, test­ing and analysing sam­ples. Oth­er days, I could be train­ing reg­is­trars, writ­ing Stan­dard Oper­at­ing Pro­ce­dures (SOPs) for lab­o­ra­to­ry equip­ment, par­tic­i­pat­ing in study groups, writ­ing my own notes, prepar­ing for exams, work­ing on research projects, or devel­op­ing new assays,” she said.

“It is most reward­ing know­ing that my work is an impor­tant part of the big­ger pic­ture of patient care.”

One of Hila’s career high­lights dur­ing her RCPA FSc train­ing has been her work on what’s known as serum Neu­ro­fil­a­ment light (NfL) testing.

“We are now the first lab­o­ra­to­ry in Aus­trala­sia to have a serum NfL assay accred­it­ed by NATA, the Nation­al Asso­ci­a­tion of Test­ing Author­i­ties,” she says.

“This means patients can avoid hav­ing a lum­bar punc­ture and instead just do a blood test for NfL to mon­i­tor neu­rode­gen­er­a­tive dis­eases like mul­ti­ple sclerosis.”

“This is a game-chang­er for patients, as blood col­lec­tion is a much less inva­sive pro­ce­dure. It’s quick and reduces over­all risks to the patients.”

Hila says the next stage of her work will be expand­ing the test­ing to include Alzheimer’s Dis­ease plas­ma biomarkers.

Her lab­o­ra­to­ry super­vi­sor, A/Prof Ming Wei Lin, describes Hila as an out­stand­ing scientist.

“She is an excep­tion­al trainee, and the RCPA should be very proud of her con­tri­bu­tions,” she says.

“She is the sci­en­tif­ic face of Immunopathol­o­gy and an asset to our lab­o­ra­to­ry here at Westmead.”

Immunol­o­gy Lab­o­ra­to­ry Man­ag­er at West­mead, David McDon­ald also praised Hila for her hard work and dedication.

“While study­ing for the Fac­ul­ty of Sci­ence fel­low­ship, Hila has not only improved her own skills and knowl­edge, but she has applied those to projects such as NfL, to also ben­e­fit the organ­i­sa­tion and patients.”

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