Pursuing answers for the youngest patients

Toyin Oladimeji never planned on being a doctor. Growing up on the campus of Obafemi Awolowo University in southern Nigeria, both her parents were doctors, and more than 80 percent of the students in her science-focused high school planned to do medicine.

She would be different.

“I decided I would be an engineer. But one day my mother asked ‘Why don’t you consider medicine...”

And so, perhaps inevitably, Oladimeji ended up training to be a doctor, getting a place at Obafemi, the same university where she’d grown up – studying medicine, living in hall, but popping back for home-cooked meals, to hand over washing, or to hang out at her mother’s consulting room.

She started thinking about research even as an undergraduate, researching how lifestyle choices impact the risk of chronic diseases. But her resolve strengthened once she started working.

“I realised many things we do in the clinical space are not backed up by high-quality research. People have the attitude ‘This is just how we do things’. I realised we needed high-quality research, knowledge and skills to make changes in clinical practice and improve outcomes.”

So Oladimeji applied for postgraduate study at the University of New South Wales – and she loved it.

“Even during the first months of doing my masters, I thought ‘I want to do more research’,” she says. “A PhD would offer time, depth, and practical hands-on experience.”
 

A couple of years after finishing her masters, Oladimeji started her PhD at the Liggins Institute working with top neonatal specialist Distinguished Professor Dame Jane Harding.

“I explored how exposure to high glucose concentrations in the womb might impact child health. Every year, gestational diabetes impacts millions of pregnancies, including thousands in Australia and New Zealand.”

Children whose mothers experience gestational diabetes are known to have poorer outcomes compared to those whose mothers had normal blood glucose in pregnancy. Problems include being larger at birth (and therefore being more at risk of a difficult delivery), having low blood sugar, and experiencing breathing difficulties. Long-term they are more prone to developing obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

“My research looked at which babies develop complications, and how to prevent these. The goal was to highlight opportunities in clinical practice, policy development, and research to improve child outcomes.”

Professor Harding calls Oladimeji a “delightful, hardworking student who wanted to make the most of her time to learn many different kinds of research skills and was always thoughtful and careful in all her research.”

She published six articles during her PhD, including four that were first-authored, and won five awards for her research and writing, Harding says. 

The enthusiasm is reciprocal.

“Research at the Liggins is amazing if one is doing early life or child health,” Oladimeji says. “There was always support around – my supervisory team always gave me help when I needed it, and there were really good connections with other students. Plus there is access to systems that made things work, including seminars and presentations.

“Liggins is a great place.”