Morgan Davidson: Game, Set and Microscope

It was perhaps a love for cutting things that lead teenager Morgan Davidson to decide to give up her place in the state tennis team to focus on her studies.

“I always wanted to become a scientist,” she says. “From as long as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to be a surgeon or a hairdresser.”

Fortunately for people with lung diseases, the scalpel won over the scissors and Morgan completed a Bachelor of Science with majors in anatomy and physiology. Having missed getting into medicine, she phoned the human resources sections at all the hospitals in Brisbane looking for a job that matched her skills.

She was offered a position as an Honours student with Dr Raelene Bowman in Queensland’s biggest thoracic research lab, managed by Associate Professor Kwun Fong at The Prince Charles Hospital.

Her accidental Honours project looked at how cell proteins in the airways which stop cells dying also stopped lung cancer cells from dying. The following year, Morgan was accepted into the joint medicine-surgery degree at the University of Queensland.

The course is structured to include Morgan’s PhD, so after two years of medicine, Morgan returned to the thoracic lab in 2006 for two years of PhD study.

“The best thing about working here is the people. It’s a fantastic lab. Everyone’s so supportive. There’s a direct clinical application with our research.”

Her research is profiling microRNAs, recently discovered genetic material, in different types of lung cancers related to smoking and asbestos as well as recurrent cancers. She hopes the research will show whether microRNAs are involved in cancer development and possibly help with treatments or diagnosis.

“I definitely have an interest in respiratory medicine and a strange passion for anatomical pathology so I guess that’s where I’m looking long term in terms of a speciality.”

In 2009 Mogan returns to medicine to study surgery through UQ’s Northside Clinical School, headed by her lab colleague Associate Professor Ian Yang. She’ll also be writing her thesis and conducting more research in the thoracic lab.

She’s hoping her recently retired parents might move down from the Sunshine Coast to take care of her while she’s doing working time and a half at uni and in the lab.

After years of working with tissue samples in the lab, Morgan’s also hoping her surgical training will allow her to watch the lung tissue being collected.

“I love medicine. I love medical science. I think it’s everyone’s dream that works in this area that one day you might find something that might help a patient... I’d like to balance the research and the medical side. Kwun, Raelene and Ian are role models for me.”