Associate Professor Gila Moalem-Taylor
- PhD in Neurobiology (Graduated 2001, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel). Thesis: T cell immune response in the injured central nervous system.
Moalem-Taylor graduated with a PhD from the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. She was then awarded a Rothschild Postdoctoral Fellowship, carried out at The University of Cincinnati Medical Centre (USA). She then moved to the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia, where she was awarded the Vice-Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellowship (2004-2007), followed by the NSW Office of Science and Medical Research Career Development Fellowship (2010-2013). In 2014, she was appointed as a combined track (teaching & research) academic in the Department of Physiology, where she leads the Neuropathic Pain Research Group at the Translational Neuroscience Facility, School of Biomedical Sciences, UNSW. Since her PhD, Moalem-Taylor has worked primarily in the field of neuroimmunology. Her current research focuses on the role of immune cells and their mediators in chronic pain caused by peripheral nerve injury, autoimmune diseases of the nervous system such as multiple sclerosis, and chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy. She manages a team of postdocs, undergraduate research students (Honours), and PhD students. She is also the Postgraduate Coordinator at the School of Biomedical Sciences.
- Publications
- Media
- Grants
- Awards
- Research Activities
- Engagement
- Teaching and Supervision
- NHMRC Project Grant (ID # APP1162060) “Targets and mechanisms in reducing neuropathic pain through immunomodulatory treatments" - Moalem-Taylor G & Butovsky Oleg. $927,520 (2019-2023)
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NHMRC Ideas Grant (ID # APP1187416). “A novel approach for peripheral neuromodulation: Using ionic direct current to treat chronic pain" Moalem-Taylor G., Aplin F., Potas J., & Fridman G. $732,693.60 (2020-2023)
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UNSW Medicine Neuroscience, Mental Health and Addictions Theme and SPHERE Clinical Academic Group Seed Grant – “Nanoconjugates for treating neuropathic pain in an animal model of multiple sclerosis” Moalem-Taylor Gila, Mao Guangzhao and Pascal Carrive (CIs) Housley and Krishnan (AIs) $80,000 (2022-2023)
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MS Australia – “Nanoconjugates for treating neuropathic pain in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, an animal model of MS” Moalem-Taylor Gila, Mao Guangzhao and Pascal Carrive (CIs) Housley, Potas and Krishnan (AIs) $250,000 (2023-2025).
- 2017 UNSW Arc Postgraduate Supervisor Award for excellence in postgraduate research supervision
- 2018 SoMS Award for Higher Degree Research Supervision
- 2018 SoMS Citation Classic Award for three papers that received 50 or more citations over any consecutive 5 years
- 2020 Researcher of the Year Award – SoMS Dec 2020
- 2021 Mid-Career Award - “We are Neuroimmunology” Mid-Career International Society of Neuroimmunology (ISNI) award
As CIA I lead NHMRC grants on preclinical studies in neuropathic pain.
My Research Supervision
I currently supervise several PhD and Honours student projects focusing on:
- Investigating the effects of regulatory T cells and anti-inflammatory cytokines (e.g. IL-35) on glial cell regulation in mouse models of neuropathic pain.
- Investigating sensory neuron and immune/glial cell interactions using in vitro primary cell cultures.
- Novel Neuromodulation approaches to block pain transmission.
- Neuron-targeted nanoconjugates for modulating pain behaviours (with Prof Mao, UNSW).
My Teaching
- Co-convenor of the course NEUR3221 – Neurophysiology
- Postgraduate Coordinator, School of Medical Sciences.