Eskedar Mekonnen and Rashmi Baid are the Healthy Development Adelaide and Channel 7 Children’s Research Foundation PhD Excellence Award winners for 2025.

The Channel 7 Children’s Research Foundation has been a proud sponsor of the PhD Excellence Awards for 18 years, standing with Healthy Development Adelaide to help foster research excellence and career development in South Australia.

Congratulations to both our worthy winners, who will each receive $5,000 per annum for three years to augment their scholarships.

Understanding the impact of complications in pregnancy on longer term health trajectories.

Eskedar Mekonnen is a PhD candidate within the Robinson Research Institute at the University of Adelaide. Eskedar’s research project focusses on complicated pregnancies and their long-term effects on offspring health, through the lens of biological aging.

This project will investigate whether complications during pregnancy influence the development of metabolic syndrome in offspring. It will also explore the role of epigenetic modification, such as DNA methylation, and telomere length. Grounded in life course epidemiology, this project will focus on exploring the impact of cardiometabolic risk factors and adverse events during pregnancy on the health trajectories of offspring as they grow into adulthood.

The project is supervised by Dr Jessica Grieger, and co-supervised by Dr Tina Bianco-Miotto and Dr Kai Liu, University of Adelaide.

Eskedar says “I am sincerely grateful and honoured to receive the HDA and the Channel 7 Children’s Research Foundation PhD Excellence Award for 2025. Understanding the roots of health, particularly during pregnancy, is key to nurturing future generations. Our project will contribute to the progress toward healthy growth and optimal development for children and adolescents by exploring the risk of health and disease and identifying key intervention points. The support from this award provides a valuable opportunity to build a professional network and foster collaboration, thus broadening the impact of this project.”

Informing improved treatment and outcomes for recurrent pregnancy loss.

Rashmi Baid is a PhD candidate at the Robinson Research Institute at the University of Adelaide. Rashmi’s research project focuses on endocrine and immune dysfunction as determinants of recurrent pregnancy loss and the clinical efficacy of Metformin in improving outcomes.

This project seeks to identify the biological basis of recurrent pregnancy loss, which affects 5% of women, with the cause remaining unknown in 50% of cases. By uncovering key metabolic and immunological mechanisms, her work aims to pave the way for more personalised and targeted treatment strategies, ultimately improving pregnancy outcomes and reproductive care.

This project is supervised by Professor Louise Hull and co-supervised by Professor Sarah Robertson and Dr Lachlan Moldenhauer from the University of Adelaide.

Rashmi says “I am honoured to receive the Healthy Development Adelaide and Channel 7 Children’s Research Foundation PhD Excellence Award 2025 and grateful for the recognition and support of my research.”