Doctor Rena Hirani

Dr Rena Hirani

Dr Rena Hirani

Senior Research Fellow

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Rena's work involves analysing molecular changes in patients who receive a blood transfusion, such as microchimerism.

She also analyses how blood components are used in hospitals with the aim of providing a better understanding of blood component usage and safety and improving outcomes for transfusion patients.  More recently she has worked in a large collaborative team to provide data to Australian Governments on the spread of COVID19 and other diseases which impact the Australian community.

Rena received her PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology from the University of Adelaide. Before joining Lifeblood, she worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow designing DNA nanomachines for point-of-care diagnosis and in developmental biology.

Awards
  • Lifeblood CEO award (2023)
  • Top 10 manuscript in The Medical Journal of Australia in 2022 (2023)
  • Awarded a CSL Behring Travel Grant (2022)
  • UNSW Founders’ Health 10X program invitation (2020)
  • Singapore trauma conference — best free paper oral presentation (2015)
Leadership
  • PhD student supervisor
  • STEM outreach via national media, public seminars, student letter exchanges and mentorship
  • Editor for PLOS ONE
  • Peer-reviewer for numerous journals and conferences
  • Examiner for student theses, Dean’s awards and Masters programs

Key publications

The distribution of ABO RhD blood groups in Australia, based on blood donor and blood sample pathology data.
Hirani R, Weinert N, and Irving DO
2022
The Medical Journal of Australia
216 (6): 291-295.
Emerging Microfluidic Devices for Sample Preparation of Undiluted Whole Blood to Enable the Detection of Biomarkers
Rey Gomez LM, Hirani R, Care A, Inglis DW, Wang Y
2023
ACS Sensors
8: 1404-1421
Association between Blood Donor Demographics and Post-Injury Multiple Organ Failure after Polytrauma.
Amico F, Efird JT, Briggs GD, Lott NJ, King KL, Hirani R and Balogh ZJ
2023
Annals of Surgery
277: e170-e174
Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies in Sydney, Australia following the first epidemic wave in 2020
Gidding HF, Machalek DA, Hendry AJ, Quinn HE, Vette K, Beard FH, Shilling HS, Hirani R, Gosbell IB, Irving DO, Hueston L, Downes M, Carlin JB, O'Sullivan MV, Dwyer DE, Kaldor JM and Macartney K
2021
The Medical Journal of Australia
214 (4): 179-185.
Donor white blood cell survival and cytokine profiles following red blood cell transfusion in Australian major trauma patients
Hirani R, Dean MM, Balogh ZJ, Lott NJ, Seggie J, Hsu JM, Taggart S, Maitz P, Survela L, Joseph A, Gillett M and Irving DO
2018
Molecular Immunology
103; 229-234