Dr Susanne Ilschner
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About
Susanne Ilschner was born in the middle of the city of Essen (German: food), maybe that’s why she was diagnosed with a “Misdirected behaviour regarding food intake” (not eating enough, according to post war standards) at age 3. Despite this disadvantage, she managed to pass through Kindergarten and primary school without any remarkable incidents. She even had a special permission to skip swimming lessons to avoid hypothermia. The CEG highschool, at its heyday, was outstanding as its teaching of art and music enjoyed equal rights to a long list of other subjects. This education was followed by music for a diploma in Bayreuth, then medicine in Vienna and Erlangen, with internships in India (Ayurveda) and Australia at the Royal Canberra Hospital, which was imploded immediately after, and Visual Art (ANU). Her medical doctoral work identified the retinal ganglion cell response in the human pattern electroretinogram, from where she worked in visual neuroscience, slowly shifting across to more clinical work and research interests. Now she is a PhD candidate at the ANU, pulling together her experience in lab, clinic and art to evaluate pathways to and meaning of a diagnosis of endometriosis, and gaining deeper insight into the socio-political context of disease. Her current project is engaging with biological questions of pathogenesis and fluid biopsy for diagnosis, involving extracellular vesicles analysed by microspectroscopy and microscopical methods.
Other Projects:
- Activism for “Duty or Care?”
- Therapeutic music teaching
- Neurofeedback
- Eating more
Affiliations
Research interests
ORCID: 0000-0003-1828-6636
Endometriosis:
- Qualitative study using co-constructed graphics to enquire about processes and events leading to a diagnosis and its consequent possible impact.
- Wet-lab study, identifying and investigating a possible role of extracellular vesicles in pathogenesis and diagnosis of endometriosis.
- Communication about endometriosis using non-verbal expression, such as visual and performing art. Funded by the Gender Institute (ANU) and ArtsACT.
Lab work S.I. 2018:
Neuroscience:
- Neurofeedback, vision research (outside PhD research)
Location
Florey Building, 54 Mills Road, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 2601
Publications
Korth, M., Ilschner, and S. Sembritzki, O. (1987) Retinal receptive fields under different adaptation levels studied with pattern-evoked ERG. Graefes Arch. Clin. Exp. Ophthalmol. 225: 63-9.
Clark, I. A., Ilschner, S., MacMicking, J.D. and Cowden, W. B. (1990) TNF and Plasmodium berghei Anka-induced cerebral malaria. Immunol. Lett. 25: 195-198.
Ilschner, S. U. and Waring, P. (1992) Fragmentation of DNA in the retina of chicken embryos coincides with retinal ganglion cell death". Biochem. Biophys. Res. Comm. 183: 1056-1061
Brockhaus, J.; Ilschner, S.; Banati, R.; Kettenmann, H. (1993) Membrane properties of ameboid microglial cells in the corpus callosum from early postnatal mice. J. Neurosci. 13: 4412-4421.
Walz, W., Ilschner, S.,Ohlemeyer, C.; Banati, R., Kettenmann, H. (1993) Extracellular ATP activates a cation conductance and a K+ conductance in cultured microglial cells from mouse brain. J. Neurosci. 13: 4403-4411.
Kettenmann, H. Ilschner. S. (1993) Physiological properties of microglia. Clin. Neuropathol. 12:306-307.
Ilschner, S., Ohlemeyer, C. Gimpl, G. and Kettenmann, H. (1995) Regulation of potassium currents in cultured mouse microglia by receptor activation and intracellular messengers. Neuroscience, 66, 983-1000.
Ilschner, S., Nolte, C. and Kettenmann, H. (1996) Complement factor C5a and epidermal growth factor trigger the activation of outward potassium currents in cultured murine microglia. Neuroscience, 73, 1109-1120.
Ilschner, S. and Brandt, R. (1996) The transition of microglia to a ramified type is accompanied by the formation of stable acetylated microtubules. Glia, 18, 129-140.
Kumar, R., Dear, K.B.G., Christensen, H., Ilschner, S., Jorm, A.F., Meslin, C., Rosenman, S.J. & Sachdev, P.S. (2004) Prevalence of mild cognitive impairment in 60 to 64 year old community-dwelling individuals: The Personality and Total Health Through Life 60+ Study. Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders, 19, 67-74.
Stuart, G.J, Ilschner, S.U, Kampa, B.M., Ruben, P.C. (2008) Action potential generation requires a high sodium channel density in the axon initial segment. Nat Neurosci.11(2):178-86.
Lucas, R.M., Byrne, S.N., Correale, J., Ilschner, S., Hart, P.H. (2015) Ultraviolet radiation, vitamin D and multiple sclerosis. Neurodegener. Dis. Manag.
Apthorp, D., Smith, A., Ilschner S.U., Das, C., Lueck, C.J., Jeffrey, C.L., Looi JCL (2020) Postural sway correlates with cognition and quality of life in Parkinson's disease. BMJ Neurol Open 2. e000086.
Ilschner, S., Neeman, T., Parker, M., Phillips, C. (2022) Communicating Endometriosis Pain in France and Australia: An Interview Study (2022). Vol. 3, Frontiers in Global Women’s Health.