Former FEN graduate student receives international mention.

A doctor graduated from the Graduate Program of the Faculty of Nursing, receives mention from the Macquarie Matters website, in the category of women who changed the world.

Dr Dayane De Melo Costa (PhD in Biomedical Science 2017) – Postdoctoral Researcher at the Federal University of Goiá

Dr Dayane Costa is an early-career researcher in infection control (two PhD degrees, Cotutelle Australia/Brazil), and her major research achievements and contributions are related to biofilm formation/removal, on cleaning/disinfection of environmental surfaces, and on cleaning/disinfection/sterilisation of reusable medical devices.

She has an outstanding publication record relative to opportunity (three years post-PhD completion), evidenced by her publication record (22 journal refereed articles, 9 from her PhD thesis), including first author publications in two of the most important international infection control journals (Journal of Hospital Infection – Impact Factor – 3.271 and American Journal of Infection Control – Impact Factor – 2.294).

She also has 28 abstracts published in refereed journal and is a reviewer for the American Journal of Infection Control. Her studies on surface cleaning/disinfection and reprocessing of reusable medical devices have impacted her research field, as evidenced by the numerous grants she has received to present at international infection control conferences, including the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (USA), the Healthcare Infection Society (UK), and an oral presentation at the prestigious World Sterilization Conference.

She has received various awards, notably the 2017 Dean’s Award for Excellence in Higher Degree Research from Macquarie University. Due to her outstanding research achievements, she currently holds a postdoctoral research position in Brazil, and is an investigator in a multicentre research, on four continents, which has shown dry-surface biofilm, encasing multidrug-resistant organisms, showing current cleaning and disinfection measures are ineffective and a worldwide problem scenario. Partial results were published in the Letters in Applied Microbiology, and recognized as TOP Downloaded Paper 2018-2019, also a biofilm micrograph was selected to be this journal cover (vol-69, issue-6, 2019). It was  presented in the SHEA Spring 2017 Conference, and has been positively commended by the Contagion® Live Infectious Diseases Today, an infectious disease news resource for practitioners (USA).

Her PhD research presented new and significant findings about the critical challenges of rendering complex-design surgical instruments and implants microbiologically safe, highlighting the need for design and manufacture of these devices considering cleanability.