Dr. Vanessa Clifford

Featured Researcher

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Dr. Vanessa Clifford is a paediatric infectious physician and microbiologist working at the Royal Children’s Hospital and Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne, with a PhD in infectious diseases. She is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne and at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.

 

Vanessa has been the medical lead for Lifeblood Milk since 2017. She provides oversight of milk donor selection and management at Lifeblood Milk and co-leads the Lifeblood Milk research program with Dr. Laura Klein.

Quick facts about Vanessa

I am very lucky- I work across multiple settings and roles- so every day is different and interesting, and usually full of new questions and challenges. I’m an infectious disease physician at the Royal Children’s Hospital and The Women’s Hospital in Melbourne, where I also work as a diagnostic microbiologist. I’m also medical lead for Lifeblood Milk, and a researcher at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.

I love to rock climb and bushwalk but opportunities to head outdoors for weekend trips have reduced since we had children! I’m lucky to have a community vegetable garden plot – spending time there in the summer evenings is one of my favourite activities.

I spent quite a bit of time travelling in Russia in the 1990s. Whilst studying at St Petersburg state university, I had the opportunity to take trains across Siberia to Lake Baikal, and then head south to ski in the Caucasus near Mount Elbrus. My favourite time was a winter spent volunteering at Kitezh Children’s Community, a therapeutic community for orphans, south of Moscow.

I love learning and I’ve been lucky to have the opportunity over two decades to study across a broad range of disciplines, in both science and the humanities. I’ve university degrees in Russian, history, philosophy of science, as well as medicine, microbiology, epidemiology and public health. Unexpectedly these disparate interests have really helped in my role as medical lead for Lifeblood Milk since 2017. Human milk doesn’t fit neatly in to a specialty discipline, requiring expertise from so many people: neonatologists, lactation consultants, dietitians, midwives and nurses, dairy experts, food microbiologists, psychologists and many others including hospitals, government and researchers. It has been a privilege to meet so many dedicated people working to ensure that preterm babies get the best start in life.

 

My hospital clinical work has been incredible busy over the past two years with the COVID-19 pandemic, and I’m very grateful to have been awarded a Murdoch Children’s Research Institute Clinician Scientist fellowship in 2022, which will enable me to dedicate more time to donor human milk research; particularly looking at which specific cohorts of babies may benefit from donor milk. 

Be the change you wish to see in the world

In Milk banking, donor selection is about ensuring the safety and quality of the donated milk for its intended recipients, and it’s also about ensuring that prospective donors come to no harm through the experience of donation. With milk donation, it is imperative to be aware of the existing breastfeeding relationship between the donor mother and her own infant, and ensure that we do not harm this relationship.

 

In her recent DoRN Week of Talks presentation, Vanessa talks about Lifeblood’s Milk service- highlighting why the organisation exists and how they fit within the national blood service. She also discusses Lifeblood’s Milk donor recruitment processes and how they process donated milk. Finally, Vanessa discusses some of her recent reviews of donor selection in terms of donor demographics and donor deferrals, and her long-term research plans.

 

To learn more about Vanessa’s work, please click on the free video below:

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