The University of South Australia (UniSA)

Australia

In 2016, the University of South Australia (UniSA) celebrates its 25th birthday. We are a young university, continuing to set the pace for world-class research and solutions for a changing world. As Australia’s University of Enterprise, the spirit of enterprise runs through everything we do.

Our research is inspired by challenges and opportunities, partnered with end-users and communities, and underpinned by excellence. We work collaboratively with our partners right from the conception of a research idea, allowing our research directions to be shaped by their opportunities and challenges.

UniSA’s strong commitment to cutting-edge research and engagement with industry has been well recognised, with 97 per cent of our research rated at or above world-class standard (Excellence for Research in Australia 2015). This is an impressive result for a young university, and we are proud of our achievements.

Our research culture is vibrant, outward facing and responsive. We pride ourselves on our capacity to create interdisciplinary teams that can tackle significant real-world challenges, and our researchers strive to make a difference outside the world of academe.

We are globally connected and engaged, helping solve the problems of industry and the professions. Our teaching is industry-informed, our research inventive and adventurous, and focused on creating impact. Through our research, we create knowledge that is central to global economic and social prosperity.

1 October 2017 - 30 September 2018

Region: Global
Subject/journal group: All

The table to the right includes counts of all research outputs for The University of South Australia (UniSA) published between 1 October 2017 - 30 September 2018 which are tracked by the Nature Index.

Hover over the donut graph to view the FC output for each subject. Below, the same research outputs are grouped by subject. Click on the subject to drill-down into a list of articles organized by journal, and then by title.

Note: Articles may be assigned to more than one subject area.

AC	FC
58	10.14

Outputs by subject (FC)

Subject	AC	FC
Earth & Environmental Sciences	13	3.23
Life Sciences	25	2.11
Physical Sciences	17	1.61
Chemistry	11	3.65

Highlight of the month

Liver-on-a-chip for testing drug toxicity

A microfluidic device designed to grow liver cell cultures in three dimensions offers a new platform for testing the toxicity of drug compounds.

A team co-led by researchers from the University of South Australia engineered a ‘liver-on-a-chip’, which had a silicon base etched with tiny channels that mimic blood vessels in the liver. When they coated the device with mouse liver cells, which are ordinarily difficult to culture in the lab, the cells thrived and secreted high levels of proteins and metabolites.

The researchers then added three common drugs, which had known liver-associated side effects. The drugs were metabolized in the chip and affected cellular health in ways similar to those documented in living mice, demonstrating the potential of using the bioartificial liver as an alternative to animal models for toxicology studies.

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