DEVELOPING UPPER LIMB MOTOR BIOMARKERS OF DEMENTIA
With
Kaylee Rudd,
Junior Research Fellow,
Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre
University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania
RESEARCHER PROFILE
Filmed in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia | February 2026
Kaylee is currently a research fellow with the Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre at the University of Tasmania. She has recently submitted her PhD thesis, reporting the findings of her research on developing upper limb motor biomarkers of dementia. She has postgrad degrees in physiotherapy and experience working in the community and aged care across Tasmania for several years, where she worked with people with dementia.
Her experience underlined the importance of detecting cognitive impairment early and prompted her to join the Wicking to research dementia in 2021. Her research aims to better understand how movement is associated with cognition and to identify potential hand motor tests to help detect those at risk of developing cognitive impairment early.
One of the main highlights of her research experience has been close and regular collaboration with participants and team members of the ISLAND Clinic and the Tasmanian ISLAND Project.
Currently she coordinates the TapTalk project, a multi-level RHHRF funded project, which aims to develop a non-invasive screening test to detect risk of Alzheimer’s disease pathology.
Kaylee also contributes to national and international research projects. Examples are her work with the multisite Australian Dementia Network (ADNeT) study investigating the impact of blood-based biomarkers knowledge on clinician’s diagnostic confidence, and her ongoing collaboration with the AI-assisted motor biomarkers team in the University of Leeds, UK.
Collaborations and funding from
- Wicking Dementia research and Education Centre, University of Tasmania
- Royal Hobart Hospital, Tasmanian Health Service
- Royal Hobart Hospital Research Foundation (RHHRF)
Source: Supplied and adapted
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8073-8691
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Life-changing donor milk for preterm babies
Dr Laura Klein is National Milk Research Leader at Australian Red Cross Lifeblood. Australian Red Cross Lifeblood is funded by Australian governments to provide life-giving blood, plasma, and transplantation and biological products.
Dr Klein works with clinicians and researchers across Australia to understand how donated breast milk can be used to improve outcomes for vulnerable babies. She’s passionate about generating evidence to improve the products and services that milk banks provide to donors and the families who receive donated breast milk.
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Benefits of prehabilitation ahead of surgery
Dr Matthew Wallen PhD, AES, AEP is a Senior Research Fellow in Cancer Survivorship, the Deputy Lead of the Cancer Survivorship Program, and a Senior Lecturer in Exercise Science and Clinical Exercise Physiology within the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at Flinders University, in South Australia. His clinical interest focuses on improving outcomes for people requiring major surgery, specifically (1) lifestyle interventions, including exercise, nutritional, and psychological support to improve the health and wellbeing of people prior to surgery, termed ‘prehabilitation’, (2) novel physical function assessments aimed at identifying people at risk of treatment-related complications, and (3) implementation of new models of care in cancer.
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Interventions for improving outcomes of children who are deaf or hard of hearing
Dr Rithin Nedumannil (MBBS, MPH, FRACP, FRCPA) is a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne, undertaking his doctoral studies in collaboration with the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute (Cambridge, UK) and the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre (Melbourne, Australia). He is a clinical haematologist and haematopathologist with current appointments at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Austin Health and Northern Health.
