Thesis Submission Congratulations: Sachini Gunasekera "Identifying and Characterising the Endolymphatic Sac in the Adult Sheep"
Thesis Submission Congratulations: Sachini Gunasekera "Identifying and Characterising the Endolymphatic Sac in the Adult Sheep"
We’re excited to share another big milestone from our research group: Sachini has submitted her Master of Audiology (MAud) thesis! Congratulations on an excellent achievement and a substantial piece of work.
Sachini’s project focused on a key structure in the sheep inner ear called the endolymphatic sac (ES), which is strongly linked to endolymphatic hydrops, the clinical hallmark associated with Ménière’s disease.
Ménière’s disease is a debilitating condition affecting both balance and hearing. One of the major barriers to developing better treatments is that we still don’t fully understand what drives hydrops, and we also lack a definitive, reliable animal model. Sachini’s work lays important groundwork for using sheep as a large-animal model for hydrops research in the future. This could be something especially promising because sheep inner-ear size and anatomy can be closer to humans than smaller mammal models. In her thesis, Sachini has located and defined the ES and endolymphatic duct (ED) in adult sheep using microCT data analysis and built 3D reconstructions. She has also developed a dissection approach for preserved adult sheep temporal bones, and identified key landmarks (including a small difference in ES fossa location compared with humans) to reliably find the ES/ED. Sachini then imaged isolated ES/ED fluorescence confocal microscopy, revealing complex cellular architecture and intriguing extracellular matrix structures.
This is foundational work towards using sheep as an animal model; the use of a large animal alternative model could move toward better models of endolymphatic hydrops and supporting future research that links inner-ear structure, fluid regulation, and the mechanisms behind Ménière’s disease.
Huge congratulations, Sachini!
Most importantly: congratulations to Sachini on her thesis submission and on the care, creativity, and persistence that went into this research.
We’re also thrilled to share that Sachini is moving on to her next chapter being clinical audiologist. Sachini is starting work as an audiologist with Bay Audiology in April in Kerikeri. Sachini, best wishes for a fantastic start to your audiology career. We’re so excited to see what you do next. Keep in touch!