Rate My Professor Rima Caccetta

Dr. Rima Caccetta is a Lecturer and teaching and research academic in the Curtin Medical School, Faculty of Health Sciences, at Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia. She earned her Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Medicine from the University of Western Australia between 1996 and 2001, specializing in the Department of Medicine and Pharmacology at Royal Perth Hospital, and holds a Bachelor of Science (BSc) with Honours from the same university. Throughout her career at Curtin, she has supervised postgraduate students pursuing Master of Philosophy (MPhil) and PhD degrees. Caccetta has received notable awards and honors, including Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) in 2022, the Curtinnovation Humanities Award from Curtin University, recognition in the 2021 Curtinnovation Awards as part of a team developing innovative products, and a $3,200 scholarship in 2020 from the City of Canning to participate in the Curtin Ignition program.

Her research focuses on pharmacology, drug discovery, and delivery systems, particularly transdermal delivery of therapeutic peptides, acyl lipidation effects on epidermal permeability, skin penetration enhancement via technologies like Dermaportation, and antioxidant properties of dietary phenolic compounds such as those in red wine polyphenols and tea on lipoprotein oxidation. Current interests integrate diabetes mellitus management through herbal sources like Teucrium polium, atherosclerosis, psychotropic medication use in autistic individuals, community pharmacists' understanding of autism spectrum disorder, probiotics applications in autoimmune diseases, and haemocyte morphometric characteristics in Western Australian freshwater crayfish. Key publications include 'The use of psychotropic medications in autistic individuals (21 years and younger) in Western Australia: A preliminary investigation' (2024), 'Insulinotropic effect of Teucrium polium; Identification of potential mechanistic drug targets' (2024), 'Teucrium polium: Potential Drug Source for Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus' (2022), 'An evaluation of community pharmacists’ understanding of autism spectrum disorder: a cross-sectional study in Western Australia' (2019), and 'Acyl lipidation of a peptide: effects on activity and epidermal permeability in vitro' (2016). With over 1,400 citations across 21 publications, her contributions advance antidiabetic therapies, neurodiversity research, and skin biology.