
Dr Ronan Smith
Grant Funded Researcher (A): ReXIL X-ray
Adelaide Medical School
Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences
Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD (as Co-Supervisor) - email supervisor to discuss availability.
I am a physicist working as a postdoctoral researcher within the Cystic Fibrosis Airway Research Group (CFARG)/ Respiratory X-ray Imaging Laboratory (REXIL).
The majority of my work is focused on X-ray Velocimetry (XV), a novel technique for measuring lung function using X-ray imaging. This project is in collaboration with 4DMedical, who commercialised the technique. My work focusses on understanding the spatial and temporal changes seen in XV imaging in our preclinical and clinical trials. Cystic Fibrosis is the main disease we look at, but we are also investigating uses in emphysema, MPS I and lung cancer.
My PhD was in developing methods for dark-field X-ray Imaging, a technique which allows us to see 'texture' in samples through the scattering of X-rays. I am working to apply these methods in respiratory research, as well as other areas such as materials science.
I am interested in all methods of imaging, particularly dynamic X-ray imaging and CT, and have a range of projects available to students from undergraduate to PhD. Please get in touch if you are interested in collaborating or looking for a student project.
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Appointments
Date Position Institution name 2023 - ongoing Post Doctoral Researcher University of Adelaide 2021 - 2022 Beamline Scientist/Consultancy Support University of Southampton -
Language Competencies
Language Competency English Can read, write, speak, understand spoken and peer review -
Education
Date Institution name Country Title 2018 - 2023 University of Southampton United Kingdom PhD 2014 - 2018 Durham University United Kingdom MPhys -
Research Interests
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Journals
Year Citation 2025 Reyne, N., Smith, R., Cmielewski, P., Eikelis, N., Nilsen, K., Louise, J., . . . Donnelley, M. (2025). Functional Lung Imaging Identifies Peripheral Ventilation Changes in ꞵ-ENaC Mice. Respirology, 30(4), 335-345.
Scopus12025 Smith, R., Thomas, C., Nguyen, P., Badiei, A., Eikelis, N., Nilsen, K., . . . Donnelley, M. (2025). Visualising ventilation changes following endobronchial valve placement with x-ray velocimetry functional lung imaging. Physics in Medicine & Biology, 70(13), 8 pages.
2024 Reyne, N., Smith, R., Cmielewski, P., Eikelis, N., Lawrence, M., Louise, J., . . . Donnelley, M. (2024). Assessment of respiratory mechanics and X-ray velocimetry functional imaging in two cystic fibrosis rat models. Scientific Reports, 14(1), 10 pages.
Scopus3 Europe PMC52024 Reyne, N., Cmielewski, P., McCarron, A., Smith, R., Eikelis, N., Pirakalathanan, P., . . . Donnelley, M. (2024). Effect of elexacaftor-tezacaftor-ivacaftor on nasal potential difference and lung function in Phe508del rats. Frontiers in Pharmacology, 15, 1-7.
Scopus5 Europe PMC82024 Smith, R., Morgan, K. S., McCarron, A., Cmielewski, P., Reyne, N., Parsons, D., & Donnelley, M. (2024). Ultra-fastin-vivodirectional dark-field x-ray imaging for visualising magnetic control of particles for airway gene delivery. Phys Med Biol, 69(10), 105025-1-105025-11.
Scopus1 Europe PMC12024 Reyne, N., Cmielewski, P., McCarron, A., Smith, R., Schneider-Futschik, E., Eikelis, N., . . . Donnelley, M. (2024). Corrigendum: Effect of elexacaftor-tezacaftor-ivacaftor on nasal potential difference and lung function in Phe508del rats(Front. Pharmacol., (2024), 15, (1362325), 10.3389/fphar.2024.1362325). Frontiers in Pharmacology, 15, 1428213.
Scopus12023 Galvez-Hernandez, P., Smith, R., Gaska, K., Mavrogordato, M., Sinclair, I., & Kratz, J. (2023). The effect of X-ray computed tomography scan parameters on porosity assessment of carbon fibre reinfored plastics laminates. Journal of Composite Materials, 57(29), 4535-4548.
Scopus52023 Jimenez-Martin, C., Maes, V., Rosini, S., Smith, R., Sinclair, I., Mavrogordato, M., . . . Kratz, J. (2023). Observations of Wrinkling in Non-Crimp Fabrics during Multi-Ply Stack Forming using In situ XCT Scanning. Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing, 176, 107880.
Scopus22023 De Marco, F., Savatović, S., Smith, R., Di Trapani, V., Margini, M., Lautizi, G., & Thibault, P. (2023). High-speed processing of X-ray wavefront marking data with the Unified Modulated Pattern Analysis (UMPA) model.. Optics express, 31(1), 635-650.
Scopus22 WoS1 Europe PMC52022 Smith, R., De Marco, F., Broche, L., Zdora, M. -C., Phillips, N. W., Boardman, R., & Thibault, P. (2022). X-ray directional dark-field imaging using Unified Modulated Pattern Analysis.. PloS one, 17(8), 1-12.
Scopus15 WoS3 Europe PMC72020 Zdora, M. -C., Zanette, I., Walker, T., Phillips, N. W., Smith, R., Deyhle, H., . . . Thibault, P. (2020). X-ray phase imaging with the unified modulated pattern analysis of near-field speckles at a laboratory source.. Applied optics, 59(8), 2270-2275.
Scopus17 WoS11 Europe PMC2- Johnston, J., Donnelley, M., Smith, R., Louise, J., Grunert, J., La Vanda, C., & Tai, A. (n.d.). Real-World Outcomes after Initiation of Elexacaftor/Tezacaftor/Ivacaftor in an Adolescent Cohort with Cystic Fibrosis. -
Conference Papers
Year Citation 2024 Reyne, N., Cmielewski, P., Smith, R., Eikelis, N., Nilsen, K., Mall, M., . . . Donnelley, M. (2024). X-ray Velocimetry detects peripheral lung ventilation defects in ßENaC mice. In RESPIROLOGY Vol. 29 (pp. 166). WILEY. 2023 Smith, R., Boardman, R., & Thibault, P. (2023). Speckle-based directional dark-field x-ray imaging with a liquid-metal-jet source. In PROCEEDINGS OF THE 15TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON X-RAY MICROSCOPY – XRM2022 Vol. 2990 (pp. 040014). Hsinchu, Taiwan: AIP Publishing.
DOI Scopus12023 De Marco, F., Savatović, S., Riedel, M., Smith, R., Di Trapani, V., Margini, M., . . . Thibault, P. (2023). High-speed analysis of speckle-based imaging data with unified modulated pattern analysis (UMPA). In AIP Conference Proceedings Vol. 2990 (pp. 040011). Online: American Institute of Physics.
DOI2022 Martin, C. J., Smith, R., Mavrogordato, M., Rosini, S., Maes, V., Sinclair, I., . . . Kratz, J. (2022). TIME RESOLVED IN-SITU CT SCANNING OF NON-CRIMP FABRIC FORMING. In ECCM 2022 - Proceedings of the 20th European Conference on Composite Materials: Composites Meet Sustainability Vol. 2 (pp. 1052-1059). Lausanne, Switzerland: Composite Construction Laboratory (CCLab).
DOI Scopus1 -
Preprint
Year Citation 2024 Le Houx, J., Fletcher, D. M., Leonardi, A., Williams, K. A., Walker, N., Alvarez-Borges, F., . . . Ruiz, S. (2024). Illuminating root-soil mechanics.
DOI2024 How, Y. Y., Reyne, N., Croughan, M. K., Cmielewski, P., Batey, D., Costello, L. F., . . . Morgan, K. S. (2024). In vivo 4D x-ray dark-field lung imaging in mice. 2024 Reyne, N., Smith, R., Cmielewski, P., Eikelis, N., Nilsen, K., Louise, J., . . . Donnelley, M. (2024). Functional lung imaging identifies peripheral ventilation changes in mice with muco-obstructive lung disease.
DOI
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Current Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)
Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name 2024 Co-Supervisor Understanding and improving gene vector targeting with lentiviral magnetic nanoparticles Doctor of Philosophy under a Jointly-awarded Degree Agreement with Doctorate Part Time Ms Madison Michelle Davis
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