BEST researchers acclaimed at Motor Neurone Disease Australia Awards
Congratulations to BEST researchers Dr Nicole Sheers and Dr Marnie Graco on their nominations in this year's Motor Neurone Disease Australia (MNDA) Excellence Awards.
Dr Nicole Sheers was awarded the Allied Health Professional Award for 2026. The award, presented at the MNDA gala dinner in September, recognised her extraordinary contribution as a clinician-researcher to the lives of people living with Motor Neurone Disease (MND) and their families.
For more than 16 years, Dr Nicole Sheers has worked in respiratory care, improving outcomes for people living with MND and other respiratory conditions, through direct clinical care, service innovation, education and research. Respiratory care is central to quality of life for people living with MND. Almost all people living with MND develop respiratory muscle weakness and experience respiratory compromise and failure. Treatments such as non-invasive ventilation (NIV) - a breathing support device - have been shown to reduce symptoms, improve quality of life and prolong life.
As a senior clinician in the Victorian Respiratory Support Service (VRSS) at Austin Health, Nicole routinely set up patients on non-invasive ventilation (NIV) and managed respiratory complications for people living with MND. In her concurrent role as a project officer at VRSS, she developed innovative patient-centred models of care. This included establishing satellite clinics and early telehealth to bring respiratory care closer to home, as well as co-developing the Day Admission NIV model, which cut waiting times by over two weeks and reduced mortality risk by 41 per cent. In 2025, Nicole led a pilot randomised controlled trial of home-based NIV initiation (NIV@Home trial). These models of care have since been adopted across multiple states — in 2025, more than 50 per cent of the 376 Victorians who started on NIV used the Day Admission model, saving more than 200 multi-day hospital stays annually.
Alongside her clinical and project work, Nicole has chaired and organised clinician networks and training, and contributed to national educational resources for MND. She is a Senior Research Fellow (Physiotherapy, School of Health Sciences) at the University of Melbourne and the current Clinical Innovation stream lead at BEST, coordinating numerous research and clinical studies. Her upcoming Resp-Ed project will extend multidisciplinary collaborations by developing respiratory-specific education for all health professionals involved in the care of people with MND.
Implementation Science stream lead, Dr Marnie Graco, was nominated for the Early Career Researcher Award. Read more about her stream and research on the Implementation Science page.
Pictured: Left Andrew Danson MNDA Chair, Right Dr Nicole Sheers