Chair
Professor Bob Williamson AO FAA FRS
Honorary Senior Principal Fellow of the Murdoch Institute, University of Melbourne and Monash University
Professor Williamson became Professor of Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry at St Mary’s Hospital Medical School, University of London, in 1976, where he remained until 1995 when he moved to Melbourne as Director of the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute and Professor of Medical Genetics. He retired in 2004, and is now an Honorary Senior Principal Fellow of the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, the University of Melbourne, and Monash University. He has more than 400 refereed career publications, including about 40 in Nature, Nature Genetics, Cell and Lancet. He was involved in the identification and cloning of genes for thalassaemia, cystic fibrosis, craniofacial abnormalities, heart disease, Friedreich’s ataxia and Alzheimer’s disease.
More recently Professor Williamson has taken a major interest in national science policy, medical and scientific ethics, and has published widely on stem cell science and the ethics of embryo research. He has advised several premiers, health ministers and ministers for innovation. Although he has retired, until recently he still worked with a small research group trying to coax cord blood stem cells to help treat cystic fibrosis in children. Since retirement he has increased his activity for a number of medical charities, including cystic fibrosis, Friedreich's ataxia and eye diseases.
Professor Trevor Kilpatrick MBBS PhD FRACP
Melbourne Neuroscience Institute, The University of Melbourne
Trevor Kilpatrick is a Professor of Neurology and Director of the Centre for Neuroscience Research and the Melbourne Neuroscience Institute at The University of Melbourne; he is the leader of the MS Division at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health and is a neurologist and Head of the MS Unit at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.
Professor Kilpatrick graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery from the University of Melbourne in 1982 and then went on to specialise in neurology. He undertook graduate studies at The University of Melbourne and gained a Doctor of Philosophy in 1993 and a postdoctoral fellowship at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies (La Jolla, USA).
Professor Kilpatrick’s research interests include the neurobiology of multiple sclerosis, neural precursor cell biology and the study of genetic and environmental factors that contribute to MS as well as the translation of basic research discoveries to the clinic.
Professor Colin Masters FAA FTSE MBBS MD FRCPath FRCPA
Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health and The University of Melbourne
Professor Masters has focused his career on research in Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases, including Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. His work over the past 35 years is widely acknowledged as having had a major influence on Alzheimer’s disease research worldwide. This work has led to the continued development of novel diagnostics and therapeutic strategies.
Professor Masters is currently the Executive Director of the Mental Health Research Institute, and a Laureate Professor at The University of Melbourne. He is also the Senior Deputy Director of the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, the Head of the Mental Health Division at the Florey and a consultant at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. His achievements have been recognised by the receipt of many international awards - including the Potamkin Prize (1990), the Max Planck Research Award (1992), the Zülch Prize (1995), the King Faisal Prize (1996), the Alois Alzheimer Award (1998), the Lennox K Black Prize (2006), the Grand Hamdan Award (2006), the Victoria Prize (2007), and the CSIRO Medal for Research Achievement (2011).
Associate Professor Megan Munsie
Stem Cells Australia
Associate Professor Munsie combines her extensive technical expertise with an interest and understanding of the complex ethical, social and regulatory issues associated with stem cell science. Megan heads the Education, Ethics, Law & Community Awareness Unit at the Australian Research Council (ARC) funded Stem Cells Australia initiative.
She is a member of an international research team that is exploring community expectation in relation to stem cell science, and in particular “stem cell tourism”. Over the past decade, she has contributed to the development of relevant policy and co-authored educational resources for the public and health professionals.
In addition to having worked for more than 15 years in the Australian stem cell field, she also has more than 10 years experience as an embryologist in IVF clinics around Australia.
She has a Bachelor of Applied Science from QUT, a Masters in Reproductive Sciences and a PhD from Monash University.
Dr Don Newgreen
Developmental Biology, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute
Dr Newgreen obtained his PhD at The University of Melbourne’s Zoology Department and has held postdoctoral positions at the Institut d'Embryologie et Biologie Moleculaire (Paris, France), the Max-Planck-Institute for Developmental Biology (Tübingen, Germany), Department of Cell and Structural Biology, Manchester University (UK) and Department of Paediatric Surgery, Westmead Hospital (Sydney). His major research interest throughout his career has been cell movement, particularly in the embryonic neural crest system, and how errors of cell movement lead to birth defects. This has also led to interests in invasive cancers, especially breast cancer, since the molecular underpinnings of cancer invasion involve the molecular genetic “hijacking” of normal embryonic cell migration programs. He uses techniques from classical experimental cell and developmental biology, to molecular biology and mathematical modelling. This has produced new understandings of the way cell movement is started by the process called the epithelial-mesenchymal transition, and how it is guided and terminated in development and in cancer. He has identified fundamental errors leading to the neural crest birth defect Hirschsprung disease. He is also actively investigating neural crest stem/progenitor cell therapies as a potential treatment for this disease, in animal and human cell and tissue models.
Dr Newgreen has served as an National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) panel member and regularly assesses grant and fellowship applications from the NHMRC and the ARC, as well as for granting bodies from the USA, Canada, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Europe and the UK. He regularly reviews for journals including Nature, J. Cell Biology, Stem Cells, Cancer Research, Cold Spring Harbor Protocols and many developmental journals, and is on the editorial board of Cells Tissues Organs; Development Growth & Differentiation; Autonomic Neuroscience: Basic and Clinical and Frontiers in Autonomic Neuroscience.
Dr Newgreen initiated and was inaugural President of The EMT International Association (TEMTIA), and organises the highly successful bi-annual interdisciplinary TEMTIA- conferences which commenced in 2003. He was an inaugural member of the ARC Network in Genes and Environment in Development, and the EMPathy Breast Cancer Network.
Professor Kathryn North AM MD FRACP
Murdoch Childrens Research Institute and The University of Melbourne
Professor North is Director of the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and is David Danks Professor of Child Health Research at the University of Melbourne.
She is trained as a paediatric physician, neurologist and clinical geneticist and in 1994, was awarded a doctorate from the University of Sydney for research into neurogenetics. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Harvard Genetics Program. Her previous positions include the Douglas Burrows Professor of Paediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Sydney (2004-2012) and Head of the Institute for Neuroscience and Muscle Research (2008-2012). Her laboratory research interests focus on the molecular basis of inherited muscle disorders - particularly the muscular dystrophies and congenital myopathies – as well as genes that influence normal skeletal muscle function and elite athletic performance. Her clinical research focuses on clinical trials of therapies for muscular dystrophy and neurofibromatosis type 1 - as well as the development of interventions for children with learning disabilities.
Professor North has received a number of awards for her research including the Sunderland Award from the Australian Neuroscience Society (2000). the Sutherland Lectureship by the Human Genetics Society of Australasia (2008), the GSK Australia Award for Research Excellence (2011), the Ramaciotti Medal for Excellence in Biomedical Research (2012) and the Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for service to medicine in the field of neuromuscular and neurogenetics research (2012). In 2012, Professor North was appointed Chair of the NHMRC Research Committee and a member of the NHMRC Council.
Dr Victoria O’Collins
Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health
Dr O’Collins is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Florey Institute. Her current work focuses on fluid-brain interactions, the basic science of stroke, neuroprotection, and sensory, cognitive and computational neuroscience. Dr O’Collins is supported by the CASS Foundation and University of Melbourne research grants.
Professor Stan Skafidas
Centre for Neural Engineering, The University of Melbourne
Professor Skafidas is currently Professor of Nanoelectronics and Director for the Centre for Neural Engineering (CfNE) at the University of Melbourne. Professor Skafidas played an integral role in establishing the CfNE, an interdisciplinary centre established to undertake research in neuroscience and neural diseases by drawing together Australia’s leading neuroscientists, neurologists, psychiatrists, chemists, physicists and engineers. Professor Skafidas’ research is focused on nanoelectronics, multi-scale neural system modelling, medical bionics and genetics.
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