Research Committee 2015–2018

Professor Kathryn North AM is Director of the Murdoch Children's Research Institute and the David Danks Professor of Child Health Research at the University of Melbourne.

Professor North is trained as a paediatric physician, neurologist and clinical geneticist. Her laboratory research interests focus on inherited muscle disorders. Her clinical research focuses on clinical trials of therapies for muscular dystrophy as well as the development of interventions for children with learning disabilities. In 2012, Professor North was appointed as Chair of the NHMRC Research Committee and a Member of NHMRC Council.

Professor Warren Alexander received his PhD in medical biology from the University of Melbourne, and his post-doctoral studies were completed at the Research Institute for Molecular Pathology in Vienna, Austria and the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in Melbourne.

Since 1994, he has been a Laboratory Head at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI) and is currently Joint Head of the Cancer and Haematology Division.

An NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow, Professor Alexander's research focuses on the molecular regulation of blood cell production and function.

Associate Professor James Bourne (NHMRC Senior Research Fellow) is a Senior Group Leader at the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute, Monash University. James originally trained in Biochemistry at the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine (London) before focusing on a career in neuroscience. He has emerged as a world-renowned leader in the development and regeneration of the primate visual system and has been the recipient of both ARC and NHMRC Fellowships and Grants.

Professor Jeffrey Braithwaite, BA, MIR (Hons), MBA, DipLR, PhD, FAIM, FCHSM, FFPHRCP (UK) is Foundation Director, Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Director, Centre for Healthcare Resilience and Implementation Science, and Professor of Health Systems Research, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Macquarie University, Australia. His research examines the changing nature of health systems, particularly patient safety, standards and accreditation, leadership and management, the structure and culture of organisations and their network characteristics, attracting funding of more than AUD$59 million.

Professor Braithwaite has published extensively (more than 600 total publications) and he has presented at international and national conferences on more than 780 occasions, including over 75 keynote addresses. He has conducted research over two decades on clinical and organisational performance, health systems improvement and patient safety as part of his interests in health services research and translational, implementation science. Professor Braithwaite recently co-edited a book with Professors Erik Hollnagel in Denmark and Bob Wears in the United States (Resilient Health Care, Ashgate, 2013), which proposes new models for tackling patient safety. A second book in the series, The Resilience of Everyday Clinical Work, was published in 2015. He led work culminating in the publication of a compendium (Ashgate, 2015) on health systems improvement across the world: Healthcare Reform, Quality and Safety: Perspectives, Participants, Partnerships and Prospects in 30 Countries.

Professor Peter Ebeling is Head, Department of Medicine, School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University. He is also Inaugural Director of the Australian Institute of Musculoskeletal Science (AIMSS). Research interests include musculoskeletal health and diseases; public health aspects of Vitamin D, post-transplantation osteoporosis; osteoporosis in men; and biochemical bone turnover markers.

Professor Ebeling was Associate Editor of Journal of Bone and Mineral Research from 2008–2012. He currently serves on the Editorial Board of Osteoporosis International and is Editor of Clinical Endocrinology (Oxf) and Editor-in-Chief of Bone Reports. He is Medical Director of Osteoporosis Australia; Board Member, International Osteoporosis Foundation; Past-President, Endocrine Society of Australia; Past-President of the Australian and New Zealand Bone and Mineral Society; and Past-Councillor, American Society of Bone and Mineral Research, only the third Australian to be elected.

He is on the NHMRC Academy (2009–2014). He has over 230 peer-reviewed publications, including in the New England Journal of Medicine, PNAS (USA) and Science.

He also teaches and mentors medical students, and supervises a number of Research Higher Degree students, and advanced physician trainees in Endocrinology.

Professor Tim Hughes is Cancer Theme Leader at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) and Beat Cancer Professor at the University of Adelaide. He is also a Consultant Haematologist at SA Pathology and the Royal Adelaide Hospital. He is a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and the Royal College of Pathologists of Australia as well as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences. His major research interest are targeted therapies for leukaemia, molecular monitoring of response to therapy, and drug resistance mechanisms

Professor Maria Kavallaris is Head of the Tumour Biology and Targeting Program at the Children’s Cancer Institute and Director of the Australian Centre for NanoMedicine at the University of New South Wales. Her research contributions in cancer biology and therapeutics are internationally recognised. She leads a multidisciplinary research program that investigates how tumours form, grow and spread and she applies this knowledge to develop effective and less toxic cancer therapies using nanotechnology.

Professor Kavallaris has served on numerous committees including the Program Committee for the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research and NHMRC Assigners Academy. She is Chair of the Board of the Australian Institute for Policy and Science and has played a major role in advocating for medical research through public outreach and served as President of the Australian Society for Medical Research. Professor Kavallaris was recognised by the NHMRC as part of its rollcall of Australian ‘high achievers’ in health and medical research (past and present) in 2014.

Professor Bronwyn Kingwell is a NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow, and at the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute is Executive Director, Science Policy, Domain Leader for Prevention and also leads the Metabolic and Vascular Physiology Laboratory. She has Professorial appointments in the Department of Medicine and Department of Physiology at both the University of Melbourne and Monash University, at James Cook University, the University of NSW and the University of Pierre and Marie Curie in Paris. She received her PhD in physiology from the University of Melbourne in 1991.

As an integrative clinical physiologist, Professor Kingwell has made contributions to the understanding of the pathophysiology of diabetes and cardiovascular disease and the preventive and therapeutic effects of exercise. This includes her research into HDL and glucose metabolism which is informing the development of therapeutics directed at HDL. Her contributions have also influenced national and international physical activity guidelines.

Professor Kingwell has held leadership roles on the NHMRC Council and Research Committee, the National Heart Foundation Research Committee and the National Committee for Medicine of the Australian Academy of Science.

Professor Peter Leedman is the Director of the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research (‘Perkins’) in Perth and Professor of Medicine (endocrinologist) at the University of Western Australia (UWA). He completed medicine at UWA, endocrinology at Royal Melbourne Hospital, his PhD at WEHI and a post-Doc at Harvard Medical School. Upon returning to Perth, he was instrumental in the establishment of the Perkins (formerly the Western Australian Institute for Medical Research) and the development of its two new state-of-the-art research buildings.

Leedman’s research has a core interest in RNA biology with a translational focus to devise novel RNA-based therapeutic approaches to abrogate the growth of hormone-dependent cancers, melanoma, head and neck, liver and colon cancer. Leedman co-founded miReven, a spin out company established to bring microRNA replacement therapy for liver cancer to the bedside.

Leedman has served on numerous NHMRC and other committees and is currently Chairman of the Sylvia and Charles Viertel Foundation Medical Advisory Committee and of Linear Clinical Research Ltd, the Perkins 24 bed phase 1 clinical trials facility.

Dr McAullay has considerable experience in health research, policy and practice. He has worked in a number of senior positions in these areas as well as in tertiary education. He is a registered nurse with qualifications including a Doctor of Philosophy, a Master of Applied Epidemiology and a Bachelor of Science. He has provided advice to a number of Government departments and non-Government organisations, including large research institutes and has sat on a number of committees providing advice to State and Commonwealth Government in the area of health. He has a strong health research track record including presentations, publications and grants. His primary research areas of interest include maternal, infant and child health, primary health care and other health services research.

He currently works as Research Associate Professor at the Centre for Improving Health Services for Aboriginal Children (Princess Margaret Hospital/ University of Western Australia) and as the Principal Research Consultant at Kurongkurl Katitjin, Centre for Indigenous Australian Education and Research at Edith Cowan University. He also runs his own consulting company (Dan McAullay Consulting) and consults with the wholly Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander owned and managed consulting company, DDMC Partners.

Professor Sandy Middleton is Director of the Nursing Research Institute a joint initiative between Australian Catholic University and St Vincent's Health Australia, located in Sydney. Professor Middleton has a particular interest in stroke and implementation research with approximately $17m awarded in competitive grant funding over her career to date. She is the currently the lead investigator on the NHMRC funded T3 Trial: Triage, Treatment and Transfer of patients with stroke in Emergency Departments. She also was the lead investigator on the Quality in Acute Stroke Care (QASC) Implementation Project which was awarded the NSW Premier's 2014 Public Sector Award for Improving Performance and Accountability.

Professor Middleton is a member of the NHMRC Research Translation Faculty and the Cardiovascular and Stroke ‘Call for Action’ Steering Group. She also is a member of the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care Stroke Clinical Care Standard Topic Working Group. Professor Middleton is the Chair of the Steering Committee of the Australian Stroke Clinical Registry and a member of the Board of Directors for the Clinical Excellence Commission and the NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation

Prof Ben Solomon is a Medical Oncologist at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne and an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Melbourne. He has an interest in clinical and translational research in lung cancer. After completing his specialty training in medical oncology he undertook a PhD in investigating the mechanisms by which EGFR inhibition enhance the effects of radiation in Melbourne and subsequent postdoctoral studies at the University of Colorado investigating novel predictive markers for therapy with EGFR inhibitors. He returned to Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in 2006 where he practices as a Medical Oncologist with a clinical research focus on clinical and translational research in lung and head and neck cancer and phase I studies of novel anti-cancer therapies. He also leads a laboratory research group within the Molecular Therapeutics and Biomarkers laboratory in the Research Division.

His research accomplishments include identification of novel biomarkers of potential clinical relevance in lung cancer and head and neck cancer and conduct of clinical trials of novel therapies in lung cancer. This includes the conduct of clinical and translational studies defining ALK gene rearrangements as a therapeutic target in non-small cell lung cancer. This work included a leadership role in the key phase I, II, and III trials with ALK inhibitors and resulted in a change in the standard of care for this patient population. He continues to undertake trials with novel targeted therapies and work to define predictive and prognostic markers for patients with lung cancer.

Laureate Professor Talley is currently Pro Vice-Chancellor, Global Research and Professor of Medicine at the University of Newcastle, Australia. He is an expert clinician, educator and researcher, with extensive experience as a leader in the medical and University sectors. He previously held an appointment as Pro Vice-Chancellor (and Dean) of the Faculty of Health and Medicine at the University of Newcastle from 2010–2015, and was seconded to be the Deputy Vice-Chancellor-Research (Acting) at the University of Newcastle from June 2013 to March 2014.

Professor Talley has published over 800 original and review articles in the peer-reviewed literature. He is also a leading medical educator and the author of the highly regarded textbooks Clinical Examination and Examination Medicine. In June 2014, Professor Talley was inaugurated as one of the first 15 Fellows of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (FAHMS) and was elected to the Executive of the Academy.

Professor Talley is currently a Senior Staff Specialist and gastroenterologist at John Hunter Hospital and attends clinic and lists on a weekly basis.

Professor Teede MBBS, FRACP PhD, is a clinical and public health researcher with an NHMRC Practitioner Fellowship. Professor Teede is a clinician/ endocrinologist and public health specialist focused on women’s reproductive and metabolic health. She is a past member of the NHMRC’s National Health Care Committee, NHMRC CEO Advisory Committee on Translation, Chair of the NHMRC National Faculty for Research Translation Steering Committee for Diabetes and a member of the Obesity Committee. President of the Endocrine Society of Australia, Professor of Women’s Health and Director of the Monash Centre for Health Research and Implementation, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine and Professor of the Diabetes and Vascular Medicine at Monash Health. She recently became the Executive Director of the NHMRC accredited Monash Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre.

Professor Teede established and leads the National Australian Polycystic Ovary Syndrome Alliance, is on the steering committee of the National Partnership for Indigenous Women’s Health and is a past board member for Diabetes Australia with significant NGO engagement.

Professor Rosalie Viney is Professor of Health Economics and Director of the Centre for Health Economics Research and Evaluation at the University of Technology Sydney. She has extensive experience in health economics, health services and health policy research. Her research interests include health technology assessment and priority setting, measurement and valuation of quality of life and health outcomes, consumer preferences for health and health care, evaluation of health policy, and the impact of funding arrangements on utilisation and outcomes of health care. Rosalie has undertaken a broad range of commissioned projects for State/Territory Health authorities, and for the Australian Government Department of Health. She is the program leader for the Cancer Australia funded national technical service providing health economics expertise and capacity building to national Cancer Clinical Trials Groups. Rosalie has also had longstanding involvement in the development of the fields of health economics and health services research in Australia, through the Australian Health Economics Society and the Health Services Research Association of Australia and New Zealand. She is also a long-standing member of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) and Chair its Economics Sub-Committee

Professor Patsy Yates is jointly appointed as Head, School of Nursing at Queensland University of Technology and Director for Queensland Health's statewide Centre for Palliative Care Research and Education (CPCRE).

She has over 30 years' experience in research, education and clinical practice in cancer and palliative care. She leads a range of research and service improvement programs focused on developing workforce capacity in cancer and palliative care, advancing the management of cancer related symptoms and treatment side effects, and strengthening the nexus between research, policy and practice in cancer care. She is currently President for Palliative Care Australia.