Embryo Research Licensing Committee 2015–2018

Professor Con Michael AO is Emeritus Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Western Australia (UWA). In 2015, Professor Michael was appointed as Adjunct Professor of Medical Education in the Faculty of Health Sciences, Curtin University.

Professor Michael is the current Chair of the Western Australian Board of the Medical Board of Australia, Director of the Australian Medical Council, a member of various state and national medical committees and Chair of the Reproductive Technology Council of Western Australia and a former Advisor on medical workforce to the Western Australia Department of Health.

Among his numerous awards, Professor Michael was named an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2001 for service to medicine, particularly in the field of obstetrics and gynaecology; as a contributor to the administration of the profession nationally and internationally; and medical education. In 2001, Professor Michael was also awarded the Centenary Medal Award.

Professor Dianne Nicol is a Professor at the Law Faculty at the University of Tasmania in Australia and Director of the Centre for Law and Genetics (CLG), which is housed in the Law Faculty. The broad theme of the CLG's research is the regulation of biotechnology, human genetics and stem cell technology. Professor Nicol's research particularly focuses on the legal and social issues associated with the commercialisation of genetic knowledge and patenting of genetic inventions.

She is currently the lead chief investigator on two Australian Research Council funded projects, one on the role of law in regulating personalised medicine and the other on material transfer agreements in the era of open science. Professor Nicol's previous research includes a recently completed project on patenting biotechnological inventions, aimed at understanding the changing roles patenting, licensing and collaboration in innovation in complex areas of technology like biotechnology.

In 2012 Professor Nicol was appointed to a three member expert panel to review pharmaceutical patenting in Australia. Professor Nicol also currently holds the role of Chair of Academic Senate at the University of Tasmania. She has served on the University's Social Sciences Human Research Ethics Committee, and held the role of Chair of the University's Animal Research Ethics Committee for 5 years.

Professor Sheryl de Lacey is Professor of Nursing at Flinders University where she teaches bioethics and professional conduct. She is a co-author of the book Ethics and Law for Australian Nurses. She specialises in Infertility and Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) and social ethics. She has a clinical background in this field of Nursing and a strong background in consultancy and advisory roles to National and State Government bodies concerned with regulating ART practice. Professor de Lacey’s research focus is infertility and its social effects, the impact of ART on patients, the impact of social policy on ART patients and practice, and bioethical issues arising in ART.

Professor de Lacey has completed a major qualitative study of patients' decisions for frozen supernumerary embryos and a major population study of attitudes towards biological donation including organ donation and embryo donation. She was deputy chair of the SA Council on Reproductive Technology, a member of the National Bioethics Consultative Committee, has been a member of several Research Ethics Committees and is Chair of the Animal Welfare Committee at Flinders University. She was recently a member of the Nursing and Midwifery Board of South Australia. She is Coordinator of the Feminist Approaches to Bioethics (FAB) group.

A person with expertise in a relevant area of research

Professor Martin Pera serves as Program Leader for Stem Cells Australia, the Australian Research Council Special Research Initiative in Stem Cell Sciences. He received his BA in English Language and Literature from the College of William and Mary, and his PhD in Pharmacology from George Washington University, and undertook postdoctoral training in the UK at the Institute of Cancer Research and the Imperial Cancer Research Fund. He held independent research positions at the Institute of Cancer Research and the Department of Zoology at Oxford University before joining Monash University in 1996. In 2006 he moved to Los Angeles to take up a position as the Founding Director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at the University of Southern California. He returned to Australia in 2011.

Professor Pera's research interests include the cell biology of human pluripotent stem cells, early human development, and germ cell tumours. He was among a small number of researchers who pioneered the isolation and characterisation of pluripotent stem cells from human germ cell tumours of the testis, work that provided an important framework for the development of human embryonic stem cells.

Professor Pera's laboratory at Monash University was the second in the world to isolate embryonic stem cells from the human blastocyst, and the first to describe their differentiation into somatic cells in vitro. His current research is focused on the extrinsic regulation of self-renewal and pluripotency, heterogeneity in pluripotent stem cell populations, and neural specification of pluripotent stem cells. He has provided extensive advice to state, national and international regulatory authorities on the scientific background to human stem cell research.  He and his colleagues are currently leading a campaign against the provision of unproven autologous stem cell treatments in Australia. He serves on the Editorial Board of Cell Stem Cell, Stem Cell Reports, Stem Cells, and Stem Cell Research, and on the Steering Committee of the International Stem Cell Initiative.

Professor Pera has been a member of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) since its inception in 2002. He has been a Board member and Clerk of Society since 2015. He also serves on its Standards Committee, and is also a member of the Audit Committee, and the Chair of the Membership Committee.

A person with expertise in assisted reproductive technology

Dr Anne Clark trained as an Obstetrician and Gynaecologist before becoming the first female doctor in Australia to obtain the Certificate in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility (CREI) subspecialist qualification in reproductive medicine and fertility more than 20 years ago. She has worked in the area of reproductive medicine for over 30 years, starting at New Zealand's first IVF unit and then worked in London before moving to Australia 27 years ago.

Dr Clark is on the Board of ACCESS, Australia's National Infertility Network; is one of the Directors of the Fertility Society of Australia (FSA); is on Executive of the IVF Director's Group; and chaired the FSA Preservation of Fertility Group. She is regularly invited to speak locally and internationally on issues related to fertility preservation, male factor infertility, Polycystic Ovary Syndrome and the medical management of IVF cycles and poor responders and has contributed to a number of books on the management of fertility and fertility units.

Dr Clark started, and is Medical Director of, Fertility First, an independent reproductive medicine unit that offers the full range of fertility assessments and treatments for male and female fertility issues 20 years ago.

A person with expertise in a relevant area of law

A/Professor Bernadette Richards comes from the Law School at the University of Adelaide and is an active researcher in the areas of Tort Law, Medical Law, and Bioethics. She has written a text book on Tort Law (Tort Law Principles,) has contributed to a collaborative text, Health Law in Australia and has recently completed a new text, Medical Law and Ethics: A Problem Based Approach.

Bernadette is Deputy Chair of a major clinical research ethics committee, Associate Editor (Law) of the Journal of Bioethical Inquiry and provided advice to the Minister of Health as a member of the South Australian Council of Reproductive Technology. She is the Director of the Centre for Law, Ethics and Society (CELS, an international collaboration with the Cardiff University) and Deputy Director, Research Unit for the Study of Society, Law and Religion (RUSSLR). Bernadette is the President of the Australasian Association of Bioethics and Health Law (AABHL). Her current research projects include a major grant project considering innovative surgery, the misapplication of the Australian Human Tissue Acts to posthumous donation of reproductive material and the role of ethical dialogue in popular entertainment.

A person with expertise in consumer health issues relating to disability and disease

A person with expertise in consumer issues relating to assisted reproductive technology.

Ms Kay Oke OAM is a social worker who established the counselling service for IVF and later genetics for the Royal Women's Hospital and Melbourne IVF. She retired 5 years ago. Subsequently she was on the Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) for Melbourne IVF and has been on several NHMRC committees.

In June 2017, Ms Oke was awarded an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for service to the community through support and counselling for fertility and human reproduction.

A person with expertise in embryology

Professor Patrick Tam is the Deputy Director and Head of the Embryology Research Unit at the Children's Medical Research Institute, NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow and Professor in the Discipline of Medicine, Sydney Medical School of the University of Sydney.

Professor Tam is internationally recognized for his scientific contribution to the understanding of early mammalian development. His research focuses on the cellular and molecular mechanisms of body patterning during mouse development and the biology of epiblast stem cells. He pioneered the application of micromanipulation and embryo culture for analysing mouse embryos and examining the development of the head and embryonic gut.

The embryological analysis undertaken by his team has enabled the construction of a series of fate-maps revealing the organization of the basic body plan of the early embryo. The knowledge of cell differentiation during early embryogenesis laid the foundation for directing the differentiation of stem cells into clinically useful cell types for regenerative medicine.

In recognition of his research achievement, Professor Tam was awarded the President's Medal of the Australia and New Zealand Society of Cell and Developmental Biology, and elected as Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, the Royal Society of Biology and the Royal Society of London.