David Adelson

David Adelson is Professor and Chair of Bioinformatics and Computational Genetics, in the School of Molecular and Biomedical Science at the University of Adelaide. Prof. Adelson’s current research focuses on the computational analysis of repetitive, so called “Junk DNA” in mammalian genomes and on bioinformatic tools to mine Quantitative Trait Loci. He has led the analysis of repetitive DNA for the Bovine and Equine genome sequencing consortia and is currently working on the Elephant, Armadillo and Sheep repetitive DNA analyses. In addition to genome analysis, Prof. Adelson is also a founding member of bovinegenome.org, a single point of integration for bovine genome data. Prof. Adelson is currently Head of School for Molecular and Biomedical Science.
 

Emilio Badoer

Professor Badoer coordinates several courses and the BSc Biomedical Science (Pharmaceutical Sciences) program. He has also taught pharmacology and physiology at Melbourne and Monash Universities. In addition, he supervises several postgraduate and Honours students and Postdoctoral Fellows. He has received teaching awards and funding for innovative teaching and learning initiatives at RMIT. Professor Badoer is an active, passionate and productive research leader. He is the head and leader of the Neuropharmacology and Neuroinflammatory Laboratory. The laboratory consists of Post-Doctoral Fellows, PhD students and Honours students. Research assistants and international Postdoctoral Fellows have also contributed. The group has received national and international recognition, for the work that has highlighted the role of specific subgroups in the brain and the role of the brain in the symptoms of chronic diseases. The group has a number of successful collaborative projects with scientists both within and outside RMIT.
 

Ross Bathgate

Ross Bathgate is the leader of the Neuropeptides division at the Florey Neuroscience Institutes in Melbourne. He is a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Senior Research Fellow and an Honorary Associate Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Melbourne. His work focuses on the relaxin family peptides and their G-protein coupled receptors. He has published over 160 scientific papers including numerous invited reviews on relaxin family peptides and their receptors with a total of over 2300 career citations. His work has attracted funding from the NHMRC, other Australian funding bodies as well as pharmaceutical companies. 
 

Mac Christie

Mac Christie is a cellular and molecular neuropharmacologist. He completed a PhD at The University of Sydney in 1983. He was an Australian Postdoctoral Fellow in Melbourne in 1985 (NH&MRC), a Fogarty Fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1985-1987 and was then at the Vollum Institute in Oregon, USA from 1987-1990. He has been at The University of Sydney since 1990 where he is currently Director of Neuropharmacology at the Brain & Mind Research Institute. He has been an NH&MRC Senior Principal Research Fellow since 2003 and is a Chief Investigator on an NH&MRC Program Grant (2005-2013) to identify novel pain therapeutics based on conopeptides. His research focuses on cellular and molecular mechanisms of opioid receptor signalling in neurons and synapses in pain pathways, the biological basis of adaptations producing chronic pain and drug dependence, and preclinical development of novel pain therapeutics. This work is being undertaken by integrating molecular and cellular physiological methods in nerve cells that form pain pathways with animal behavioural models of these diseases. His work on opioids is determining the mechanisms by which membrane proteins in neurons and synapses drives loss of responsiveness to these drugs and excessive excitation of nerve cells during opioid withdrawal. In future, new drugs that target these molecules may in lessen opioid tolerance and/or alleviate withdrawal, both major clinical problems in pain management, or even assist with recovery from opioid addiction.

Iain Comerford

I am currently a Multiple Sclerosis Research Australia (MSRA) Fellow and my major research interest regards the molecular mechanisms of immune cell trafficking in central nervous system (CNS) inflammation. In particular, I am interested in the role of chemokines, chemokine receptors and their signalling intermediaries in this process and aim to understand and harness the endogenous mechanisms regulating this system in the context of CNS inflammatory disease. I also have a strong interest in understanding the specific role of different trafficking receptors at different stages of CNS inflammation with a view to identifying novel targets for therapeutic intervention in MS. I completed my doctoral studies at the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research and the University of Glasgow in the UK between 2002-2005 with Dr Robert Nibbs. During this time I pioneered work into the function of a novel chemokine receptor and regulator, CCX-CKR and was awarded the prestigious Beatson career development award in 2004. Since 2005, I have been undertaking research within the School of Molecular and Biomedical Science at the University of Adelaide in the Chemokine Biology Laboratory headed by Professor Shaun McColl. During this time we have published several manuscripts in the fields of chemokine biology and CNS inflammation in leading international journals such as Blood, the Journal of Immunology, the European Journal of Immunology, the Journal of Biological Chemistry, and Brain Pathology.
 

Richard Day

Richard Day is Professor of Clinical Pharmacology at UNSW and St Vincent's Hospital Sydney. He has a clinical practice in Clinical Pharmacology, Clinical Toxicology, and Rheumatology. He has particular interests in promoting the quality of use of medicines (QUM). He was chair of PHARM for the Federal Government 1999-08, was a director of Medical Benefits Fund, is a Director and President of the international Drug Information Association (DIA), was a member of the Medication Safety Taskforce for the Australian Safety and Quality Council, is chair of NSW Medication Safety Committee, was chair of the NPS (National Prescribing Service) R&D committee (2008-10), co-chair of the electronic medication management reference committee for the National e-Health Transition Authority and ex officio member ARA Therapeutics Committee. He is the academic in charge of the Masters in Medical Science in Drug Development in the Faculty of Medicine at UNSW. This is a national and international distance education programme dedicated to excellence in medicines and device development. His research focuses upon QUM and the pharmacotherapy of gout, diabetes, and psychotic disease. He is also researching methods of enhancing the safe use of medicines using electronic medication management and decision support tools as one of five Chief Investigators on a NH&MRC Programme Grant (2009-13).

Stephen Duffull

Stephen Duffull is currently a Professor and Dean of the School of Pharmacy at the University of Otago. He was awarded the Johnson and Johnson Young Investigators award in 2000 by the Australasian Society of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacologists and Toxicologists (ASCEPT). Prof Duffull is on the editorial board of five journals including Clinical Pharmacokinetics and Journal of Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics and acts as an external referee for a number of journals in the area of quantitative pharmacology including Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics and British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. He has been invited to speak at more than 30 international meetings and has adjunct appointments at the University of California, San Francisco and the School of Pharmacy, University of Queensland. Prof Duffull is the editor of a book on clinical trial simulation. Prof Duffull has over 15 years experience in the area of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics and contributed more than 130 peer reviewed scientific publications. Prof Duffull is on the organising committee for PAGE (Europe) and PAGANZ (Australia/New Zealand) meetings and contributes to regulatory and professional bodies such as the Pharmacy Council of New Zealand and the New Zealand College of Pharmacists as well as numerous other professional and university committees.

John Duley

John did his PhD during the early 1970s in ‘Biochemical Genetics’, when that meant ‘animal breeding’, not ‘PCR’. He spent 16 years at the Mr Thomas Guy’s Hospital, London, and there he rediscovered what the great Sir Archibold Garrod said in 1912, that Pharmacogenetics is a branch of Metabolic Diseases. In the process, John established the largest pharmacogenetic service in Britain. In 2003, he returned to Australia, to work in Pathology at the Mater Hospital, as well as the new Pharmacy Centre of Excellence in the University of Queensland.

Mukesh Haikerwal

Dr Mukesh Haikerwal is a practicing General Medical Practitioner, Commissioner to the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission and Professor in the School of Medicine in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia. He is currently working with the National e-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA) as the National Clinical Lead, leading a team of healthcare providers from multi disciplinary backgrounds, to assist in NEHTA’s liaison with the healthcare community and to provide input into the development of the NEHTA work program to deliver e-health for Australia. He was also the former head of the Federal Australian Medical Association (AMA) that is responsible for national policy development, lobbying with federal parliamentarians, co-ordinating activity across the AMA State entities and representing the AMA and its members nationally and internationally.

David Harrison

Dr. Harrison is the Bernard Marcus Professor of Medicine. He received his MD degree from the University of Oklahoma in 1974 and obtained his house staff and clinical cardiology training at Duke University. From 1980 to 1982, he completed a cardiovascular research fellowship at the University of Iowa. In 1982, he joined the faculty at the University of Iowa, and was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor in 1987. In 1990, he moved to the Cardiology Division at Emory University, where he was appointed Professor of Medicine. In the 1980s and 1990s, Dr. Harrison has serviced as the Director of Cardiology at both the Iowa City and Atlanta VA hospitals and in 2000 was named the Director of Cardiology at Emory. He served in that capacity until January 2009. Dr. Harrison’s career has been devoted to basic research related to vascular function and mechanisms of hypertension, the practice of cardiology and the education of young physicians and investigators. Dr. Harrison received the Novartis Award from the American Heart Association Council on High Blood Pressure, which is the highest award given for hypertension research from this organization. He received the Carl J. Wiggers Award, the highest honor given by the Cardiovascular Section of the American Physiological Society, in 2010. In that year, he also received the Distinguished Scientist Award from the American Heart Association.
 

Robert Harrison

After graduating from Nottingham University (BSc Zoology) and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (MSc-Medical Parasitology; PhD-immunology of schistosomiasis), Harrison’s interests in the development of vaccines against schistosomiasis and onchocerciasis took him on various postdoctoral scientific adventures to Kenya, California and Egypt before he found a more permanent home in Liverpool. Now, Head of the Alistair Reid Venom Research Unit and Senior Lecturer at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Harrison and his team conduct a variety of research activities with the objective of ‘improve the treatment of snakebite’. This includes the provision of antivenom to treat rural snakebite victims in Nigeria through a collaboration (the EchiTAb Study Group) with the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Health, the University of Oxford and antivenom producers in UK and Costa Rica. Our laboratory research is currently focussed on developing (i) toxin-specific antivenom with cross-generic therapeutic cover, (ii) antivenom with lower risk of adverse effects than conventional equine and ovine antivenoms, and (iii) an antibody-based treatment of the tissue-destructive effects of snake envenoming – a frequently disfiguring effect of snakebite that is not effectively treated by antivenom or any other medicinal therapy.

Wayne Hodgson

Professor Hodgson is Head (Teaching & Research Training) of the Department of Pharmacology and Head of the Monash Venom Group at Monash University. He is a leading Australian toxinologist responsible for isolating and pharmacologically characterising a wide range of animal venoms/toxins. He has published more than 100 papers on the pharmacology of venoms/toxins/antivenoms including papers in Nature, PNAS, JPET and JBC. Professor Hodgson is currently on the editorial boards of Toxicon and the Journal of Pharmacological and Toxicological Methods.
 

Geoff Isbister

Associate Professor Isbister is a senior research academic in the Discipline of Clinical Pharmacology, University of Newcastle and staff specialist at the Calvary Mater Newcastle. He is a leading Australian clinical toxicologist undertaking research on snake and spider envenoming including the effectiveness of antivenom therapy. He has published more than 150 papers in clinical toxicology/toxinology. Associate Professor Isbister is currently on the editorial board of Toxicon, was the ASCEPT British Toxicology Society Lecturer in 2009 and won the IUTOX Early Toxicologist Award in 2010.
 

Richard Lewis

Professor Lewis has over 20 years experience leading multidisciplinary research on the pharmacology and structures of marine toxins, especially the ciguatoxins and conotoxins. Much of his research is focussed on the discovery and molecular pharmacology of marine bioactives. This research resulted in the discovery of two new classes of peptides that allosterically inhibit either the a1-adrenoceptor (r-conopeptides) or the norepinephrine transporter (c-conopeptides). The therapeutic potential of the c-conopeptides and a novel w-conotoxin that inhibits N-type calcium channels (CVID) has been evaluated clinically, with both peptides showing promise in the treatment of pain. I am a co-founder of Xenome Ltd, a spin-off company established by the University of Queensland that is developing the pharmaceutical potential of venom peptides.
 

Julio Licinio

Professor Licinio is Director of the John Curtin School of Medical Research at the ANU, where he also heads the Translational Medicine Department. Professor Licinio came to Australia in September of 2009. Prior to that, he worked for 25 years in the United States at University of Chicago, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Cornell, Yale and NIH. His last appointments were as Director of the Translational Science Graduate Program and Vice-Chairman of Psychiatry at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and Chairman of Psychiatry and Associate Dean (Translational Science) at University of Miami. He is currently a member of an NIH review panel and has served as member of the US Secretary of Health and Human Services Advisory Committee on Genetics, Health, and Society. Professor Licinio is trained in endocrinology, psychiatry and neuroscience and his research is focused on translational pharmacogenomics of obesity and depression. He is the founding editor of Molecular Psychiatry and The Pharmacogenomics Journal, both by the Nature Publishing Group.
 

Jennifer Martin

I am a general physician and clinical pharmacologist at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane and the Head of the Southside Medical School, University of Queensland. I have been teaching medical students since 1992 (University of Otago) and have subsequently developed teaching and curriculum programmes and mentored both medical students and junior doctors at Canterbury Health, Monash and Melbourne Universities and UQ. Here I currently teach medical, masters pharmacy and population health students in addition to coaching basic and advanced physician trainees, supervising medical PhD students at the Diamantina and PA Hospitals, and lecturing at the School of Population Health. My research interests cover clinical pharmacology from bench and animal research to clinical research and trials and am the Australasian investigator for an international study on drug induced liver injury. I am a recent member of a number of Government pharmaceutical/pharmacology committees including PBAC and the economic subcommittee of PBAC, as well as the Therapeutic Guidelines and Australian Medicines Handbook. I sit on clinical pharmacology Journal Editorial Boards and am the inaugural chairperson of the Queensland Health Medicines Collaboration. I am very interested in the development of the pharmacogenetic area as one are that could potentially improve patient care, but with my expertise in policy, medical ethics and health economics I am also very aware of the impact of this field on the clinical, sociological, ethical and economic issues currently facing us.

Adam McCluskey

As Professor of Chemistry at the University of Newcastle, I am a teaching and research academic. I am a medicinal chemist, with multiple, strong national and international collaborations developing novel anti-epileptic, anti-parasitic, anti-malarial and anti cancer agents. I am known for elegantly simple synthetic approaches to complex molecules and the development of drugs acting via novel modes of action. My most significant contributions are in the area of dynamin GTPase inhibitor medicinal chemistry. My team is responsible for all the known inhibitors (but one; dynasore), and in one library iteration we effected a ~100 fold improvement in dynasore’s potency of this inhibitor with the synthesis of the ‘dyngos’. We have progressed more advanced agents to animal studies (epilepsy & kidney disease). Recent efforts have seen installation of Australia’s 1st flow chemistry laboratory, a technology that ushers in a new era of medicinal chemistry possibilities. We are leading Australia in the implementation of this technology, and consequently the its outcomes. This was supported by the award of the 2009 Ramaciotti Biomedical research Award ($1M) and an Australian Cancer Research Foundation Grant ($3.1M) to establish a world first Centre for Kinomics.
I am also an educator, recognised as innovating and excelling in this role with the receipt of teaching awards, but also in the successful supervision of >30 honours students, 10 PhD completions (9 current students) supervised 14 postdoctoral fellows (2 current). 
 

Charles Mackay

Professor Mackay is an international authority in the field of leukocyte migration. His research aims to understand mechanisms of immune cell migration, particularly with respect to inflammation, and the translation of this into new therapeutics for inflammatory diseases and cancers. Professor Mackay is an eminent Australian immunologist who has made clearly identifiable contributions to fundamental immunology as well as biotechnology and the development of new anti-inflammatory therapies. Professor Mackay joined Monash University in 2009. Previous postions held by Professor Mackay include as Director of the Immunology and Inflammation Research Program at the Garvan Institute, and as Director of Immuonology at Millennium Biotherapeutics in Cambridge, MA USA. Professor Mackay holds a B.Sc (Hons) from Monash University and a PhD from the Department of Veterinary Pre-clinical Sciences at the University of Melbourne.
 

Ross McKinnon

Professor Ross McKinnon is Professor of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology in the School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences and former Director of the Sansom Institute at the University of South Australia. He has broad research interests in molecular pharmacology including pharmacogenomics and personalised medicine. He is co-founder of PharmaQest Pty ltd which is currently progressing a novel skin cancer chemopreventive through clinical trials. His current roles include Chair of the South Australian Tall Poppy campaign, Director of the Australian Institute of Policy and Science and he is immediate past-president of the Australasian Pharmaceutical Science Association. Other roles include membership of the CSIRO Health Sector and P Health Advisory Boards and TGA’s Pharmaceutical Science subcommittee. He was recently admitted as a member of the NHMRC Academy for 2010.
 

William Runciman

William (Bill) Runciman is Professor of Patient Safety and Healthcare Human Factors at the University of South Australia, and was Foundation Professor of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care at the University of Adelaide. He is President of the Australian Patient Safety Foundation, and a member of the International Patient Safety Classification Group and Co-chair of the Research Methods and Measures Group of the World Alliance for Patient Safety, World Health Organization. He is a Research Fellow with the Joanna Briggs Institute and the Australian Institute of Health Innovation of the University of New South Wales and a Chief Investigator with the NH&MRC Research Grant team investigating Patient Safety: enabling and supporting change. He worked as an Intensive Care consultant for over 30 years and has published over 200 scientific papers and chapters, and a book - Runciman, Merry & Walton Safety and Ethics in Health Care: A Guide to Getting it Right (Ashgate 2007). He has been conferred the Pugh Award in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the science of anaesthesia and related disciplines, and the Sidney Sax Medal for outstanding achievement in health services policy, organization, delivery and research.

Jeff Schwartz

After receiving degrees at the Universities of Michigan (BS, Chemistry and Cellular Biology) and California (PhD, Endocrinology), Jeff Schwartz was a research fellow at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Salk Institute, and Prince Henry’s Institute of Medical Research. He was on academic staff at the University of California at San Diego, Monash, Wake Forest University and the University of Adelaide. Since 2009 he has been the academic manager for years 1 and 2 of Griffith University School of Medicine. His research can be characterised as defining new roles for old hormones and endocrine cells. This began with work on cardiovascular and other extrarenal actions of vasopressin, and continued with the characterization of functional cellular heterogeneity and cell-cell interactions within the anterior pituitary. More recently, he has applied novel approaches to understanding unexpected changes in fetal endocrine axes as they develop. His current research interests include the interactions between genetic and environmental factors in development of endocrine axes. In addition to academic responsibilities, he has held numerous editorial posts, served on research-funding panels and consulted on biomedical educational programs. His current major extramural service is on a research evaluation committee for the ERA.
 

Andrew Somogyi

Andrew Somogyi is Professor in Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology, Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Adelaide. His major research interests are in examining interindividual variation in drug response through clinical pharmacokinetic, pharmacodynamic and clinical outcomes studies underpinned by pharmacogenomics. He currently has NHMRC and ARC funding for pharmacogenetic studies involving drugs for pain, addiction, transplantation and diabetes, serves on several international Pharmacogenetic and Clinical Pharmacology journal editorial boards and has established a pharmacogenetics service at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. He was recently awarded an honorary fellow of the Faculty of Pain Medicine, Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists.
 

Ieva Stupans

Professor Ieva Stupans is has been recently appointed to the University of New England where her primary responsibility will be to lead the introduction of the Bachelor of Pharmacy into the university. She has had extensive experience in teaching and learning across health sciences and nursing, and has taught pharmacology in both post graduate and undergraduate health sciences programs for more than 20 years. She is an ALTC fellow and is currently undertaking a program of activities around “Supporting student transition to a futures orientated professional identity”. She has led a number of pharmacy focussed ALTC projects “Pharmacy Quality Indicators for Best Practice Approaches to Experiential Placements in Pharmacy Programs” and ‘’The Outcomes-based Planning, Graduated Descriptors and Quality Indicators for Pharmacy Experiential Placements’ follow-up project”.
 

Ross Vlahos

Dr Ross Vlahos has a long-standing interest in respiratory diseases, in particular asthma and COPD. His research has included the effects of potassium channel opening drugs on airways cholinergic transmission and the effects of existing and novel anti-asthma drugs on airway hyper-responsiveness and airway wall remodelling. More recently, he has developed unique murine models of COPD to identify therapeutic targets to treat this debilitating disease. Ross is actively involved in presenting his work at both national and international conferences, is a regular invited speaker at local and international laboratories and has been an active member of ASCEPT since 1991. Ross has co-authored 33 research papers in peer reviewed journals and 2 chapters in published books. He has obtained project grants from foundations, hospitals, Universities and industry and has been awarded 5 nationally competitive NHMRC Project Grants since 2001. Ross is a reviewer of competitive research grants for various funding agencies (eg NHMRC, Asthma Victoria) and manuscripts submitted to international journals. He has served on NHMRC Scholarship Grant Review Panels 2007 – 2009, has been involved in “Organizing and Program Committees” for national and international conferences and Chairs sessions at various conferences. Ross supervises BSc (Hons) and PhD students and contributes to teaching by lecturing postgraduate students on lung disease. Dr Vlahos has played a major role in commercially funded work that has confidentiality/patent agreements.
 

Johanna Westbrook

Professor Westbrook is Director of the Centre for Health Systems and Safety Research (CHSSR), Australian Institute of Health Innovation (AIHI), Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales. Her research expertise centres on the design and execution of complex multi-method evaluations in the health sector with a particularly focus on the effective use of information and communication technologies. As part of an NHMRC program grant shared with colleagues at the AIHI, she is leading research on medication safety, the effectiveness of electronic medication management systems to reduce errors and safe work and communication practices in hospitals. Professor Westbrook has an extensive publication record which includes over 200 refereed publications. She has attracted in excess of $26M in research funding and won several awards for her research.