Invited Speakers

Patrick Kwan is Professor of Neurology at the Department of Neuroscience, and Co-Director of the Monash Institute of Medical Engineering. He is also a consultant neurologist of the Epilepsy Program at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne. He is an elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences.

He has particular research interest in the outcomes, clinical pharmacology, genetics and pharmacogenetics of epilepsy, and the application of medical technologies for Precision and Personalised Medicine.

He has published 350 peer-reviewed articles, which have been cited for more than 32,000 times. H-index 73.

He has continually held leadership positions at the International League Against Epilepsy since 2005, including chair of a task force that established the current definition of drug-resistant epilepsy, and Chair of the ILAE Medical Therapies Commission from 2013 to 2017.

Dr. Shafagh Waters is a Scientia senior lecturer at UNSW and an honorary senior scientist at Sydney Children’s Hospital, recognized for her research in adult-stem-cell biology and epithelial disease modeling. After obtaining her PhD from ANU in 2012, she undertook international fellowships in gene therapy and organoid medicine. By 2016, she had established her independent lab, securing over $15M in funding and spearheading significant advancements in cystic fibrosis (CF) translational medicine. Notably, she established Australia's first CF lung and gut organoid bioresource. A committed educator and advocate, Dr. Waters has influenced health policies and has been cited in key documents, such as the Zimmerman recommendation. She passionately promotes equitable access to treatments. Her leadership will further be showcased in her upcoming role as the academic director at the UNSW node of the NSW Organoid Innovation Center in 2023.

Professor John Rasko is an Australian pioneer in the application of adult stem cells and genetic therapy. Since 1999 he has directed the Department of Cell & Molecular Therapies at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and the Gene and Stem Cell Therapy Program at the Centenary Institute, University of Sydney.

He is a clinical haematologist, pathologist and scientist with an international reputation in gene and stem cell therapy, experimental haematology and molecular biology. In over 200 publications he has contributed to the understanding of stem cells and blood cell development, gene therapy technologies, cancer causation and treatment, human genetic diseases and molecular biology.

He serves on Hospital, state and national bodies including Chair of GTTAC (OGTR) and past Chair of the TGA Advisory Committee on Biologicals. He co-founded and was pastPresident of the Australasian Gene & Cell Therapy Society and has served as President, President-Elect, and Vice President of ISCT.

Professor Porrello is Theme Director of Stem Cell Biology and Head of the Heart Regeneration Group at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. He also directs the Melbourne Node of the recently established Novo Nordisk Foundation Centre for Stem Cell Medicine (reNEW) and he is the founding Co-Director of the Melbourne Centre for Cardiovascular Genomics and Regenerative Medicine (CardioRegen). Prof Porrello’s research focuses on the development of regenerative therapies for children and adults with heart failure. Over the course of his career, he has made important contributions to our understanding of mammalian heart regeneration and has pioneered the development of human organoids for drug discovery. Prof Porrello is a co-founder of Dynomics, a biotechnology company focused on the development of new heart failure treatments using organoid technologies.

Professor Clare Parish is the Deputy Director of Science at the Florey where she also heads the Stem cells & Neural Development laboratory. She completed a Bachelor of Biomedical Science at PhD at Monash and postdoctoral training at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. She joined the Florey in 2007 where she has held a number of senior roles over the past 10 years as Division and Mission lead. Clare leads the stem cell program within the Aligning Science across Parkinson’s network (Michael J Fox initiative) and is co-president of the Asia-Pacific Association for Neural Regeneration. She is an NHMRC L2 fellow, and former recipient of an NHMRC SRF, CDF, CJ Martin, Viertel and Human Frontiers fellowships.  She is currently funded by the MRFF, NHMRC, Aligning Science Across Parkinsonism, Michael J Fox Foundation and commercial partner Novo Nordisk. 

She has 115 publications, predominantly in the stem cell space with her research focuses on the utility of pluripotent stem cells to (i) advance our understanding of human neural development, (ii) create advanced 2D, 3D and in vivo chimeric models to study neurological conditions and screen new therapies, as well as (iii) utilising stem cells  in the advancement of new cell-based therapies. Her work largely focuses on Parkinson’s disease, stroke and motor neuron disease. 

Dr. Zubin Master is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Ethics at Mayo Clinic’s Biomedical Ethics Research Program and the Center for Regenerative Biotherapeutics. He previously held posts at Albany Medical College and had worked as a Senior Policy Advisor for Health Canada. Dr. Master is a member of the International Society for Stem Cell Research’s Public Policy Committee and Education Committee. His research interests cover ethical and policy issues of stem cells and regenerative medicine, genetics, and the responsible conduct of research. His current NIH-funded studies aim to understand how beliefs and perceptions of patients seeking experimental care are influenced by mis(dis)information and potential strategies to correct misinformation and elicit behavioral change. In addition, Dr. Master studies patient-clinician communication surrounding unproven interventions to develop an interpersonal clinician-led toolkit. Dr. Master directs a course in regenerative medicine ethics and policy and the responsible conduct of research.

Professor Helen Abud is Head of the Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology and Co-Head of the Development and Stem Cells Program at the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute. Professor Abud investigates the role of stem cells in epithelial repair in the intestine and the plasticity of stem cells in colorectal tumours. Her team and clinical partners have generated a vast collection of patient-derived organoids to facilitate a precision medicine approach to studying disease and discovering new treatments.

Professor Abud trained at WEHI before undertaking her doctorate at Oxford University, postdoctoral training in Oxford ,Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. She combines her passion of teaching and mentoring students with research and served as President of the Australian Society for Stem Cell Research 2020-2022.

Pengyi Yang is a NHMRC Investigator and an Associate Professor at The University of Sydney. He heads the Laboratory of Computational Systems Biology at the Children’s Medical Research Institute. He worked as a Research Fellow in Systems Biology at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), USA, and subsequently joined the School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Sydney, as a faculty member to establish his research program, specialising in developing machine learning and statistical models for characterising molecular networks underlying cell identity and predicting stem cell-fate decisions.