Find an expert

Associate Professor Paul Griffin is the Director of Infectious Diseases at Mater Health Services in Brisbane and Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Queensland Medical School. He has fellowships in Infectious Diseases from the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, in Clinical Microbiology from the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia and from the Australasian College of Tropical Medicine.

Paul is the Principal Investigator and Medical Director at Nucleus Network, a specialized contract research organisation specializing in early and late phase trials in infectious diseases where he has been the principal investigator on in excess of 125 clinical trials, predominantly in Infectious Diseases including novel vaccines and Malaria human challenge studies. This includes 8 vaccines for COVID-19 and a number of COVID-19 therapies.

As a Clinical Microbiologist, he maintains an active interest in diagnostic microbiology with a focus on clinical applications of faecal microbiome metagenomic sequencing.

In addition to a teaching role at the University of Queensland, Paul is also the chair of the Advanced Training Committee in Infectious Diseases with the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, the committee that oversees the training of Infectious Diseases specialists in Australia.

Finally, as a director and scientific advisory board member of the immunisation coalition, Paul has an active interest in vaccine education and advocacy and has become a trusted media authority and spokesperson across the nation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Wenyi Gu’s early education was conducted in China which include his undergraduate and master’s degrees in veterinary medicine. In 1996, he migrated to Australia and pursued his PhD study in biochemistry & molecular biology at the Australian National University (ANU). After a short period of work at John Curtin Medical School ANU as a junior scientist, he moved to Brisbane in 2001 for his post-doc at the University of Queensland and currently a post-doctoral research fellow at AIBN. He held a Peter Doherty Fellowship (2006-2009) and was further supported by NHMRC to spend 7 months at Harvard University as a visiting fellow in 2008. Since his post-doctoral research he has been working in the area of using RNAi to treat viral diseases and cancers. He also has a strong background in immunology and vaccine development.

I lead a research program with extensive expertise in immunology, particularly in natural killer (NK) cells, focused on developing innovative approaches for treating hard-to-cure diseases like metastatic cancers. Our mission is to improve patient outcomes and extend lives. My research group is based at the Translational Research Institute (TRI).

My dedication to my field has been recognized through numerous peer-reviwed grants as sole-CI or CIA/Principal Investigator, including a NHMRC ECF Peter Doherty Fellowship, an NHMRC Project Grant, an US DoD, a MRFF EMCR among others. Since 2009, I've amassed an impressive portfolio of 96 publications in renowned journals like Blood, Cell Death Dis, JEM, PNAS, Nat Comms, and Nat Immunol with an H-index = 40. My body of work and contributions have been acknowledged with awards such as the 2019 Researcher of the Year by CCA, 2020 QLD Young Tall Poppy Science, 2020 UQ Frazer Institute's Rising Star, 2022 Frazer Institute's Mentor of the Year, 2023 Translational Research Institute - Connecting with the Clinic among others. Recognized as an international leader in my field, I've been instrumental in identifying novel regulators of our immune functions, and developing NK cell-based immunotherapies.

At present, I am a Group Leader / Principal Research Fellow & Associate Professor with the University of Queensland's Frazer Institute. Here, I lead a high-performing research team with a keen focus on developing and innovating immunotherapy approaches for a spectrum of diseases.

Dr Karan Gulati is a Research Group Leader and the Deputy Director of Research at the School of Dentistry, UQ. He is also the Deputy Director of Centre for Orofacial Regeneration, Reconstruction and Rehabilitation (COR3) at UQ Dentistry.

Dr Gulati is a pioneer in electrochemically nano-engineered dental implants with over 13 years of extensive research experience using nano-engineering towards various bioactive and therapeutic applications. Dr Gulati completed his PhD from the University of Adelaide (Australia) in 2015 and was awarded the Dean’s Commendation for Doctoral Thesis Excellence. His career has been supported by prestigious fellowships from NHMRC (National Health and Medical Research Council, Australia), JSPS (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Japan), Erasmus+ (Germany) and the University of Queensland. At 8 years post-PhD, Dr Gulati has edited 3 books, published 7 chapters and >72 publications (h-index 35), and presented >110 times in various reputed conferences.

Completed specialist training in Endodontics in 2021 at the University of Adelaide and South Australian Dental Services. The DClinDent program included 9 articles in peer-reviewed journals, 1 article currently in press and one book chapter.

Completed a PhD which included 11 articles in peer-reviewed journals.

Completed the JBI Comprehensive systematic review training program.

Recipient of multiple research and travel grants.

Awarded a Fellow of the Pierre Fauchard Academy – an international dental association that recognizes and supports leaders of the dental profession.

Active researcher actively presenting research findings, locally and internationally, at scientific meetings as well as publishing multiple scientific articles.

Active contributor to dental teaching, research and philanthropy.

Committee member for the International Association of Dental Traumatology

I am a clinician scientist and academic leader with research in melanoma cell biology and experimental melanoma therapy. I received my degree in medicine from the University of Heidelberg, Germany (1990-1998). I graduated summa cum laude with a PhD in Cell Biology from the University of Heidelberg (1993-1999) and trained in clinical dermatology at the University of Hamburg, Germany (1999-2003). In 2003 I moved to Philadelphia, PA, to work as a post-doctoral fellow in Meenhard Herlyn’s lab at The Wistar Institute (2003-2007). From there I was recruited as an associate faculty member to the Centenary Institute/University of Sydney (2007-2013). In 2013 I commenced a position as Associate Professor for Cutaneous Oncology at University of Queensland Diamantina Institute (now Frazer Institute) and was promoted to full Professor in April 2016.

Wayne Hall is Emeritus Professor at the National Centre for Youth Substance Use Research (NCYSUR) at the University of Queensland (January 2021-). He was a Visiting Professor at the National Addiction Centre, Kings College London (2009-2019), the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (2010-2021); and the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW (since 2001).

Wayne was formerly Professorial Fellow (2017-2020) in and Director of the National Centre for Youth Substance Abuse Research (2014-2016), an NHMRC Australia Fellow in addiction neuroethics at the University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research and the Queensland Brain Institute, UQ (2009-2015); Professor of Public Health Policy in the School of Population Health (2005-2010); Director of the Office of Public Policy and Ethics at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience (2001-2005) at the University of Queensland; and Director of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW (1994-2001).

In 2016 Wayne was made a Fellow of the Academy of Health and Medical Sciences. Wayne has advised the World Health Organization on: the health effects of cannabis use; the effectiveness of drug substitution treatment; the scientific quality of the Swiss heroin trials; the contribution of illicit drug use to the global burden of disease; and the ethical implications of genetic and neuroscience research on addiction.

Prof Lisa Hall is Professor in Epidemiology at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia.

Teaching: Lisa has experience lecturing at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, in a range of public health and research methods courses. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. At UQ she was the Director of Teaching and Learning within the School of Public Health from 2021-2024.

Research: Lisa is an active health services researcher with expertise in epidemiology, implementation science and economic evaluation. Lisa’s work examines not only the effectiveness, but also the cost-effectiveness, feasibility and sustainability of health services. Her current research focuses on the interface between evidence, policy and implementation to improve the surveillance and prevention of healthcare associated infections.

Prof Hall’s research is pragmatic and “Real world”. It is multidisciplinary and collaborative, with an emphasis on translation. She has established active multidisciplinary collaborations with a wide range of leading researchers, policymakers and clinicians. Since 2013, A/Prof Hall has been named as a Chief Investigator on grants and consultancies worth over $19 million. Key grants include:

• Researching Effective Approaches to Cleaning in Hospitals (REACH): A national stepped wedge trial of examining the cost-effectiveness of an environmental cleaning bundle. This NHMRC Partnership Grant project with the Wesley Medical Research Institute used an implementation science framework to improve uptake of best practice cleaning approaches by environmental services staff.
• National Centre for Infections in Cancer – This NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence, has now received Synergy grant funding. Based at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, it aims at improving infection surveillance and prevention in cancer patients. This is novel work examining what clinical guidelines, therapeutics and surveillance approaches should be implemented to improve monitoring and survival in this vulnerable patient population.
• “There's no place like home”: national scale up of the paediatric low risk febrile neutropenia program - National collaborative project based out of Murdoch Children’s Research Institute – MRFF funded
• General Practitioner Antimicrobial Stewardship Programme Study (GAPS Trial). A cluster randomised trial examining the economic and clinical effectiveness of a multi-modal intervention to reduce antibiotic prescribing in primary care. Collaboration between UQ, QUT and Bond with Commonwealth Department of Health funding.
• Development of the Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for the National Antimicrobial Resistance Strategy - Commonwealth Department of Health funding

Policy Experience: Lisa has significant policy experience at statewide and national levels. Prior to returning to academia in 2013, Lisa was a senior manager at the state health department of Queensland - responsible for the design, implementation and evaluation of infection prevention programs and policy. She was a technical expert on the Australian Commission of Safety and Quality in Healthcare (ACSQHC) Healthcare Associated Infection Advisory Committee, a role she has held continuously from 2009 to 2024.

Associate Professor Emma Hamilton-Williams’ career focuses on understanding how immune tolerance is disrupted leading to the development of the autoimmune disease type 1 diabetes. She received her PhD from the Australian National University in 2001, followed by postdoctoral training in Germany and the Scripps Research Institute in the USA.

In 2012, she started a laboratory at the Frazer Institute, University of Queensland where she investigates the gut microbiota as a potential trigger or therapy target for type 1 diabetes, as well as developing an immunotherapy for type 1 diabetes. The overall aim of her research is to find new ways to prevent or treat the underlying immune dysfunction causing autoimmunity.

She is Chief Scientific Officer for an Australia-wide pregnancy-birth cohort study of children at increased risk of type 1 diabetes, which aims to uncover the environmental drivers of this disease. Her laboratory uses big-data approaches including proteomics, metabolomics and metagenomics to understand the function of the gut microbiota linked to disease.

She recently conducted a clinical trial of a microbiome-targeting biotherapy aimed at restoring a healthy microbiome and immune tolerance, with an ultimate aim of preventing type 1 diabetes.

Dr Pingping Han is currently leading the Epigenetic Nanodiagnostics and Therapeutics Group within the Centre for Orofacial Regeneration, Reconstruction and Rehabilitation (COR3), at the UQ School of Dentistry. Dr Han received her PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in 2014. Dr Han's current research focuses on three themes: a) salivary diagnostics for periodontal disease, b) “cell-free” regenerative therapy for periodontal tissue engineering and c) cellular nano-mechanics on different modified biomaterial substrates.

I am a Research Fellow and Leader in Pain Relief Innovation at AIBN, UQ. My research interests sit at the interface of drug delivery and the pain field. My overarching research goal is to improve the quality of day to day life of patients suffering from chronic pain, by applying nanotechnology to the development of novel highly effective pain-killer products for improving chronic pain management. I am looking for highly motivated postgraduate students.

I also enjoy volunteering within the academic community, most notably as Head of the SBMS ECR Committee and Treasurer for The Queensland Chinese Association of Scientists and Engineers (QCASE). I am currently serving as guest editor of Pain Research and Management.and JoVE Methods Collection.

Research Interests

My research is focusing on nano-based drug formulation and development to improve chronic pain management. I have a broad and unique background in both pharmacology and drug delivery systems, with specific expertise in the development of novel drug products and testing their analgesic efficacy and safety including pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic studies. To date, I have established five different techniques to produce painkiller–loaded nanoparticles and nanofibers aimed at improving pain relief for patients where currently available pain-killers either lack efficacy or produce dose-limiting side-effects. For example, there is a small and very potent peptide that has been on the market as a chemical for over 10 years but which cannot be used as a therapeutic due to its short half-life and poor oral bioavailability. In the form of my nanoparticles, that peptide has the potential to become an oral treatment for improving pain management in patients whose pain is currently poorly alleviated by clinically used pain-killers. I have significant expertise in the use of rodent pain models to assess novel analgesics, and I have received excellent training in conducting research in accordance with the stringent requirements of the Quality Management System (quality accreditations (GLP and ISO17025) from NATA). Together, my knowledge, skills and experience will facilitate the efficient translation of my research from the bench to the clinic.

The current focus of the lab is on the development of drug-products to solve one of the largest unmet medical needs in the pain field through use of sustainable materials. 1) We are developing multifunctional sutures including biodegradable pain relief sutures. 2) We are developing my innovative novel nanoparticles, which deliver innate-immune targeting peptides for the treatment of cancer and cancer-related pain. We are establishing a platform for the development of safe, effective delivery for other small molecule peptide drugs in general to pave their way to clinical trials. 3) Our research also investigates the role of C5a and C3a, estrogen, etc. in the pathogenesis of chronic pain including neuropathic pain, cancer-related pain, low back pain and OA pain.

We work in collaboration with other leading Australian and international researchers to stay at the forefront of the drug delivery systems field and the pain field. We also provide preclinical evaluation of novel compounds and formulations.

Stephen is a Narungga and Ngarrindjeri man from South Australia, and Senior Research Fellow with the University of Queensland Poche Centre for Indigenous Health and PhD candidate with the School of Public Health at the University of Queensland.

Stephen is an epidemiologist and public health researcher who has worked with Aboriginal communities and organisations across Australia. Stephen has experience in conducting health services research, sexual health, adolescents and young people’s health and wellbeing, and Indigenous methodology.

Stephen completed a Master of Philosophy in Applied Epidemiology at the Australian National University in 2019, and has a Master of Public Health (Flinders University, 2013), a Graduate Certificate Health Services Research and Development (The University of Wollongong, 2012), and a Bachelor of Health Sciences (Public Health) (The University of Adelaide, 2008).

CURRENT POSITIONS

· Senior Staff Specialist (Public Health Medicine), Queensland Health

· Principal Research Fellow, Centre for Clinical Research - University of Queensland

RECENT POSITIONS

· General Practitioner, Indooroopilly General Practice

· Director, Queensland Centre for Intellectual and Developmental Disability (to January 2021)

· Senior Medical Officer, Mater Intellectual Disability and Autism Service (to November 2020)

· General Practitioner, Cornwall Street Medical Centre (to November 2020)

Colorectal Surgeon Brisbane

Associate Professor Meredith Harris is a researcher in the field of mental health services research and evaluation. She is a Principal Research Fellow with the School of Public Health at the University of Queensland, based at the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research.

Meredith holds qualifications in psychology, policy and applied social research, and public health. She has over 25 years of experience in the management and administration of research projects, including systematic literature reviews, cross-sectional and longitudinal studies, studies based on epidemiological survey data, and evaluations of health programs and interventions using observational, quasi-experimental and experimental research designs.

Meredith's current role is with the Analysis and Reporting Component of the Australian Mental Health Outcomes and Classification Network (AMHOCN), which leads the design, analysis and reporting of the National Outcomes and Casemix Collection (http://www.amhocn.org/). In this role, she is leading a range of projects designed to improve the measurement of patient- and service-level outcomes in Australia's specialised public sector mental health services.

Carmel Hawley MBBS, FRACP, M.Med.Sci, is a Senior Staff Specialist and Director of Haemodialysis Services at Princess Alexandra Hospital. In addition, she is an Associate Professor (A/P) of Medicine at the School of Medicine, University of Queensland and current (inaugural) Chair for the Australasian Kidney Trials network (AKTN) formed in 2005. Under A/P Hawley’s stewardship, AKTN’s research output is now recognised internationally for its quality and impact. This has driven major advances in the evidence base, that directly informs care and outcomes for people living with chronic kidney disease. A/P Hawley also holds a Master’s degree in Biostatistics, has expertise in trial management, methodology, design and conduct. She is currently involved in numerous industry-led and/or investigator initiated international and national clinical trials as either a Principal or Associate Investigator, providing leadership and direction to emerging early and mid-career researchers.