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Professor Whiteford is Director of the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research. His research interests are in psychiatric epidemiology and burden of disease measurement, mental health policy and service reform.

Professor Whiteford trained in medicine, psychiatry and health policy at the University of Queensland, Stanford University and the Australian National University. He has held senior clinical and administrative positions, including those of Director of Mental Health in the Queensland and Federal governments in Australia. He worked for ten years on the design and implementation of Australia’s Mental Health Strategy and was Chairman of the Working Group which oversaw this initiative. He was appointed to the first mental health position in the World Bank in Washington DC with the task of developing the Bank’s capacity to respond to the rising global burden of mental, neurological, and substance use disorders. He has worked as a consultant to national governments, the Commonwealth and State governments in Australia, the World Bank, and the World Health Organisation.

Dr Lahann Wijenayake is the Head of Orthopaedic Surgery at The University of Queensland. He is a Brisbane based orthopaedic surgeon having obtained his FRACS and FAorthA through the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. He is also an Associate Fellow of the Royal Australian College of Medical Administrators. Dr Wijenayake is a surgeon at the Queensland Children's Hospital. He has a keen interest in medical student teaching as well as research in the field of paediatric orthopaedics, orthopaedics, and medical student education.

I am a physiotherapist with a clinical specialty in the management of individuals with neurological conditions and vestibular disorders. I have a keen interest in examining how the body's balance systems, including the inner ear (vestibular system), eyes (ocular system), and sensory modalities (touch, proprioception), interact with the brain to optimize movement control, functionality, physical activity, and participation outcomes for individuals affected by neurological and vestibular pathologies. This includes conditions such as multiple sclerosis, cerebellar dysfunction, traumatic brain injury, stroke, Parkinson's disease, myasthenia gravis, motor neuron disease, concussion, Meniere's disease, vestibular migraines, acoustic neuromas, and age-related vestibular dysfunction. Additionally, I am interested in the influence of lifestyle choices on vestibular system functioning and integration, particularly how factors such as physical activity, community integration, sleep, and overall wellness affect both neurological and vestibular conditions, including Meniere's disease, vestibular migraines, and age-related vestibular dysfunction.

Wayne Wilson is an Associate Professor in the Discipline of Audiology at the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, The University of Queensland (UQ). He holds a PhD and Post-graduate Diploma in audiology and a BSc(Hons) in auditory physiology. His research interests include listening and listening difficulties in children, the objective assessment of auditory function, and clinical competence in audiology. Wayne has published >100 papers in refereed scientific journals, >10 book chapters and 3 patents; has presented >300 papers at scientific conferences including >15 key-note/opening addresses; and has secured >35 competitive research grants totaling >AUD$4.2 million.

Mechanisms of drug-induced liver damage.

Liver disease has long been associated with the abuse and clinical use of drugs. My research interests focus on ethanol, perhaps the most commonly abused drug, and the widely used non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS). Both NSAIDS and ethanol are widely tolerated but induce liver disease in a small number of individuals.

Research projects listed below investigate immunological and genetic phenomena associated with drug-induced liver disease.

• Does ethanol alter hepatic gene expression to cause liver damage?
• Does ethanol alter hepatocyte sensitivity to cytokines leading to cell death?
• Is protein modification by ethanol metabolites involved in the aetiology of alcoholic liver disease?
• Do keratin 8 or 18 mutants sensitise the liver to toxins?
• Is an aberrant immune response involved in NSAID adverse reactions?
• What is the mechanism of toxicity of the Bracken fern toxin ptaquiloside?

Yanfei has a discipline background as a physiotherapist. She completed her PhD at The University of Queensland in October 2021. Her PhD involved ultrasound shear wave elastography, quantitative sensory testing, and physical and psychological measures to uncover potential biopsychosocial mechanisms underlying work-related neck pain and disability in a high-risk occupation group. After her PhD, she was awarded a competitive UQ postdoctoral fellowship to conduct research related to musculoskeletal pain and injury at RECOVER Injury Research Centre. Her current research focuses on uncovering the biopsychosocial mechanisms underlying musculoskeletal pain and injury, developing, and implementing effective and tailored pain treatments. She also has interests in occupational health and health equity. She has a broad range of research skills applicable across methodologies, including randomized controlled trials, case-control, and longitudinal study designs, systematic and scoping reviews, and meta-analysis. Yanfei has presented her work at national and international conferences and received several presentation awards.

Dr. Ayaho Yamamoto is the Group Leader of Laboratory Science at the Children's Health and Environmental Program and is a research fellow in the field of Biomedical Science. Her research focuses on understanding the mechanistic links between environmental exposures and adverse respiratory outcomes. In particular, she focuses on the cellular responses following air pollution exposure and/or viral infection on human respiratory epithelium, and the age differences in immune defence mechanisms. Investigate on early intervention strategies with dietary antioxidants to improve respiratory health and reduce the risk of long-term chronic diseases.

Dr. Yamamoto has a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Health and Public Health; her research focused on childhood asthma. She has a Master of Science in Biomedical Science and Pharmacology; the research focus was to understand the mechanisms and to test new drugs for osteoporosis and chondrosarcomas metastasis. She has worked in a Uni-based start-up company for drug development.

Professor Ian Yang is a Thoracic Physician and Director of Thoracic Medicine at The Prince Charles Hospital, and Head of the PCH-Northside Clinical Unit, School of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.

A clinical psychologist trained in psychoanalytic psychotherapy with many years of clinical experience, with interest in the understanding of psychosomatic relationships as they appear in clinical practice, and with interest in the understanding of the therapeutic relationship as instance of change, particularly in the treatment of children and young people. This translates into an interest in researching the psychotherapy process with a tendency toward the use of qualitative or mixed methods.

I am an Advanced Accredited Practicing Dietitian (AdvAPD), and currently hold positions at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital (Research Coordinator, Nutrition and Dietetics), and University of Queensland (Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Health Services Research).

My research program aims to improve nutrition care in Australian hospitals to prevent avoidable hospital-acquired complications and optimise patient outcomes, particularly for older inpatients. My research program consists of extensive observational research to establish the size and impact of the problem, qualitative research to understand patient, caregiver and staff perspectives and opportunities, and pragmatic implementation research to test, compare and evaluate different models of nutrition care in practice. Through my research, I am to improve care of people accessing health services across the continuum of care, with a particular interest in frailty, preventing delirium and functional decline, and person-centred care.

My research has been of interest nationally and internationally, receiving Research in Practice awards at national Dietitians Australia conferences, Young Achiever Award by the Dietitians Association of Australia in 2014 and New Researcher Award at the International Congress of Dietetics in 2012. My leadership and contribution to the dietetics profession was recently recognised through receiving the prestigious Barbara Chester Memorial Award.

I have an interest and developing expertise in consumer engagement in research and health service improvement, and I am regularly asked to speak on this topic at conferences, forums and panel discussions. I am proud of work I co-led with a health consumer to develop a co-design framework in Metro North Health. This framework is freely available online for anyone to use: https://metronorth.health.qld.gov.au/get-involved/co-design.

I am an implementation scientist and have facilitated workshops on this topic at UQ, QUT, University of Adelaide and Metro North HHS within a team of local and international experts. I was part of the team that developed the Allied Health Translating Research into Practice (AH-TRIP) initiative, which aims to increase knowledge translation capacity for health professionals. https://www.health.qld.gov.au/clinical-practice/database-tools/translating-research-into-practice-trip/translating-research-into-practice.

As a passionate advocate for the training and career pathways for clinician-scientists, I have supervised 3 PhDs to completion, and is currently supervising 6 research higher degree candidates (5 of whom are embedded health professionals within the health system), 4 early career research fellows and nearly 40 dietetics research honours students.