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Associate Professor Matthew McGrail is the Head of Regional Training Hubs research at UQ’s Rural Clinical School. Joining UQ in Nov 2017, he is based at the Rockhampton Clinical Unit, and he is chair of the research and evaluation working group of UQ’s Regional Medical Pathway as well as chair of UQ RCS’s medical graduate cohort longitudinal tracking study (UQ MediCoS).

Matthew has worked in the university sector for over 20 years, working mostly as a researcher in rural health. He was originally trained as a statistician, expanding his skills across GIS and software development, completing his PhD in 2008. He has been lead biostatistician on 3 large NHMRC-funded RCTs that are published in the world-leading general medical journal, the Lancet. Matthew’s research is mostly underpinned by the overall objective of improved access to health care for rural populations, mainly focused in the medical sector. He has a unique blend of ‘generalist’ research skills and experience across the disciplines of statistics, geography, rural health, econometrics, public health and clinical research.

Matthew has a particular interest in the ongoing concerns with medical workforce distribution, connecting that through his research and evaluation to health policies, training pathways and healthcare systems. To date he has been a chief investigator on two separate Centres of Research Excellence, one on medical workforce dynamics and the other on rural and remote primary health care access. He has also co-researched with various GP training organisations, specialty colleges, rural workforce agencies, as well as state and commonwealth health departments

John McGrath AM, MBBS, MD, PhD, FRANZCP, FAHMS

John McGrath is a psychiatrist interested in discovering the causes of serious mental disorders. He is the Director of the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research and conjoint Professor at the Queensland Brain Institute His research aims to generate and evaluate nongenetic risk factors for schizophrenia. He has forged productive cross-disciplinary collaborations linking risk factor epidemiology with developmental neurobiology. For example, John and his colleagues have made discoveries linking prenatal vitamin D and later risk of mental illness in the offspring. In addition, John has supervised major systematic reviews of the epidemiology of schizophrenia. He was awarded a John Cade Fellowship by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council. In 2016 he was also awarded a Neils Bohr Professorship by the Danish National Research Foundation.

Treasure McGuire graduated with a Bachelor of Pharmacy and a Bachelor of Science (Pharmacology) from the University of Queensland UQ). She also completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Clinical Pharmacy and Graduate Certificate in Higher Education at UQ. In 2005, she completed her PhD in the School of Population Health, UQ, entitled Consumer medicines call centres: a medication liaison model of pharmaceutical care.

She has held a sennior conjoint appointment between the School of Pharmacy, UQ and Mater Pharmacy, Mater Health, Brisbane since 1996, and was appointed as a Senior Lecturer in 2006. In her Mater role, she has been Assistant Director of Pharmacy (Practice and Development) over this same time period. At UQ, she coordinates a graduate clinical pharmacy course within the Master of Clinical Pharmacy program. In 2016, this program received a UQ Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences Team Award for Programs that Enhance Learning and in 2017 a citation in the University of Queensland Award for Excellence in Teaching and Learning.

Treasure’s research is translational, focussing on patient centred-care and quality use of medicines in the domains of medicines information, evidence-based practice, medication safety, reproductive health, complementary medicines, communicable diseases and interprofessional education. She is a Fellow of the Australian College of Pharmacy and a Fellow of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia.In recognition of her services to medicines information, she received the Lilly International Fellowship in Hospital Pharmacy and the Bowl of Hygeia of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia. In 2015, she was the recipient of the Sr Eileen Pollard Medal (Mater Research-UQ) for excellence in incorporating research into clinical care provision.

Dr Lisa McHugh is a perinatal and infectious diseases epidemiologist at the UQ School of Public Health. She is an Emerging Leader (EL1) NHMRC post-doctoral research Fellow and lead investigator on a 5-year Investigator Grant called 'VaxiMums'. The 'VaxiMums' program is evaluating maternal vaccination programs, pregnancy loss, and respiratory infections. Before her PhD she completed a Master of Philosophy in Applied Epidemiology (MAE prgram) at the ANU.

Lisa was an early career research Fellow in the NHMRC funded APPRISE Centre for Research Excellence, that investigated the impact of influenza and whooping cough (pertussis) vaccinations recommended in pregnant First Nations women, and identifyed key factors affecting their uptake in pregnancy. Lisa was also chief-investigator on a multi-jurisdictional NHMRC funded project called 'Links2HealthierBubs' which created the largest linked cohort of individual mother-infant pairs to investigate the uptake, safety and effectiveness of influenza and pertussis vaccines, and the geographical, ethnic and socio-economic influences of vaccine uptake. Lisa was a co-investigator on a NHMRC funded COVID-19 Real-time Information System for Preparedness and Epidemic Response (CRISPER) project, which developed an interactive dashboard that mapped COVID-19 cases, widely utilised by multiple state and terrirory public health users.

Lisa's research experience and interests include clinical midwifery, First Nations health, infectious diseases, pregnancy and birth outcomes, and maternal vaccination. She has been a member of the Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) since 2014 and is currently an editor for the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health.

Dr. Molly-rose A. McInerney.

Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the Critical Care Research Group, The Prince Charles Hospital, Institute of Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland. Main research focus is heart transplantation, cardiac critical care, molecular biology and mitochondria.

Professor David McIntyre trained in Endocrinology in Australia and Belgium. He works clinically as Director of Obstetric Medicine at Mater Health Services and is an Emeritus Professor in the Faculty of Medicine (Mater Research). David has published over 250 papers (>25000 citations), primarily in the field of medical complications of pregnancy, with a particular focus on diabetes and obesity. Recent research has examined the effects of diabetes, obesity and hypertension during pregnancy on the health of Mothers and Babies, during pregnancy and with long term follow up. David is a Past Chair of the Australasian Diabetes in Pregnancy Society and the International Association of Diabetes in Pregnancy Study Groups (IADPSG). In 2016, David became the first Australian trained clinician to receive the Norbert Freinkel Award for contributions to diabetes in pregnancy from the American Diabetes Association. In 2019 he was awarded the Jørgen Pedersen Lecture for diabetes in pregnancy by DPSG Europe and the Stream Lead Award Lecture for “Diabetes and Women” by the International Diabetes Federation.

I am a basic science researcher with training in cell biology, genetics and research translation. My research investigates the female reproductive system by focusing on the contribution of individual cells. I aim to understand the influence of genetic architecture, differentiation and maturation on these individual cells and how this contributes to changes in the microenvironment that can contribute to disease initiation and progression.

After the completion of my PhD in 2008 at the University of Queensland, I undertook post-doctoral studies at the University of Bern, Department of Biomedical Research (DBMR), focusing on endometriosis, ovarian and endometrial cancer. I curated patient samples from clinical research trials to investigate inflammatory and metabolic components of reproductive tissue and disease and began developing patient-derived models of the endometrium. I established a relationship between endometriosis lesions, nerves and pain and how this interaction was mediated by inflammation. I further developed patient-derived in vitro models to understand the interaction between inflammation and hormonal response of endometriotic lesions and how this could be utilized to target current and novel treatments. On returning to Australia in 2016 I joined the Genomics of Reproductive Disorders laboratory to integrate genetic background into patient-derived in vitro models. I established the Endometriosis Research Queensland Study (ERQS) in collaboration with the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital (RBWH) and extended in vitro models into complex multi-cellular assembloids (combinations of organoids and surrounding stromal cells).

Dr. Alejandro Melendez-Calderon has an interdisciplinary background in robotics and biomedical engineering with extensive experience in human augmentation technologies used in medicine (robotics, wearable devices) and computational approaches to understand human neuromuscular control (unimpaired, stroke and SCI population). He has over 19 years of experience gained in academic, clinical and industrial environments.

He leads the NeuroEngineering, Rehabilitation and Medical Robotics Lab at UQ, and is currently a Senior Lecturer within the School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering and the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences (affiliate) at the University of Queensland (Australia; Jan 2020-present). He is also a Principal Research Fellow at the Jamieson Trauma Institute, Queensland Health (Australia, Jun 2022-present) where he leads the Rehabilitaiton and Outcomes theme.

Work experience | Clinical - He was previously a Senior Research Scientist and acting Head of Technology at the cereneo Advanced Rehabilitation Institute / cereneo Center for Neurology and Rehabilitation (Switzerland; 2017-2019), where he led and conducted research in the area of neuromechanics of movement deficits after stroke. He was also an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Northwestern University (USA; 2014-2020) and a postdoctoral research fellow at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab (formerly Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago) (2012-2013), where he conducted research in cross-modal multisensory interactions and assessment of neuromuscular impairments. Medical industry - He led the areas of Robotic Hand Rehabilitation and Assessments, and work on adaptive control of robotic trainers (arm and legs) at Hocoma AG (Switzerland; 2014-2016), one of the world-leading manufacturers of robotic and wearable technologies for rehabilitation. Academic research - He was a Guest Researcher at ETH Zurich (Switzerland; 2016-2019), where he conducted research in biomechanics and motor control/learning. He received his PhD degree from Imperial College London (UK; 2007-2011) for research in robotics, rehabilitation and human motor control.

Interests | Dr. Melendez-Calderon has a scientific interest in understanding principled mechanisms of human behavior, in particular related to movement control/learning and physical interaction; his technical interests are in robotics and computational modeling for medical diagnostics, assistive applications & (bio)medical education.

Dr Erika MELER, DVM, IPSAV, CEAV, MSc, MVSc, Dipl ACVIM (SAIM), Dipl ECVIM-CA

Senior Lecturer in Small Animal Internal Medicine - Registered Veterinary Specialist

Erika graduated from the National Veterinary School of Lyon (France) in 2003 and continued her clinical training with a rotating internship at the University of Montreal in small animal medicine and surgery (Canada). She pursued her clinical training with a Certificate in advanced studies in internal medicine at the National Veterinary School of Nantes (France) which is equivalent to an Australian Membership. Then interested in laboratory research work, she completed a Master in Oncogenetics at the Medical School of Marseille (France) and worked on the side as veterinary general practitioner.

Erika who enjoys both clinical research and internal medicine practice, decided to take the experience to the next step further. In order to broaden her knowledge and competences in both fields she entered a combined Master in Veterinary Sciences and residency program in small animal internal medicine at the Purdue University Veterinary Teaching Hospital (United States). She was awarded both her Master by the University of Purdue and her Certification in Small Animal Internal Medicine by the American College of Veterinary Medicine in 2010. During her Residency, Erika won the Osborne case report competition organized by the Phi Zeta Society which rewards the best case presentation of the year.

After her residency, Erika worked for about 3 years in one of the biggest emergency and referral private practices in Canada where she founded the internal medicine service. Erika has trained in her career many students, interns, veterinary nurses and mentored younger colleagues. She has given continuing education conferences and written numerous articles summaries for general practitioners. Having worked in both private and academic environments, she can prepare her students for both careers and understands the challenges of both types of practice.

Erika's academic activities encompass clinical teaching and management of referral cases in the department of small animal internal medicine at the University of Queensland Veterinary Medical Centre, classroom teaching for veterinary students in their 3d, 4th and 5th years and veterinary technology students in their 3d year of training, as well as research work bridging human as well as laboratory science and IT technology to clinical practice (so called collaborative and translational medicine). She has also an interest in developing business management field in veterinary medicine as well as innovative teaching methods for veterinary students and professionals.

Erika’s clinical areas of interest are the use of new technologies in veterinary medicine such minimally-invasive techniques (including laser and stenting) in dogs.

Erika's research areas of interest are infectious diseases such as MRSA, MRSP, protozoal, viral and fungal diseases in pet companions.

Erika's teaching areas of interest are the development of new teaching methods in the veterinary clinical setting and the exploration of a new balance between economic needs of teaching hospitals and their educational goals.

Erika is definitively a team player and has an excellent track record in student supervision and graduation. Although veterinary oriented, these themes are also deeply translational so any colleague from a medical or educational background who would like to collaborate is very much welcome to make contact. Erika looks forward to work with any colleagues and students interested any of the themes listed above.

Dr Katelyn Melvin is Lecturer in Speech Pathology in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Faculty of Health, Medical and Behavioural Sciences at The University of Queensland. Katelyn is committed to collaborating with families and communities to drive meaningful, long-term improvements in developmental outcomes for children. She is passionate about fostering innovation in teaching and learning in higher education, with a particular focus on simulation-based education to advance professional development. Her mixed-methods research explores family-centred practice, health promotion and prevention, and collaborative approaches that drive health service innovation and improve service delivery in the early years.

Professor Frederic Meunier obtained his Masters degree in Neurophysiology at the Paris XI University, France in 1992 and completed his Ph.D in Neurobiology at the CNRS in Gif-sur-Yvette, France in 1996. He was the recipient of a European Biotechnology Fellowship and went on to postgraduate work at the Department of Biochemistry at Imperial College (1997-1999) and at Cancer Research UK (2000-2002) in London, UK. After a short sabbatical at the LMB-MRC in Cambridge (UK), he became a group leader at the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Queensland (Australia) in 2003. He joined the Queensland Brain Institute of the University of Queensland in 2007 and obtained an NHMRC senior research fellowship in 2009 renewed in 2014 with promotion. He became Professor in 2014 at the Queensland Brain Institute and is currently part of the Centre for Ageing Dementia Research.

Jared is a proud Yuwi man, pharmacist and early-career researcher with interests spanning from culturally safe and effective pharmacy practice through to new technologies for pharmaceutical development and delivery. After graduating from UQ with a Bachelor of Pharmacy (Honours) in 2012, he worked as a community pharmacist before returning to undertake a PhD in pharmaceutical sciences, focusing on discovering new drugs for Alzheimer’s disease. Throughout his PhD, Jared developed an interest in teaching and tutored for many pharmacy courses. Ultimately this led to his current role as a Lecturer with UQ School of Pharmacy upon finishing his PhD in 2021. Jared also works as a clinical and research pharmacist with the Institute of Urban Indigenous Health (IUIH).

I received a BA in Biology from Columbia University in New York City. After taking two years off to work as a research assistant, I began graduate school at Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences, also in New York. My graduate advisor was Andrew Koff at the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute. I studied the cdk inhibitor, p27, and discovered that it is regulated at the level of translation as cells exit the cell cycle. I received my PhD in Molecular Biology in 2001. My postdoctoral work was carried out in Larry Zipursky's lab at UCLA. Here, I learned both Drosophila genetics and neurobiology and began working on the Dscam-family of cell recognition molecules. I identified Dscam2 as the first tiling receptor and discovered that Dscam2 and Dscam1 are redundantly required for photoreceptor synaptic specificity. I moved to Brisbane and began as a lecturer at the UQ School of Biomedical Sciences, in December 2009. I am also an affiliate of the Queensland Brain Institute.

Professor Gita Mishra’s main research area is life course epidemiology and women’s health. She joined the University of Queensland (UQ) in 2010 as the first Professor of Life Course Epidemiology at the School of Public Health. She was subsequently awarded an ARC Future Fellowship (2013-2017), a NHMRC Principal Research Fellowship (2017-2021), and is currently an NHMRC Leadership Fellow (Level 3; 2022-26).

At UQ she is founding Director of the Australian Women and Girls’ Health Research (AWaGHR) Centre that has 30 academics, professional staff, and PhD students. Within the centre, she leads the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Women and Non-Communicable Diseases (CRE WaND) and the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health (ALSWH) a national flagship study since 1996 that has collected data on over 57,000 women in four age cohorts. Since 2012 she has also led and developed the International collaboration for a Life course Approach to reproductive health and Chronic disease Events(InterLACE) that combines data from more than 800,000 women in 27 studies in 12 countries and has become a leading global resource for robust evidence on reproductive events, including pregnancy loss and the risk of non-communicable diseases.

Professor Mishra is internationally recognized for her expertise in epidemiology and women’s health across the life course. This is especially regarding her research on the links between reproductive characteristics, from menarche to menopause, and non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Her work from ALSWH and InterLACE have contributed significantly to her career total of over 450 scientific papers, book chapters, and reports to inform government policy. As lead editor, Mishra has recently completed the 2nd edition of A life course approach to women’s health – part of the ground-breaking Life Course Series from Oxford University Press – due for publication in early 2023. As a result of successful grant funding, her current research at AWaGHR includes leading projects on endometriosis, menstrual and pelvic pain, and the healthcare experience of women with multimorbidity.

She is actively engaged in research translation and capacity building. In 2018 Professor Mishra led the evidence review for the National Women’s Health Strategy 2020-2030, and recently she chaired the Future Research session at the 2021 RANZCOGWomen’s Health Summit in Canberra. In 2022 she was co-convenor of the Queensland Women’s Health Forum to support research and policy development in the state. Her research is often featured by national and international media organisations. For example, her team’s recent findings on the links between stillbirth and miscarriage and the risk of stroke led to interviews for Reuters, ABC, and BBC. She has also co-authored eight articles on women’s health for The Conversation that have reached over 130,000 readers.

In addition to mentoring postdoctoral researchers, Professor Mishra currently supervises 9 PhD students, with 21 previously completed. These have typically resulted in five or more papers published alongside each dissertation. Many of her students have then gone on to successful research or scientific careers at world-leading institutions.

In 2017, she was elected as a board member for the European Menopause and Andropause Society; received honorary membership of Sigma International, a global nursing organisation; and was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (FAHMS). In 2022 she received the RANZCOG award for Excellence in Women’s Health.

Amy is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work and an Honorary Research Fellow in the Parenting and Family Support Centre at UQ. She is the recipient of consecutive Children's Hospital Foundation Early Career Fellowships (2018-2021, 2021-2022). Amy is a paediatric nurse and completed her PhD (Health) in 2011, for which she received the Executive Dean's Commendation for Higher Degree Research. Amy's research aims to improve heatlh and developmental outcomes for children and thier families. Areas of focus include the use of evidence-based parenting support to improve outcomes for children with chronic health and developmental conditions (e.g., asthma, eczema, type 1 diabetes, autism spectrum disorder), supporting families to develop healthy habits from early childhood (e.g., oral health, nutrition, screen use), and supporting parents in the transition to parenthood (e.g., perinatal mental health, breastfeeding).

Dr María Patricia Hernández Mitre (Patty Mitre) is Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Antimicrobial Optimisation Group led by Professor Jason Roberts and a member of the CRE-RESPOND (Centre of Research Excellence - REduce the burden of antimicrobial reSistance through oPtimal persONalised Dosing) team at the University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research, located on the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital campus at Herston in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

She is certified in non-compartmental analysis (NCA) using Phoenix® WinNonlin™ and conducts NCA for Phase 1 clinical trials under NATA ISO 17025-accredited processes, preparing regulatory reports for submission to agencies such as the FDA. In addition, she develops and validates population pharmacokinetic models using Monolix®, Pmetrics™, and NONMEM® to optimise drug therapy and support therapeutic drug monitoring.

Dr Hernández Mitre is leading the individual pharmacokinetic analyses of antifungal therapies from the Screening Anti-Fungal Exposure in Intensive Care Units (SAFE-ICU) study. She also mentors students and clinicians, delivers training in pharmacokinetic modelling, and participates actively in university committees. She is experienced in clinical trial monitoring, regulatory writing, and electronic research data management.

Dr Miura's research focus is the role of nutrition and dietary intake in prevention of chronic disease, especially skin cancer and cardiovascular disease. Dr Miura is currently leading projects to studying nutritional status and dietary intake among heart transplant recipients. Her research areas also extend to health of airline pilots in relation to radiation exposure.

Dr Yousuf Mohammed completed his PhD in pharmaceutics and skin drug delivery under the guidance of Associate prof Heather Benson, Prof Michael Roberts and Associate prof Tarl Prow. He has been working within the field of skin delivery at the Therapeutics Research Centre, University of Queensland - School of Medicine since 2012. His current research includes managing a five-year (2018-2023) US FDA funded project titled Bioequivalence of Topical products: Elucidating the Thermodynamic and Functional Characteristics of Compositionally Different Topical Formulations as a Principle Investigator and managing the five-year project (2014-2019) Characterization of Critical Quality Attributes for Semisolid Topical Drug Products as a Co-investigator. These projects aims to improve current regulatory guidelines for topical and transdermal semisolid products. Over the last 6 years, his work has been focused on skin penetration and skin toxicology of drugs and xenobiotics including nanoparticulate materials.