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I am Professor, NHMRC Investigator Fellow (EL2) and group leader (Exosome Biology Laboratory) at UQ Centre for Clinical Research. I am nationally and internationally (>20 invitations to international meetings in the last 5 years) acknowledged key opinion leader on Extracellular Vesicle (rated 3th worldwide (Top 0.015%) and 1st in Australia in expertise for “Extracellular Vesicles and Exosomes” on Expertscape) and biomarker discovery (140 publications, and >8000 citations in the last 7 year). I have made a major conceptual contribution to EV biology with diagnostic and therapeutic implications. In the last 8 years, my primary research and commercialisation activities have focused on the identification and validation of biomarkers, and development of In Vitro Multivariate Index Assays for clinically relevant complications (including ovarian cancers, and obstetrical syndromes) and their translation into clinical applications. In Academia, I have pursued these objectives through the development and leadership of clinical translation research teams and facilities, both in Australia and overseas. For example, I had a leadership role in established the Centre for Clinical Diagnostics (CCD). Within the UQCCR, I established an exosome research team to evaluate the clinical utility of extracellular vesicles as liquid biopsies, IVDs and therapeutics. Much of our effort in this field of endeavour has involved optimising isolation methods for extracellular vesicles and their analytical analysis - including the use of protein solution array (e.g. Luminex), mass spectrometry profiling (using MS/MS SWATH) and more recently miRNA analysis.

Hemamali Samaratunga MBBS (Hons) LRCP (London) MRCS (UK) FRCPA, FRCPath

• Specialist Anatomical Pathologist, Managing Director, Aquesta Specialised Uropathology
• Full Professor, University of Queensland Faculty of Medicine
• Visiting Medical Officer, Greenslopes Private Hospital

Hemamali graduated with honours from the University of Sri Lanka, Colombo Medical School and completed Pathology specialty training in Queensland. She held a number of consultant posts in both hospital and private practice. In 2008 she established Aquesta Uropathology which now provides diagnostic uropathology services to the majority of urologists in Queensland and Northern New South Wales. In addition to this she maintains a large second opinion consultation practice with requests obtained from throughout Australia and from overseas.

She is active in Genitourinary Pathology research with collaborators in Australia, USA, Canada, Karolinska Institute in Sweden and the Wellington School of Medicine in New Zealand. She held the position of Secretary of the International Society of Urological Pathology from 2015 to 2019.

She was a contributor to the 2004, 2015 and 2022 World Health Organization (WHO) books on Classification of Tumours: Pathology and Genetics of Tumours of the Urinary and Male Reproductive System. She participated in the 2015 revision of the WHO Tumour Classification in Zurich, Switzerland (4th edition) as member, Prostate Tumour Panel. She was a representative of the Expert Groups formulating structured reporting protocols for the Royal College Pathologists of Australasia on kidney, testis and prostate cancer and is currently chairperson of the structured reporting protocols for Genitourinary cancer. She is also currently the Convener for the RCPA Uropathology Quality Assurance Program.

Qualifications

MBBS (HONS) LRCP (London) MRCS (UK) FRCPA FRCPath

Current UQ Appointments

Academic Title-Professor

Non-UQ Appointments

2008 - current: Specialist Anatomical Pathologist & Managing Director, Aquesta Specialized Uropathology

2015 - Current: Visiting Medical Officer, Greenslopes Private Hospital

2003 - 2021: Visiting Medical Officer, Princess Alexandra Hospital

June 2001 - Oct 2008: Specialist Anatomical Pathologist, Sullivan Nicolaides Pathology, Brisbane

1993 - 1997: Specialist Anatomical Pathologist, Royal Brisbane Hospital

1998 - 2001: Senior Anatomical Pathologist, North Brisbane Hospitals Board

Research Interests

• Granular tumour necrosis
• Diagnosis of limited adenocarcinoma on prostate needle biopsy
• Ductal adenocarcinoma of prostate
• Mucinous adenocarcinoma of prostate
• Radical prostatectomy handling and reporting
• Micropapillary urothelial cancer
• Mimics of bladder cancer

Awards and other Esteem Indicators

2017 Admitted to Fellowship of the Royal College of Pathologists, London (FRC Path) for sustained excellence in published works

2022 Awarded the Grawitz Medal of the International Society of Urological Pathology for distinguished service to the discipline of Urological Pathology

2023 Author of the publication Percentage grade 4 tumour predicts outcome for prostate adenocarcinoma in needle biopsies from patients with advanced disease: Ten year data from the TROG 03.04 RADAR Trial. Pathology 54: 49- 54, awarded the prize of

Article of the Year by the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia.

2024 Distinguished Fellowship Award of the Royal College Pathologists of Australasia

For distinguished service to the discipline of Urological Pathology

Keywords

Pathology, Genitourinary cancer, Prostate, Kidney, Urinary tract, Testis, Penis

Lay detail

• Professor of Cognitive Engineering and Human Factors (Joint appointment: School of Psychology, School of ITEE, School of Clinical Medicine)
• Leader, Cognitive Engineering Research Group (CERG).
• Leader, Cognitive Systems Engineering Group, School of ITEE.
• Responsible for development and operation of the University of Queensland Usability Laboratory (UQUL).
• Director of ARC Key Centre for Human Factors and Applied Cognitive Psychology, 2004-2007.
• Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA).
• Fellow of the USA-based Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES).
• Fellow of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA)

Background:

• Adjunct Professor, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1997-2006.
• Professor of Computer Science (HCI), Swinburne University of Technology, 1997-2001.
• Assistant and then tenured Associate Professor of Psychology, M&IE, and Aviation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1985-1996.

Editorial responsibilities

• Associate Editor, Human Factors in Healthcare, 2021-present
• Regional Editor, Cognition Technology and Work, 2000-present.
• Consulting Editor, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 2005-2011, 2013-present
• Editorial Board, Journal of Cognitive Engineering and Decision Making, 2005-present.
• Editorial Board, Human Factors, 1986-1997, 2005-2013, 2016-present.
• Associate Editor, Human Factors, 2014-2015.
• Associate Editor, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied: 2012-2013.
• Associate Editor, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 2002-2005.

Dr. Yomani Sarathkumara’s research focuses on characterising humoral immune responses to Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in EBV-associated diseases.

During her PhD at James Cook University, Australia, she identified novel antibody biomarkers for EBV-associated cancers, including natural killer/T-cell lymphoma and Hodgkin lymphoma, using well-characterised hospital-based case-control samples from the AsiaLymph study—a large, multicentre epidemiological investigation of lymphoma and related haematologic malignancies conducted across Asia in collaboration with the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI). She also identified antibody markers predictive of clinical responses in EBV-positive lymphoma patients treated with EBV-specific T-cell immunotherapy in Phase I clinical trials conducted by Baylor College of Medicine, USA.

Her Honours research at Northumbria University, UK, focused on identifying antibody responses to a fungal antigen associated with Pigeon Fancier's Lung disease. For her Master’s by Research (MPhil) from 2016–2018, conducted in collaboration with the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, and Hokkaido University, Japan, she demonstrated that hantavirus exposure is a major risk factor for developing chronic kidney disease of unknown aetiology (CKDu) in Sri Lanka—a significant public health concern in agricultural communities.

Following her PhD, Dr. Sarathkumara joined the University of Queensland (UQ) as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow under the supervision of Professor Denise Doolan. Building on her doctoral work, she is currently investigating the potential role of EBV in triggering autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS), aiming to identify diagnostic and predictive antibody biomarkers. This work is conducted in collaboration with the University of Texas and the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, USA. In parallel, she is also examining antibody responses in individuals with acute EBV infection through a collaboration with UMass Chan Medical School, University of Massachusetts, USA.

Her research integrates high-throughput serological profiling, statistical modelling, and immunoassay development, and is supported by strong international collaborations.

Dr Jodi Saunus is a senior fellow who specialises in translational research on metastatic breast cancer. Based at Brisbane’s Translational Research Institute, she was recruited by Mater Research in 2022 to help facilitate patient-focused research at the interface of biomedical R&D and clinical practice.

Dr Saunus has an honours degree in biochemistry and biomedical science, a PhD in breast cancer molecular genetics, and broad post-doctoral experience in immunology, molecular cell biology, pathology informatics, and early-phase investigator-initiated clinical trials. Her current portfolio focuses finding new ways to improve the clinical management of aggressive breast cancer, with a focus on triple-negative breast cancer, and the prevention and treatment of brain metastases. This work spans across multiple disciplines and capabilities, and broadly involves:

• Molecular profiling of patient-donated blood and tumour tissue samples to identify features that can predict treatment response, or represent previously uncharacterised therapeutic targets.
• Using experimental models of breast cancer metastasis to learn about the molecular mechanisms exploited by cancer cells to survive and grow in brain tissue.
• Developing innovative treatment strategies that work differently to conventional cancer drugs, including alpha-particle endoradiotherapy and in-situ vaccination.

With an outstanding network of collaborators from academia and clinical practice, she has secured more than $6M to fund this work and has a track record of publishing in prominent biomedical research journals (e.g., Cancer Research, Nature, Science Translational Medicine, Nature Communications and The Journal of Pathology).

Peripherally, Jodi is a strong proponent of biospecimen banking, and clinician and consumer engagement in translational research.

Professor Mark Schembri is a prominent microbiologist with experience in combating the global health crisis presented by multi-drug resistant pathogens. Professor Schembri’s expertise on the virulence of bacterial pathogens and his innovative analysis of biofilm formation aims to improve the outcomes of the >400 million individuals that suffer from urinary tract infections each year across the globe.

Through the application of genetic, genomic and functional studies on uropathogenic E. coli, Professor Schembri has identified targets to reduce the virulence of this pathogen, and will pursue the development of life-saving therapeutic and preventative advances with the assistance of NHMRC, MRFF and ARC grants. Professor Schembri has tracked the rapid emergence and global spread of a virulent, drug-resistant E. coli clone and used genome sequencing to understand its evolution and virulence.

Links: Professor Schembri collaborates with national and international research leaders, including in Denmark, where he was a lecturer. Professor Schembri has strong links with other international experts in his field, including at the Pasteur Institute and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge. His research collaborations also span lead groups at UQ and other top Australian institutes, including Griffith and La Trobe Universities.

Membership, Funding and patents: Since 2014, Professor Schembri has been awarded over $15 million in funding from competitive national research funding bodies. He holds provisional patents for the development of novel therapeutic agents and vaccine antigens. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, and is regularly invited to speak at international conferences in his field.

Awards and Communication: Professor Schembri was the recipient of the Frank Fenner Award (2010) and the ASM BacPath Oration Award (2019) for his outstanding original research contribution to the study of Infectious Disease. He was an Australian Research Council Future Fellow (2011-2015) a National Health and Medical Research Council Senior Research Fellow (2016-2020). Professor Schembri is the author of >240 peer-reviewed research manuscripts. He is President of the Australian Society for Microbiology (2022-2026).

Professor Kate Schroder heads the Inflammasome Laboratory and is Director of the Centre for Inflammation and Disease Research at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB), University of Queensland, as an NHMRC Leadership Fellow. Kate’s graduate studies defined novel macrophage activation mechanisms and her subsequent postdoctoral research identified surprising inter-species divergence in the inflammatory programs of human versus mouse macrophages. As an NHMRC CJ Martin Fellow in Switzerland, Kate trained with the pioneer of inflammasome biology, Jürg Tschopp. The IMB Inflammasome Laboratory, which Kate heads, investigates the molecular mechanisms governing inflammasome activity and caspase activation, the cellular mediators of inflammasome-dependent inflammation, and mechanisms of inflammasome inhibition by cellular pathways and small molecule inhibitors.

Kate is a co-inventor on patents for small molecule inhibitors of the NLRP3 inflammasome, currently under commercialisation by Inflazome Ltd. Inflazome Ltd was recently acquired by Roche in a landmark deal – one of the largest in Australian and Irish biotech history. The acquisition gives Roche full rights to Inflazome’s portfolio of inflammasome inhibitors. Two of the company’s drug candidates are in clinical trials for the treatment of debilitating conditions such as cardiovascular disease, arthritis and neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and motor neuron disease.

Kate has authored more than 140 publications, featuring in journals such as Science, Cell, Nature Genetics, Nature Medicine, Nature Chemical Biology, Journal of Experimental Medicine and PNAS USA, and her work has been cited more than 35,000 times. Kate is an Editorial Board Member for international journals including Science Signaling, Clinical and Translational Immunology and Cell Death Disease. She is the recipient of the 2022 Women in Technology Excellence in Science Award, 2020 Nancy Mills Award for Women in Science, 2019 ANZSCDB Emerging Leader Award, 2019 Merck Research Medal, 2014 Milstein Young Investigator Award, 2013 Tall Poppy Award, 2012 Gordon Ada Career Award, 2010 QLD Premier’s Postdoctoral Award, and the 2008 Society for Leukocyte Biology’s Dolph Adams Award.

INFLAMMASOME LABORATORY RESEARCH

During injury or infection, our body’s immune system protects us by launching inflammation. But uncontrolled inflammation drives diseases such as gout, diabetes, neurodegenerative disease and cancer. The Inflammasome Lab is defining the molecular and cellular processes of inflammation. We seek to unravel the secrets of inflammasomes – protein complexes at the heart of inflammation and disease – to allow for new therapies to fight human diseases.

The Inflammasome Laboratory integrates molecular and cell biology approaches with in vivo studies to gain a holistic understanding of inflammasome function during infection, and inflammasome dysfunction in human inflammatory disease. Current research interests include the molecular mechanisms governing inflammasome activity and caspase activation, the cellular mediators of inflammasome-dependent inflammation, and inflammasome suppression by autophagy and small molecule inhibitors.

Dr. Helena Schuch is a senior research fellow at the School of Dentistry, University of Queensland.

She is a dentist and an oral epidemiologist with special interest in social epidemiology. Helena is also interested in methods to estimate causal inference and on applying machine learning techniques to predict oral health outcomes.

She completed her PhD in Oral Epidemiology at the University of Adelaide (2018) and is currently in the Editorial Board of Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology.

Qualifications: BDS, MScDent, PhD

Research Interests: Oral health inequalities. Life course epidemiology. Causal inference methods. Machine learning applied to oral health.

Dr Jessica Schults is a Queensland Government Clinical Research Fellow and incoming NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow (2026) based at the Herston Infectious Diseases Institute and The University of Queensland. A previous paediatric critical care nurse, Jessica has extensive clinical experience in critical care, with a particular passion for ventilator associated infections. Jessica’s research program aims to reduce the burden of healthcare-associated infections through better hospital surveillance, safer invasive device care, and rapid translation of evidence. She is a Chief Investigator on the IVCare adaptive platform trial, which evaluates strategies to prevent catheter-related bloodstream infections, and leads the NHMRC-funded REBUILD project, which aims to strengthen national infection control systems using a learning health system approach. Jessica has a strong interest in the application of digital technologies, including AI-enabled risk prediction and clinical decision support tools. Jessica has strong, established partnerships with national and international healthcare consumers, organisations, and health services. She holds leadership roles with the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society, is a board member for the ANZ Intensive Care Foundation and is a technical advisor to the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care. Jessica is committed to growing the next generation of clinician-researchers, in-particular, in the underrepresented field of nursing.

Dr Tom Schultz is a molecular immunologist and early career researcher at the UQ Frazer Institute who studies the molecular and cellular biology of innate immune receptors. His research primarily focuses on molecular mechanisms of Toll-like receptor (TLR) signalling in the context of mycobacterial and Gram-negative bacterial infection of macrophages.

I graduated with a degree in Chemical Engineering and Science in 2000 from The University of Queensland, after which I joined Proteome Systems, an Australian biotechnology company. In 2004 I moved to the ETH Zurich in Switzerland for my doctoral studies. I joined the School of Chemistry & Molecular Biosciences as a University of Queensland Postdoctoral Research Fellow in 2008 and NHMRC Career Development Fellow in 2012. I am now Associate Professor in Biochemistry.

Ian Scott is the Director of Internal Medicine and Clinical Epidemiology at the Princess Alexandra Hospital and a Professor with the Faculty of Medicine. He is a consultant general physician with clinical interests in in health services evaluation and improvement, clinical guidelines, clinical decision-making, evidence-based medicine, low value care, quality use of medicines, non-invasive cardiology, advance care planning, and older patient care. He chaired the Queensland Clinical Networks Executive 2022-2024, is the inaugural chair of the Australian Deprescribing Network (2014-2023), Metro South Clinical AI Working Group, and Queensland Health Sepsis AI Working Group (both ongoing) and is a founding member of the Australian and New Zealand Affiliate of the US Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine (ANZA-SIDM). He was also a member of Queensland Health System Quality, Safety and Performance Management Committee (2022-2024) and the Quality and Safety Committee (2015-2020) and the Digital Health Advisory Group of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP - ongoing). He is a past President of the Internal Medicine Society of Australia and New Zealand (2003-2005) and past member of the MBS Review Taskforce for Cardiac Services (2017-2019). He has led multi-site quality improvement collaboratives in acute cardiac care including both hospitals and Divisions of General Practice. He has been involved at senior level on various high-level committees in establishing policies for Queensland Health and/or RACP on electronic discharge summaries, clinical handover, clinical indicators, evaluation of physician performance, chronic disease management, perioperative medicine, medical assessment and planning units, and patient flow through emergency departments. He has published over 300 peer-reviewed articles, presented to over 170 national and international meetings, and is a recipient of several NHMRC and government research grants.

Senior clinical pharmacist with 3 decades of experience in many facets of the pharmaceutical industry in both Australia and the UK- including work for Queensland Health as clinical pharmacist, clinical educator and team leader, National Prescribing Service academic detailer, Australian Pharmacy Council subject matter expert, Kidney Health Australia clinical advisory committee, CARI guideline working group member, Advanced Pharmacy Australia (AdPha) leadership group chair, and working as a community pharmacist and Home Medicines Review facilitator and provider.

Dr Abbas Shafiee is a tissue engineering & regenerative medicine scientist interested in translational cell-based and tissue engineering strategies to treat human diseases.

Dr Shafiee completed his PhD in Professor Kiarash Khosrotehrani’s laboratory on stem cell biology. His research career during his PhD had key contributions to delineating endothelial niche and vascular stem cells in the human placental tissues, including the seminal discovery of an entirely new stem cell population, coined as ‘Meso-Endothelial Bipotent Progenitor’ and the identification of key driver signatures for endothelial and bipotential progenitor function (Stem Cell Reports 2018; The FASEB Journal 2017; Stem Cells 2016; Stem Cells Translational Medicine 2015).

In 2016, he joined Distinguished Professor Dietmar Hutmacher’s team and conducted multiple projects on cancer and bone tissue engineering. Dr Shafiee has developed innovative tissue engineered models intersecting concepts from stem cell biology, cancer, and tissue engineering to study species-specific cancer bone metastasis at an unprecedented level of detail. The results of his research have been published in: International Journal of Cancer 2018; Cancers 2018; Biomaterials 2018; Bone Research 2019; Biomaterials 2019; Applied Materials Today 2020; Biomaterials 2020; and Advanced Therapeutics 2020. Utilizing the tissue engineering concept, he was able to better understand the mechanisms of human cancer bone metastasis. Additionally, he was successful in obtaining project grants, including a project grants from Cooperative Research Centers (CRC), and developed a biomimetically designed scaffolds and investigated the interactions of multipotent mesenchymal stem/stromal cell and skin progenitors with 3D printed scaffolds. The application of 3D printed constructs in acute wound models decreased wound contracture and led to a significantly improved skin regeneration.

Dr Shafiee joined Metro North Health (MNH, Queensland Health) in 2020 and started a research program to develop, implement, and evaluate the applications of 3D printing, scanning, cell therapies, and biofabrication technologies in skin wound settings, and dermatology research. Using the 3D printing and organoid technologies he could develop new approaches to enhances physiological wound closure with reduced scar tissue formation (Biomaterials 2021, Small 2021, Advanced Healthcare Materials 2021, Advanced Healthcare Materials 2022) and advance the deramtology research (Advanced healthcare materials 2022, and Small 2024). Dr Shafiee is part of a national program, aiming to develop biofabrication technology to treat skin wounds (funded by MRFF, NHMRC). His groundbreaking organoid research resulted in establishing an international Consortium of Organoid Research in Dermatology, leveraging organoid technology to advance the understanding and treatment of genetic skin diseases. Dr Shafiee has supervised over 10 Masters and PhD students. Honours, Masters and PhD projects are available, please feel free to contact him.

Nick Shaw was appointed to the School as Professor in January 2004 and undertook the role of Head of School of Pharmacy at UQ from 1st July 2004 until 31st December 2014. Nick is a pharmacist, graduating PhD from the University of Manchester in 1985 and was a member of the academic staff of the University of Nottingham from 1985-2003. He was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 1994 and a Fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in 2010. He previously founded and chaired the Council of Pharmacy Schools (Australia and New Zealand); he was the chair of the APC Accreditation Committee from 2015 to 2025 and was the chair of the Australian Pharmacy Liaison Forum in 2011. He has taught across a range of subjects to the second and third years of the BPharm (Hons) course at UQ. Nick has supervised and co-supervised over 45 PhD and research Masters students.

In 2013 Nick was awarded the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia’s Bowl of Hygeia for services to the profession.

Associate Professor Marnee Shay is a Principal Research Fellow and Deputy Head of School in the School of Education at the University of Queensland. She is an Aboriginal woman whose maternal family is from the Ngen'giwumirri language group (Daly River, Northern Territory), born in Brisbane, with strong connections to Indigenous communities in South East Queensland. Dr Shay is an experienced and qualified secondary teacher.

A/Prof Shay has an extensive externally funded research program that spans the fields of Indigenous education, policy studies, flexi schooling, and youth studies. She has published in many journals, books and scholarly media outlets. A/Prof Shay advocates for strengths approaches in Indigenous education and Indigenous-based evidence to inform policy futures. She is the lead editor of a critical text in the field of Indigenous education, “Indigenous education in Australia Learning and Teaching for Deadly Futures”, published by Routledge in 2021 (with Prof Oliver). The book won a national award for ‘The Tertiary/VET Teaching and Learning Resource (wholly Australian) category at the Education Publishing Awards Australia.

A/Prof Shay’s research has substantially impacted policy and practice in her field. She has contributed to numerous policy submissions, non-traditional research outputs (such as podcasts) and school reviews. She serves on multiple Government and school boards and committees, including the Queensland Department of Education Ministerial Advisory Committee for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education. Dr Shay’s research contributions to education were recognised in 2020 through a National Australian Council for Educational Leaders (ACEL) award, a Queensland branch ACEL Excellence in Educational Leadership Award, and the 2021 UQ Foundation for Research Excellence Award.

Dr Shakti Shrestha is a Lecturer in Pharmacy Practice and Medicines Management at the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, The University of Queensland (UQ) and undertakes course coordination for the First Semester Bachelor of Pharmacy program - PHRM1101. Shakti shifted to this full time academic role from a Research Fellow position that mainly involved conducting and supporting an Australian Government funded (Dementia Ageing and Aged Care Mission Medical Research Future Fund) research on improving the Quality Use of Medicine in Australian Residential Aged Care via the role of knowledge broker pharmacist (the EMBRACE project). Within his Research Fellow role, Shakti course coordinated Second Year teachout courses for UQ's Bachelor of Pharmacy program.

Shakti obtained his PhD at UQ School of Pharmacy, which focused on optimising medication use in older adults with limited life expectancy, drawing his extensive experience working and researching in a clinical medicine and aged care environment. He was a recipient of the 2018 Australian Research Training Scholarship at UQ for his doctoral degree. He also received the 2022 Career Development Scholarship from UQ that allowed him to develop clinical trial skills at Queensland Health, Sunshine Coast University Hospital, Townsville University Hospital and Gold Coast Private Hospital.

Shakti received his Master's degree in Clinical Pharmacology from the University of Aberdeen (UK) in 2010 and had an opportunity to work with the International Stroke Registry data called SITS-ISTR (Safe Implementation of Thrombolysis in Stroke-International Stroke Thrombolysis Registry) in the National Health Service (NHS) Grampian Hospital, UK. He received his undergraduate Pharmacy degree from Pokhara University (Nepal) in 2007 and is registered as a Pharmacist both in Nepal and Australia.

Shakti has supervised nine pharmacy undergraduate thesis (4-years BPharm program) to completion in Nepal, and supervised several undergraduate and masters research project students. He continues to supervise a number of independent research projects mainly with the intention to support the capacity building of health professionals in research; these research often make into publications.

Shakti has research expertise in the field of geriatric and palliative medication use and safety, quality use of medicine, pharmacy practice and health services. He has research methodology expertise on systematic review, clinical research design, predictive model development, meta-analysis, medical statistics and qualitative research. He has more than 10 years of experience working in research, academic and clinical roles nationally and internationally.

Dr Kirstine Shrubsole is an NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow at the Queensland Aphasia Research Centre. She holds a Bachelor of Speech Pathology (First Class Honours) from The University of Queensland, and completed her PhD in 2018. Kirstine has a research focus on improving implementation of evidence into practice in speech pathology and multidisciplinary services, with a special interest in stroke and aphasia rehabilitation. She has demonstrated that practice change is achievable for healthcare teams working in aphasia, leading to positive outcomes for patients, clinicians, and organisations.

Kirstine has published over 40 peer-reviewed journal articles, and has been awarded over $11 million in competitive research funding. Kirstine previously worked as the Conjoint Research Fellow in Speech Pathology (Princess Alexandra Hospital and The University of Queensland), providing research capacity building and mentoring to speech pathologists and supporting multidisciplinary research. Kirstine is the co-founder and Deputy Lead of the Collaboration of Aphasia Triallists’ Implementation Science in Aphasia working group, and a research affiliate of the Centre for Research Excellence in Aphasia Rehabilitation and Recovery.

Kirstine is completing a NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellowship on the following topic:

• The Aphasia Implementation Toolkit Project: Developing an implementation intervention to improve services for stroke survivors with aphasia

She is a chief investigator on three MRFF grants, including:

• Unspoken, Unheard, Unmet: Improving Access to Preventative Health Care through Better Conversations about Care

• Bridging the Digital Divide: Building Health Self-Efficacy through Communication-Accessible Online Environments

• Enhancing utility of neuropsychological evaluation for earlier and effective diagnosis of dementia in Parkinson's disease