Find an expert

Prof Karen Moritz is internationally renowned for her work in understanding how early life perturbations contribute to an increased risk of developing cardiovascular, renal and metabolic disease in adulthood. Over the last 5-7 years, her research has focused on determining how prenatal alcohol can result in “developmental programming” of disease. Her research has identified critical windows of susceptibility to alcohol, including the period around conception and prior to implantation. In addition, her work has identified the placenta as playing a key role in the sex-specific offspring outcomes following maternal perturbations. Her research spans both preclinical and clinical domains, highlighted by her appointment as the Director of the Child Health Research Centre in 2016.

Current projects are:

• Periconceptional alcohol exposure: Programming long-term health in offspring (with Dr Lisa Akison and Dr James Cuffe)

• Emerging therapies for diabetes and complications: Effects on metabolic, cardiovascular and renal function (with Dr Linda Gallo)

• Effect of prenatal insults on the developing placenta (with Dr Marloes Nitert Dekker, Prof Vicki Clifton [Mater], Dr David Simmons and Dr James Cuffe)

• Effect of prenatal insults on the developing kidney and implications for adult disease (with Dr Peter Trnka [QLD Children's Hospital])

• Impact of maternal cannabis and alcohol around conception on development and long-term health of offspring (with Dr David Simmons and Dr Lisa Akison)

Prof Moritz maintains a strong commitment to teaching of students, including lectures and research student supervision in undergraduate programs, supervision of Honours students and supervision of higher degree research students.

Dr Philip Mosley studied at the University of Oxford and obtained a masters degree in physiological sciences and a degree in medicine. He was also captain of the university boxing team and was awarded two full 'Blues'. He worked as a junior doctor in Manchester before moving to Australia to complete his specialist training in psychiatry.

Dr Mosley is a Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatry (RANZCP) and has completed an advanced certificate in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry. As part of his training he also undertook a 2-year neuropsychiatry fellowship at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital (RBWH) and the Asia-Pacific Centre for Neuromodulation (APCN) at the University of Queensland. Currently, Dr Mosley works as a member of the deep brain stimulation (DBS) team at St Andrew's War Memorial Hospital, Brisbane, runs a private neuropsychiatry practice and also provides a consultation-liaison psychiatry service to the neurology, medical and surgical wards. Dr Mosley's private practice is focussed on neurodegenerative disease, movement disorders and head injury.

Dr Mosley is an active clinician-scientist with appointments at the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Queensland Brain Institute and CSIRO. He completed his PhD in neuroscience in 2019 under the supervision of Professor Michael Breakspear. He published eleven peer-reviewed manuscripts and received the UQ Dean's Award for outstanding thesis. Dr Mosley has been the chief investigator in a study of the neuropsychiatric effects of DBS for Parkinson’s disease, in a study of medicinal cannabis for Tourette’s syndrome, a lead investigator in a clinical trial of DBS for obsessive-compulsive disorder and anorexia nervosa, as well as a clinical fellow in a neuroimaging study of Alzheimer’s disease. He has won prizes from the RANZCP in Old Age Psychiatry and Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry, and he has received research funding from the RBWH Foundation, the RANZCP Young Investigator Grant, Parkinson’s Queensland and Wesley Medical Research. Dr Mosley was awarded an ‘Advance Queensland’ Early Career Fellowship for his Parkinson's disease research and won the postgraduate medal from the Australian Society for Medical Research for findings arising from this project. In 2020, he won the Early Career Psychiatrist award from the RANZCP, which is presented to the fellow producing the most significant piece of research in the five years since fellowship. Currently Dr Mosley's research is funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and the Medical Research Future Fund.

If you wish to contact Dr Mosley regarding a clinical matter, please do so via his neuropsychiatry clinic (Neurosciences Queensland) telephone: 07 3839 3688 or email: admin@nsqld.com.au.

Bryan is a graduate in medicine from the University of Queensland and holds a BA (Hons) degree in philosophy from the University of Western Australia. A medical specialist in psychiatry, he is a clinician researcher, who is Conjoint Professor at the Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland, and Director of Genetics at the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research. His primary research interest is the molecular genetics of schizophrenia, and holds a MD degree (University of Queensland) in this field. Since 1990, he has conducted studies, with national and international collaborators, to identify susceptibility genes for this disorder. He is the recipient of grants from the Australian NHMRC and the US NIMH.

The primary research goal is to identify and functionally characterise susceptibility genes for schizophrenia and related disorders. A special focus is on the study of large collaborative samples and ethnically homogeneous populations. Key methodologies used in the lab include genome-wide association studies, next-generation sequencing, transcriptome profiling of post-mortem brain samples, neurocognitive and neuroimaging phenotyping and induced pluripotent stem cells.

Current areas of interest include pharmacogenomics of clozapine treatment response, whole exome sequencing focused on de novo mutations, and the neuroimmunology of schizophrenia

My current appointment is Director of Kidney Services at Redland Hospitals in Metro South, Brisbane, where I practice as a senior consultant nephrologist.

My research interests are varied and include post-transplant anaemia and iron metabolism, and novel measures of iron status such as hepcidin; improving dialysis outcomes though the implementation of evidence-based guidelines; kidney disease due to thrombotic microangiopathy (particularly aHUS) and the role of inhibitors of the complement system in kidney disease; and the use of honey to prevent infections in dialysis patients.

I am committed to teaching medical students and young nephrologists, and am actively involved in medical education at all levels.

Soumyalekshmi Nair has a degree in Veterinary and Animal Sciences (2009) and a Master of Veterinary Science in Animal Biotechnology (2011) from India. She completed her PhD in 2021 from the Faculty of Medicine, the University of Queensland. In her PhD she investigated the role of extracellular vesicles in gestational diabetes mellitus which involves developing extracellular vesicle -based biomarker for the early screening of pregnant women as well as therapeutic targets for the treatment of women with gestational diabetes. She was awarded the Research Training Scholarship from the University of Queensland and received prestigious awards from the Society of Reproductive Investigation and Australian and New Zealand Society for Extracellular Vesicles. Currently she is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Exosome Biology Lab, UQ Centre for Clinical Research (UQCCR). Her research interest is understanding the molecular mechanism by which extracellular vesicles can regulate the key signalling pathways in diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and ovarian cancer, with a focus on translating this knowledge into clinical utility. She has several key publications in the field including research articles and reviews and presented at major national and international conferences. She is passionate about supporting women in science and enhancing community engagement in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

Dr Mansoureh Nickbakht is a Research Fellow at the University of Queensland Centre for Hearing Research (CHEAR). She is a qualitative researcher and her research mainly focuses on improving hearing services. Currently, she is working on a NHMRC-funded project to improve access to the hearing services program for people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds in Australia.

Michael has over 30 years’ experience in clinical medicine (infectious diseases & paediatrics) and clinical laboratory microbiology with a particular interest in the epidemiology of vaccine preventable diseases and the diagnosis of infectious diseases in hospital, public health and industry settings. He recently took up the inaugural Director of Research at The Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane.

He is a past Principal Medical Officer and Director of CoVID-19 Pharmacovigilance at the Therapeutic Goods Administration, Department of Health & Ageing, Australian Government (2021-2022), Director of Scientific Affairs & Public Health for GSK Vaccines in the Greater China Intercontinental region based in Singapore (2014-2020) and Director of Infectious Diseases at the Royal Children’s Hospital-Brisbane and a practising Clinical Microbiologist at the Royal Brisbane & Women’s Hospitals (2000-2014). Michael is a past full member of the Australian Technical Advisory Group for Immunisation from 2007 to 2013.

Prof. Nissen has 223 peer-reviewed medical publications and book chapters, a h- index of 64 with 13,321 citations of his work to date. His research interests include the epidemiology and prevention of vaccine preventable diseases and the rapid molecular diagnostic techniques of infectious diseases.

Professor Nissen is Director, and Taylor Family Chair, of the Centre for the Business and Economics of Health (CBEH), Faculty of Business Economics and Law at The University of Queensland. She has been a prominent health practitioner leader, educator, researcher, and implementation scientist nationally and internationally for more than 25 years. A pharmacist by training, her research has driven major health system change, notably leading to the introduction of immunization services by pharmacists throughout Australia (Queensland Pharmacists Immunization Pilot (QPIP), (2014-15) and more recently the Urinary Tract Infection Pharmacy Pilot – Queensland (UTIPP-Q, 2020-21), both Australian firsts. Before joining UQ, Lisa was previously Head of the School of Clinical Sciences at QUT (2012-22) overseeing the training for 2,500 students per year across seven clinical disciplines. In late 2022 she returned to UQ, taking on a new and innovative role as Director of the EvolveHealth Health Workforce Optimisation Program at CBEH. This program is part of the seven strategic Health Research Accelerator (HERA) initiatives announced by UQ in 2022, which will address some of the most pressing health and medical challenges of today.

Lisa has had career-long leadership and executive roles with national boards and state committees including the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia, Family Planning Queensland, and Hepatitis Queensland. Professor Nissen was a ministerial appointment to the Queensland Health Interim Pharmacy Round Table overseeing the implementation of a council to govern pharmacy ownership in Queensland. She is also a ministerial appointment to the Queensland Health Voluntary Assisted Dying Review Board. She is on governance boards various other health organization groups including the Optometry Council of Australia and New Zealand Board, and the AHPRA scheduled medicines expert committee.

Professor Nissen focuses on strategic collaborations across the healthcare continuum with key partnerships in government, professional boards, associations, university, and other industry and consumer groups. These have led to the implementation of multiple complex practice change interventions. She has a proven record of bringing together these groups to focus on establishing multidisciplinary care teams to provide consumer-centric health care. This often means challenging currently held views of the scope of practice of health professionals, drawing on her high-level collaboration and negotiation skills.

Professor Nissen has supervised more than 80 higher degree research students and published over 180 peer-reviewed journal articles, and 200 professional publications. She has given more than 250 invited keynotes, plenary, and workshop presentations. In the past 5 years she has generated more than $9M in competitive research funding.

Professor Clare Nourse AM is a paediatric infection specialist at the Queensland Children’s Hospital in Brisbane and clinical professor of paediatrics at the University of Queensland. She qualified in medicine in from Trinity College Dublin and trained at Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Dublin, Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne and Mater Children’s Hospital in Brisbane. Her particular interests are in tropical medicine, HIV, TB and syphilis infection in children, health in resource limited countries and staph aureus infection. She travels regularly to Timor Leste and is a board director of Maluk Timor, a not for profit organisation in Dili, of which she chairs the Medical Advisory Committee.Clare established the Paediatric Infection Management Service at Mater Children’s Hospital in 2001 and currently leads the Children’s Health Queeensland (CHQ) Paediatric services for HIV, Tuberculosis and Syphilis. Clare regularly contributes to/leads national multicentre trials in Australia and New Zealand. She is the author of 70+ peer reviewed publications. Clare is the recipient of many external grants for service provision (Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australian Government for the Pacific Infectious Diseases Prevention (PIDP) Program) and research (Queensland Sexual Health Research Fund and others).

Shaun O’Leary, BPHTY (Hon), MPHTY (Msk), PhD, is an Associate Professor in Physiotherapy between the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Queensland, and the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital Physiotherapy Department, in Brisbane, Australia. He is also a Specialist Musculoskeletal Physiotherapist (as awarded by the Australian College of Physiotherapists (ACP) in 2008). Shaun is a longstanding member of the Australian Physiotherapy Association and Fellow of the ACP. Shaun is across clinical education at all levels of physiotherapy training. He has had a major teaching role in the University of Queensland’s postgraduate specialty Masters of Physiotherapy (Musculoskeletal and Sports Physiotherapy) programs since 2001, and nationally has served the ACP as an examiner, and former council member and Chair of the Fellowships Program Standing Committee. In 2021 Shaun was awarded a Senior Fellowship within the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA). Shaun has over 130 publications relating to the management of musculoskeletal conditions (including >110 research articles, 6 book chapters, 2 books translated to multiple languages), > 50 conference presentations, nearly AUD$6 million career grant funding, and have delivered over 60 clinical workshops worldwide, and received clinical research awards nationally and internationally, and supervised 13 research higher degrees.

After completing neurology training at the Royal Brisbane & Women’s Hospital(RBWH) in 1995, A/Prof O’Sullivan completed Fellowships in Movement Disorders at the Austin & Repatriation Medical Centre, Melbourne then the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, and Middlesex Hospital in London, UK. He was awarded a doctorate in Medicine from Melbourne University in 2000 for studies into surgery for Parkinson’s disease. He returned to the RBWH in 2001 and set up the Movement Disorders Clinical Service which he directs including botulinum toxin and later Friedreich's ataxia clinics, and co-ordinating the Huntington's disease multidisciplinary clinic. Through these clinics he has established collaborations with local, interstate and international researchers in the fields of Parkinson's disease, and other movement disorders and neurodegenerative diseases. He is currently Associate Professor of Medicine at UQ Centre for Clinical Research, currently co-director of the Neurodegenertion Clinical Research Group. A/Prof O'Sullivan past President of the Movement Disorders Society of Australia and New Zealand (MDSANZ), having previously served as Chair of the MDSANZ Clinical Trials and Research Group. He has been is on the Council of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Neurolgists (ANZAN) and previously chaired the ANZAN Scientific Program Committee.

Dr Nancy A. Pachana is a clinical geropsychologist, neuropsychologist and Professor of Clinical Geropsychology in the School of Psychology at The University of Queensland. She is Program Lead of the Age Friendly University Initiative at UQ. She is also co-director of the UQ Ageing Mind Initiative, providing a focal point for clinical, translational ageing-related research at UQ. She has an international reputation in the area of geriatric mental health, particularly with her research on late-life anxiety disorders. She is co-developer of the Geriatric Anxiety Inventory, a published brief self-report inventory in wide clinical and research use globally, translated into over two dozen languages. She has published over 350 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters and books on various topics in the field of ageing, and has been awarded more than $25 million in competitive research funding, primarily in the areas of dementia and mental health in later life. Her research is well-cited cited and she maintains a clear international focus in her collaborations and research interests, which include anxiety in later life, psychological interventions for those with Parkinson’s Disease, nursing home interventions, use of assistance animals in later life, older adults and environmental sustainability, strategies for healthy ageing and healthy retirement, driving safety and dementia, teaching and learning in psychogeriatrics and mental health policy and ageing.

Her edited book, Casebook of Clinical Geropsychology (Oxford University Press, 2010), has proven a popular text for clinical geropsychology training in North America. Her edited book, the Oxford Handbook of Clinical Geropsychology (Oxford University Press, 2014), brings together an international perspective on a wide range of current and emerging topics in the field. Her Encyclopedia of Geropsychology (Springer, 2016) contains nearly 350 entries by international experts. Her text Ageing, A Very Short Introduction (2016), part of the popular Oxford University Press VERY SHORT INTRODUCTION series; this work has recently been translated into Chinese and Vietnamese. Most recently, she has edited Anxiety in older people: Clinical and research perspectives (Cambridge University Press, 2021) with longstanding colleague Professor Gerard Byrne (UQ Psychiatry).

Nancy was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia in 2014. She is also a Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society, and is the recipient of numerous prizes and awards, including an Australian Davos Connection Future Summit Leadership Award, for leadership on ageing issues in Australia. In 2020 she was named the recipient of the M. Powell Lawton Lifetime Acievement Award, from the American Psychological Association’s Society of Clinical Geropsychology, acknowledging considerable and sustained efforts, in scholarship, publishing, and service, to promote geropsychology in general and the well-being of persons living with dementia in particular.

She serves on the editorial boards of several journals, including Psychology and Aging (Q1). Originally from the United States, Nancy was awarded her AB from Princeton University in 1987, her PhD from Case Western Reserve University in 1992, and completed postdoctoral fellowships at the Neuropsychiatric Institute at UCLA, Los Angeles, and the Palo Alto Veterans Medical Center, Palo Alto, California. She is an avid bird watcher and photographer and an intrepid traveller.

Prof Ben Panizza is the Chairman of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery for Metro South and Director of the Queensland Head and Neck Cancer Centre. He has been active in head and neck cancer management for 27 years. He has created innovative approaches in dealing with malignancies extending to the skull base one of the most anatomically complex regions of the body. He is recognised as a world leader in cutaneous malignancy extending to the temporal bone and perineurial spread of keratinocyte skin cancers, being regularly invited overseas to present. Prof Panizza is active in integrating new treatments with surgery to change treatment paradigms and improve outcomes for patients. He is a professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Queensland and works collaboratively with basic scientist and has supervised to completion 28 research higher degrees over the last 12 years. He has established an in department clinical trials unit to run clinical trials from proof of principle to phase 3 clinical trials enabling access and rapid translation for his scientific partners at the Princess Alexandra Hospital which has one of Australia's largest head and neck clinics. Prof Panizza is a clinical consultant and advisor to industry (Merck, Sanofi, QBiotics, Decibel Therapeutics) and sits on the governing bodies of both the International Federation of Head and Neck Oncological Societies and The World Federation of Skull Base Societies. He has been the President of the Australian and New Zealand Head and Neck Cancer Society and was the Foundation president of the Australian and New Zealand Skull Base Society. He is active in publishing and sits on the editorial boards of the major head and neck journals (Head Neck, Oral Oncology, Skull Base, ANZ Journal of Surgery).

Marie-Odile Parat (MO) joined the School of Pharmacy as Senior Lecturer in December 2007.

MO obtained her Pharm.D. from University Joseph Fourier in Grenoble, France, a Masters in Cutaneous Biology from University Claude Bernard in Lyon, France and her Ph.D. in Cell Biology from University Joseph Fourier in Grenoble, France. She further has post graduate diplomas in the fields of Biomedical and Industrial Pharmacy, Photobiology, Pharmaceutical Management, and Public Health.

MO did her Pharmaceutical Residency at the University Hospitals of Grenoble, France in the Sterile Pharmaceutical Supplies Headquarters, the Department of Nuclear Medicine, and the Laboratory Medicine Department of Biochemistry. Attracted by international working experience, she carried out research within the R&D laboratories of Estee Lauder in Melville, NY. She further worked for the United Nations International Trade center in Geneva, Switzerland, where she was the Product Specialist on market information for pharmaceutical raw materials/essential drugs for three years in collaboration with the World Health Organization.

She later performed post-doctoral research in the Universidade de São Paulo, SP, Brasil and The Cleveland Clinic Foundation in the United States. She was appointed as a Staff Scientist in the Center for Anesthesiology Research of the Cleveland Clinic in 2003, an Assistant Professor of Molecular Medicine in the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University, and a Member of the Case Cancer Center.

During her research career MO has attracted awards from various funding agencies including the Research Funding Agency of the State of São Paulo (FAPESP), the American Heart Association, the Ohio Cancer Research Associates, the American Cancer Society, the National Heart Foundation of Australia, Cancer Council Queensland, Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists and the Australia Research Council (ARC).

The long term goal of the Parat laboratory is to provide insight for novel cancer therapies. A basic science team focusses on endothelial and cancer cell migration, invasion, angiogenesis, and specialized plasma membrane subdomains termed caveolae. A translational axis of research evaluates novel mechanisms by which opioids administered to cancer patients modulate the risk of long term tumour recurrence and metastasis.

Dr Brad Partridge has been a researcher in hospitals and universities for almost 20 years. His work has covered ethical, social, and policy issues related to a range of topics in healthcare including addiction, concussion management, psychiatry, midwifery, and biomedical enhancement technologies. He has written about conflicts of interest, medicalisation, and stakeholder attitudes towards models of treatment, and has extensive experience using qualitative research methods.

Brad joined the UQ Business School in April 2023 where he is exploring trust, and the attitudes of clinicians, towards incorporating Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools into the clinical decision-making process for melanoma detection, as part of an NHMRC Synergy Grant.

Brad was previously a postdoctoral research fellow in biomedical ethics at Mayo Clinic (Minnesota, USA), and was a visiting research fellow with the Neuroethics Research Group at the Montreal Clinical Research Institute (IRCM), in Canada. From 2011-2014 he was an NHMRC postdoctoral fellow with the addiction neuroethics group led by Prof. Wayne Hall at the University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research (UQCCR). There, he was a Chief Investigator on two ARC Discovery Grants related to 1) the non-medical use of prescription stimulants, and 2) the ethical, social and policy implications of neurobiological explanations of addiction. Between 2015-2023 he held research in public hospitals within Metro-North Hospital and Health Service (Queensland Health), and at the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research (QCMHR).

Brad’s PhD was from the University of Queensland School of Public Health. He also has a Master of Arts in Philosophy, and Bachelor of Psychology (Hons) from the University of New England.

Nalini has more than 25 years’ experience in innovative design and delivery of medicine and health programs in several countries. Her medical education research focusses on curriculum and assessment design, digital and inclusive education, and integration of biomedical sciences into health professional programs. She has a particular interest in educational technologies (including AI) and cognitive load, and curricular approaches that support positive learning behaviour, wellbeing, critical thinking and professional development. Nalini's research also includes medical imaging diagnositics and the use of AI.

Nalini is the co-founder of the Health Universities Initiative, which frames a whole-of-university approach to student success and wellbeing. She has several awards (Faculty, Vice-Chancellor, Australian Award for University Teaching) for her contributions to higher education. Nalini is the Chair of the International Program for Anatomical Education (FIPAE) of the IFAA, and an Associate Editor of Anatomical Sciences Education (Impact Factor, 7.2). Nalini is a Board Member and Fellow of ANZAHPE, Fellow of the Scientia Education Academy, and Fellow of HERDSA.

Nalini currently supervises 5 PhD students in the following topics:

• Health Advocacy in Medical Education: Evaluation of current practice and implications for medical programs
• Cosmetic female surgery: A consumer-driven evaluation of demand and its implications for medical education
• Fetal and Embryological Collections: A paradigm to examine the ethical practice of informed consent
• Anatomical Education: The role of digital-based pedagogies in future practice
• Liver and Gallbladder Imaging in Paediatric Patients: Developing a pipeline for diagnostic automation

Nalini currently supervises 4 reseach honours students on the following topics:

• Relationship-based support interventions in medical programs
• An evaluation of intersex education in medicine programs in Australia
• Left ventricular compaction: evaluation of MRI diagnostic criteria
• VR in biomedical sciences education: current scope of practice

Emeritus Professor Michael Pender graduated from The University of Queensland in 1974 with First Class Honours in Medicine and a University Medal. Over the next six years he trained as a physician and neurologist at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, and became a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (FRACP) in 1981. During his specialist clinical training he developed a keen interest in multiple sclerosis which he has continued since then. After completing his clinical training in neurology, he was a research scholar in the field of multiple sclerosis at the Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, London, and was awarded a PhD from the University of London and Queen Square Prize for Research in 1983. From 1984 to 1986 he continued this research as a Research Fellow at the John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University, Canberra. In 1987 he was appointed Senior Lecturer in the Department of Medicine, The University of Queensland, at the Royal Brisbane Hospital. In 1989 he was awarded a Doctorate of Medicine from The University of Queensland for his research in the field of multiple sclerosis and was promoted to Reader in Medicine. In 1995 he was promoted to Professor of Medicine (Personal Chair), The University of Queensland, which he held until his retirement in 2021. His main clinical and research interest is multiple sclerosis. He also held the positions of: Consultant Neurologist, Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, 1987–2021; Director of Neurology, Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, 1992–2005: Director of the Neuroimmunology Research Centre, The University of Queensland, 1991–2007; Director of the Multiple Sclerosis Research Centre, The University of Queensland, 2009–2014; and Clinical Fellow, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, 2017–2021. In 1996, with the support of the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Queensland, he established a Multiple Sclerosis Clinic at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital. In 2006 he was awarded the Multiple Sclerosis Australia Prize for Multiple Sclerosis Research - "For outstanding commitment and dedication to research into the cause and cure of Multiple Sclerosis in Australia". In 2011 he received the John H Tyrer Prize in Internal Medicine, The University of Queensland, for research in the field of Internal Medicine. He was the Sir Raphael Cilento Orator of the Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators for 2009 and the W Ian McDonald Lecturer of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Neurologists for 2014. In 2019 he received the John Studdy Award from Multiple Sclerosis Australia for "lifelong commitment and service to research to identify the cause of and potential cure for Multiple Sclerosis". In 2024 he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to medicine, particularly neurology and multiple sclerosis research, and to tertiary education. Major research achievements include: the discovery of apoptosis of autoreactive T cells in the central nervous system as a fundamental mechanism of recovery from autoimmune attack (Journal of the Neurological Sciences 1991, Journal of Autoimmunity 1992, European Journal of Immunology 1994); formulation of a novel hypothesis (The Lancet 1998) proposing a failure of this mechanism in multiple sclerosis; and the further development of this hypothesis into a new paradigm (Trends in Immunology 2003) for the cause of human chronic autoimmune diseases based on infection of autoreactive B cells with the Epstein–Barr virus (EBV), some of the predictions of which have already been verified in multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and Sjögren’s syndrome. His EBV hypothesis led to the first clinical trial of EBV-specific T cell therapy in multiple sclerosis (JCI Insight 2018), a trial in which he was a principal investigator.

Group page: https://medicine-program.uq.edu.au/multiple-sclerosis-research-group