Find an expert

Dr Kassianos is a Senior Scientist at the Conjoint Internal Medical Laboratory, Queensland Health. Dr Kassianos has made significant contributions to understanding the cell-cell communication between discrete kidney cell and immune cell populations and the therapeutic potential of targeting this cross-talk in chronic kidney disease (CKD). Dr Kassianos has been integral in the development of innovative tools for CKD analytics: (i) in situ/ex vivo profiling for integrating CKD molecular profiles with histopathology; and (ii) preclinical models for screening novel CKD therapeutics. His research is internationally recognised in the field of CKD pathobiology.

Dr Kassianos has contributed to the fields of nephrology and immunology with 41 publications, >2000 career citations (~48 citations/paper) and invited international keynote lectures. Dr Kassianos has a continued record of success in attracting competitive research funding (>$2M as CI), including an NHMRC Dora Lush Scholarship (2007-2010), an RBWH Foundation Fellowship (2012-2014) and two NHMRC Project Grants as CIA (2016-2019; 2019-2022). Dr Kassianos has publications in high-ranking specialist (nephrology, immunology) and generalist journals, including five editorial commentaries in publication issues. These include 21 publications (~50% of his papers) as first or senior author/co-author – of which, 19 (90%) are in top field-weighted journals (Q1, top 10%), including Kidney Int, J Am Soc Nephrol, Cell Death Dis and J Extracell Vesicles. During this time, Dr Kassianos has supervised 5 Early Career Researchers, 5 PhD students (3 to completion) and 2 Masters students (both to completion). Dr Kassianos is also an Editor at Frontiers in Physiology and has contributed to 3 NHMRC grant review panels (2019-2021).

I am a consultant Accredited Practising Dietitian and Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Online Health. I have a PhD in technology-supported lifestyle interventions and delivering dietary education to improve people’s dietary self-management. My research program focuses on technology-enabled health systems and interventions for improving patient-centred care in chronic disease and simplifying nutrition communication for clinicians and people living with chronic conditions. I work in private practice, primarily providing professional consultancy services for kidney nutrition. I also provide consultation for cardiovascular disease and diabetes. You can learn more about my private practice here - https://www.mynutritionclinic.com.au/renal-dietitian/

RESEARCH INTERESTS

My research interests are in 1) Nutrition & Dietetics – primarily diet quality and focusing on methods to improve diet quality in people with chronic kidney disease and other complex chronic conditions; 2) Health Service Delivery & 3) Digital Health – specifically focused on preparing to workforce, codesigning and testing technology-assisted interventions to deliver lifestyle interventions. My current work focuses on technology-enabled health systems and interventions for improving patient-centred care in chronic disease and simplifying nutrition communication for clinicians and people living with chronic conditions.

Dr. Sherman Leung is the Head of Research Operations at Wesley Research Institute - the research partner of UnitingCare. UnitingCare is the largest private employer in Queensland, encompassing four hospitals (The Wesley Hospital, St. Andrew's War Memorial Hospital, Buderim Private Hospital and St. Stephen's Hospital), as well as significant community-based offerings through Lifeline, Blue Care, Family and Disability Services, and ARRCS.

Dr. Leung is a PhD trained scientist, conducting his research training at Mater Research Institute, The University of Queensland, during which his research was published in highly regarded peer-reviewed journals, including in 'Diabetes', receiving the Cover Image, an 'In This Issue' feature, and shared across the Australian-wide 7 Network news.

He has extensive experience in clinical trials, having worked at Microba Life Sciences, an ASX-listed biotechnology start-up, and Nucleus Network, Australia’s largest early phase clinical trial site having overseen the conduct of several high-profile COVID-19 projects including Nuvaxovid by Novavax that has been granted emergency authorisation in 40 countries including by the TGA, EMEA & FDA.

He contributes his spare time to the greater good through numerous initiatives in the industry including being a Board Director of the Australian Clinical Trials Alliance (ACTA), Editorial Board for 'Trials' – a BMC journal promoting all aspects of trials including methods, processes and non-significant outcomes for transparency in the field – being a former member of the Metro North Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC), and offering regular guest classrooms on clinical trials, informed consent and ethics at The University of Queensland.

Matthew J. Roberts, BSc, MBBS, PhD, FRACS (Urol)

• Consultant Urologist, Royal Brisbane and Women’s (RBWH), Surgical Treatment and Rehabilitation Service (STARS), Queensland Health
• Clinician Research Fellow, Metro North Hospital and Health Service
• Group Leader & Associate Professor, The University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research

Matthew is a medical graduate of The University of Queensland and completed Urology specialty training in Queensland and New South Wales. He completed his PhD under the supervision of Professor “Frank” Gardiner investigating new biomarkers for the early detection and characterization of prostate cancer.

Matthew is a surgeon-scientist, working clinically as a urologist and robotic surgeon at RBWH & STARS with academic appointment as Clinician Research Fellow at Metro North Health (Qld) and Associate Professor at UQCCR. His clinical and research interests are in Urologic cancers (e.g. prostate cancer), focusing on novel imaging and biomarkers, clinical trials, urological infections and innovation in urology. He has authored over 140 peer reviewed manuscripts in international journals and presented research at more than 20 international urology and clinical cancer meetings. He is a member of the EAU Prostate Cancer Guidelines Committee, Prostate Cancer Outcomes Registry (PCOR)-Queensland Steering Committee, Editorial Board of the BJU International, as well as Co-Convenor of the ANZUP 2024 ASM.

Wubshet is an accredited pharmacist, lecturer, and Mental Health First Aid Instructor at the University of Queensland’s Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences. He also holds an Affiliate Research Fellow position at the University of Sydney School of Pharmacy. Currently, he is a course coordinator for Pharmacy Practice and Medicines Management in the BPharm (Hons) program.

He completed his PhD at the University of Tasmania in 2019. Following that, he held postdoctoral researcher roles at the University of Canberra and University of Sydney, where he coordinated multiple government- and industry-funded clinical trials.

Wubshet's research primarily centres around understanding medication and patient outcomes in individuals with chronic diseases, with a special emphasis on kidney diseases. In collaboration with several researchers and stakeholders in Australia, Wubshet has attracted ~$2.1 million in grant funding. Currently, he is actively involved as an investigator in a large-scale cluster randomised trial (ACTRN12622000329763) funded by the Medical Research Future Fund and led by the University of Sydney. This trial is investigating the effectiveness of a community pharmacy-led point-of-care screening in improving the detection of chronic kidney disease and quality use of medicines.

I graduated in 2013 with a MBBS from the University of Queensland. Currently, I work as a Junior Registrar in General Surgery (Pre-training position) at the Logan Hospital in Queensland, Australia. I love teaching medical students and involve myself in meaningful research during my spare time. I am committed to practicing evidence based, safe and honest medicine in the field of Surgery.