Professor Philip O’Connell
Philip O’Connell is a Clinical Professor in Medicine, University of Sydney at Westmead Hospital. He is director of transplantation and medical director of the National Pancreas Transplant Unit. Philip is co-chief investigator on a number of national and internationally competitive research grants, including grants from the NHMRC and the NIH. He is a chief investigator on a NHMRC program grant for the prevention and cure of type 1 diabetes. His major research interest is in islet transplantation and he is director of the Australian Islet Transplant Consortium which has introduced clinical islet transplantation for selected patients in Australia with type 1 diabetes.
Professor David Gottlieb
David Gottlieb is Professor of Haematology at the University of Sydney. He has been actively involved in clinical stem cell transplantation for 25 years, commencing with the early establishment and expansion of the Blood and Marrow Transplant Service at Westmead Hospital. He has a long standing interest in cellular immunotherapy for the treatment of infection and malignancy in the immunocompromised, specifically in patients undergoing stem cell transplantation and potent chemoimmunotherapy. He is currently focusing on adoptive immunotherapy for opportunistic infection and on ways to optimize the generation of anti-leukaemic T cells that could be used to reduce the incidence of post-transplant disease recurrence. He is the Medical Director of the Sydney Cellular Therapies Laboratory and is a past President of the Haematology Society of Australia and New Zealand.
Professor Ian Alexander
Professor Alexander is head of the Gene Therapy Research Unit, a joint initiative of The Children’s Hospital at Westmead and Children’s Medical Research Institute in Sydney, Australia and Professor in Paediatrics and Molecular Medicine at the University of Sydney. He has established a translational research program and developed the specialised infrastructure and skill sets required to take promising novel therapies through to clinical application. His team became the first in Australia to treat a genetic disease (SCID-X1) by gene therapy and are recognised leaders in the establishment of this field in Australia. His specific expertise and interests include virus-mediated gene transfer with a focus on organs including the liver and bone marrow. He was the inaugural president of the Australasian Gene Therapy Society in 2001, was Chair of the NHMRC Cellular Therapies Advisory Committee, is a member of the gene therapy sub-committee of the International Society for Cellular Therapy, is Associate Editor for the Journal of Gene Medicine and is a member of the editorial board of Human Gene Therapy.
Professor Jeremy Chapman
Professor Chapman is a renal physician with a special interest in transplantation. His clinical work is in renal medicine, transplantation of kidney and pancreas and diabetic renal disease and islet transplantation. He is currently pursuing research interests in transplantation, tissue typing and xenotransplantation. He is Director of Renal Medicine at Westmead Hospital, Consultant Medical Director to the NSW Australian Red Cross Blood Service Tissue Typing Laboratory and Chairman of the Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry, the Australian Cord Blood Bank Network and Past President of the Transplantation Society of Australia and New Zealand. He is a member of the Advisory Council of the Australian Organ and Tissue Authority. He is the Immediate Past-President of The Transplantation Society, Advisory Member of The World Health Organisation Expert Advisory Panel on Human Cell Tissue and Organ Transplantation, Secretary General and Past President of the World Marrow Donor Association and Chair of the Declaration of Istanbul Custodian Group. He received the Asturias Foundation 2010 Award for International Corporation on behalf of The Transplantation Society. He was awarded the 2010 David Hume Award of the US National Kidney Foundation. Professor Chapman is actively involved in the academic field having over 280 publications, over 3,000 citations and an H score of 40. He is a Clinical Professor at the University of Sydney, a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in the United Kingdom and Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians.
Professor Peter Shaw
Peter Shaw is a Clinical Professor in Paediatrics and Child Health at the University of Sydney. He is a Paediatric Oncologist who Heads the Bone Marrow Transplant Service at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead and has over 25 years’ experience in treating childhood cancer. Peter’s major interest in safer patient treatments has led him to studies in T-cell depletion, drug pharmacokinetics and collaborations in cellular and gene therapy translational research. He has an active role in international groups such as the Children’s Oncology Group and Paediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant Consortium and led the largest study of mismatched related transplants in paediatrics within the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Registry.