A/Prof Ian Glaspole

Ian Glaspole is a clinician academic, head of the Interstitial lung disease service at the Alfred Hospital, Melbourne and an Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor in the Central and Eastern Clinical School, Monash University. He completed his advanced training in respiratory medicine at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London and his doctoral research at the Alfred Hospital. Shortly after, he established the first dedicated interstitial lung disease service in Australia, at the Alfred Hospital.

He is the current co-chair of the Australian IPF and ILD registries. Research generated from these platforms has led to multiple publications in basic scientific mechanisms of fibrosis, translational research of clinical features of IPF, through to stakeholder assessment of the current therapeutic landscape in Australia. He has been a chief investigator in five NHMRC grants and an associate investigator in another. His industry sponsored research has garnered over $6 million in funding and he participates as a researcher, consultant and steering committee member to multiple pharmaceutical companies involved in ILD drug development. He has published 104 peer-reviewed manuscripts, including 3 position statements, with 68 publications in the last five years. His research has been cited 4939 times, with an h index of 29 (Scopus, November 2021). He was an author of the pivotal clinical trial demonstrating efficacy of pirfenidone for IPF, published in the New Engl J Med in 2014, and the senior author of the TSANZ position statement on the ILD multi-disciplinary meeting.

 A/Prof Glaspole’s educational activity has included chairing the organising committee of the Australian Rare Lung Disease Course and he has spoken at numerous national and international conferences as a plenary speaker as well as presenter of novel research. He has to date supervised six doctoral research candidates.

A/Prof Nicole Goh

Nicole Goh is Director of the Interstitial lung disease unit at the Austin Hospital in Melbourne. She is Clinical Associate Professor at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Melbourne. She has clinical and research expertise in Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD). She completed her PhD on systemic sclerosis associated interstitial lung disease at the University of London and has published two papers that have changed clinical practice.

Nicole has been involved in sponsored clinical trials since 2001 and collaborates extensively within Australia in investigator lead trials.Nicole Goh is on the steering committee of the Australasian IPF registry, Australasian ILD registry, and PACT (Pulmonary Fibrosis Australasian Clinical Trials (PACT) Network. She is a member of the CREATE Program Advisory Committee and TEDS (translation and education) Committee.

Dr Mark Brooke

Dr Brooke is the Chief Executive Officer of the Lung Foundation Australia, a national charitable organisation that aims to make lung health a priority for all Australians. 

Mark Brooke has over 25 years’ experience leading a diverse range of medical research, consumer health and family support organisations. His previous appointments include CEO of HeartKids Limited – the National Congenital Heart Disease Foundation, CEO of Asthma Australia and CEO of Playgroup Queensland.

In the last 5 years, he has led the co-design and development of three Australian Government National Health Strategies for a wide range of health areas including asthma, congenital heart disease and, most recently, the National Lung Health Strategy, which was launched in February 2019. 

As CEO of Lung Foundation Australia, he led the translation of research into programs and services to support people impacted by lung disease and lung cancer. Lung Foundation is the largest non-government organisation support patients and carers living with lung diseases and currently advises Federal and State Governments on lung health policy.

Mark is Chairperson the Global Lung Cancer Patient Advisory Council, a Board Member of the Australian Patient Advocacy Organisations Alliance; and a Board Members of ALCAN.

The CRE-PF will address the significant gap in our understanding of and ability to manage Interstitial Lung Disease.  The Lung Foundation, with its expertise in implementing disease-based programs, will provide the critical link to support the translation of research into resources for use by patients, carers, policy makers and clinicians, regardless of their clinical setting.

Prof David Price

Professor David Price is Founder and Head of The Observational and Pragmatic Research Institute (Singapore), a research-driven organisation that delivers pragmatic clinical trials and real-life database research across multiple geographies. He is an associate investigator on the CRE-PF on behalf of OPCA.

He is also Head of Optimum Patient Care (Global, Australia and UK), a social enterprise which focuses on disease registries and quality improvement in primary and secondary care led by internationally recognised experts in all areas of respiratory medicine. Major global initiatives include: The International Severe Asthma Registry (ISAR) with over 30 countries collaborating; collaboration On Quality Improvement Initiative for Achieving Excellence in Standards for COPD Care (CONQUEST) and quality improvement initiatives in Australia and the United Kingdom including asthma, COPD and rare disease audit programs in primary and specialist care.

David has completed previous research into the identification of early signs and symptoms of Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD)

Prof Glen Westall

Glen Westall is a prolific researcher in the fields of lung transplantation and lung fibrosis. His research focuses on translational research aiming to bring bench discoveries to the clinic. As an academic clinician, he has established a number of translational projects with industry partners that have taken discoveries in basic science to the clinical interface. In particular, he has established biorepositories that collect and store both normal lung tissue (from deceased patients whose families consent to release lung tissue for research) and fibrotic, including silicotic lungs. Over the past 5 years, research collaborations arising from the Alfred’s biobank have been published in a number of high impact journals including Science, Nature Immunology, and Nature Communications. Glen has established multiple investigator-initiated industry funded translational studies that aim to bring discovery science to the patient in both lung transplantation and lung fibrosis.

Prof Paul Reynolds

Paul Reynolds is Clinical Director, Heart and Lung Program, Central Adelaide Local Health Network (overseeing Respiratory Medicine, Cardiology and Cardiothoracic Surgery) and Director, Lung Research Laboratory, University of Adelaide. He has overseen the CREATE program promoting the development of early career researchers in the previous CRE. Paul has been a member of the steering committee of the Australian IPF Registry since its inception and has co-authored several publications with the national IPF investigators. These include NHMRC funded projects in the investigation of biomarkers in IPF, and national management guidelines for both IPF and connective tissue related ILDs. He is now a member of the steering committee for the ILD Registry. In his own laboratory he has worked on the development of gene and cell therapies for pulmonary vascular disease and pulmonary fibrosis, focusing on TGFb related pathways. This work involves cellular biology approaches using outgrowth endothelial cells from patients, and state of the art animal models. Clinical Research work includes involvement in industry sponsored trials and investigator -initiated studies including the GRIPF study investigating genetic mechanisms involved in familial IPF and the Telescope study investigating a novel approach to treatment for short telomere associated ILDs. 

Paul Reynolds has national roles as a board director of the Lung Foundation of Australia and as a member of the RACP Advanced Training Committee for Respiratory and Sleep Medicine. He conducts accreditation site visits to hospitals nationally ensuring the quality of RACP training. He also conducts a busy clinical practice encompassing all aspects of Respiratory and Sleep medicine, but with a particular interest in ILDs, PAH and Lung Cancer, and is an active participant in the MDTs covering these conditions. He is a former President of the TSANZ and recipient of the TSANZ Society Medal for contribution to the profession.

A/Prof Lauren Troy

Lauren Troy is A/Head of Department of Respiratory and Sleep Medicine at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, a Visiting Medical Officer at Chris O’Brien Lifehouse and Clinical Senior Lecturer for University of Sydney. She has been a clinical leader in the RPAH response to the COVID-19 pandemic. She has clinical and research expertise in Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD) and is a key member of the RPAH ILD Multidisciplinary Service. She is the primary interventional pulmonologist at RPAH and Lifehouse, with extensive training in advanced bronchoscopic procedures. Dr Troy was the Principal Investigator of the COLDICE (Cryobiopsy versus Open Lung biopsy for the Diagnosis of ILD alliance) Trial, a first-of-kind Australian investigator initiated multicentre study, with impact on global ILD diagnostic practice.

Lauren Troy has published over peer-reviewed manuscripts, and 1 book chapter. Her original research findings have been published and editorialised in leading Respiratory Medicine journals, including Lancet Respiratory Medicine and American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. She has garnered international recognition as a diagnostician in ILD and is currently sitting on two international guideline committees, including the current American Thoracic Society (ATS)/ European Respiratory Society (ERS) Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) Clinical Practice Guidelines (subgroup leader), and the ERS Task Force for Transbronchial lung cryobiopsy in ILD. She is a current member of the Australia and New Zealand Adult Domiciliary Oxygen Guidelines Working Group.

Dr Kerry Hancock

Dr Kerry Hancock, GP Principal is the founding Chair of the Respiratory Medicine Specific  Interests Network of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) that represents 1200+ general practitioners (GPs) Australia-wide. As a vocationally registered GP with  40  years of clinical experience, Dr Hancock has also been a founding, advisory and/or editorial board member of multiple organizations that are leaders in lung health promotion, advocacy and life-changing research: the inaugural Chair of the General Practitioners’ Advisory Group for Lung Foundation Australia (LFA); member and Chair of the Medical and Scientific Advisory Committee of the Asthma Foundation (SA); and of the GP Asthma Group of National Asthma Council (NAC) and has recently been re – invited to be a Member of the Lung Cancer Advisory Group of Cancer Australia. She continues to have a strong association with LFA and is Chairperson of the LFA Primary Care Advisory Committee, Member COPD Advisory Committee and Member Clinical Research and Advisory Council. 

Kerry has exceptional managerial experience as Principal of a General Practice for 36 years and a steering and expert committee member for the Adelaide Primary Health Network (PHN) Respiratory Project. She is an editorial board member of journals with a prominent GP readership (Medicine Today, Respiratory Medicine Today). Hancock is a GP investigator in the NOVELTY study which is a multi-national observational study that will establish novel phenotypes and endotypes of obstructive lung disease.

Dr John Mackintosh

John Mackintosh (BSc, MBBS(Hons), FRACP) is a Respiratory and Lung Transplant Physician at The Prince Charles Hospital and early career researcher. John completed a clinical fellowship in interstitial lung disease at the prestigious Royal Brompton Hospital, London, under the supervision of Professors Athol Wells and Toby Maher. John has experience in a broad range of interstitial lung diseases, and has collaborative links to the Royal Brompton Hospital in the form of ongoing research. In John’s short career, he has been first author of eleven publications. He has numerous publications in high impact journals including the Lancet, Lancet Respiratory Medicine, Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation, European Respiratory Journal and Journal of Thoracic Oncology, all of which were completed whilst training/working full-time in clinical respiratory medicine. John has been invited to write review articles and book chapters in the area of interstitial lung disease. He has been involved in scoring abstracts and chairing scientific sessions at international meetings. John has been invited to present at the annual Australian Rare Lung Disease Short Course. He is involved in clinical training and has supervised a number of junior doctors pursuing early career research. John was a CI on a successful MRFF grant for an investigator led study of a novel treatment for genetic form of lung fibrosis. John was pivotal in the design of this study and is in charge of the lead site. He is currently investigating a novel approach to the diagnosis of interstitial lung diseases with the support of the CRE-PF. This study has the potential to radically change the conventional approach to these patients.

A/Prof Jason Dowling

A/Prof Dowling is a CSIRO Principal Research Scientist and leads the CSIRO Medical Image Analysis Team located at the Australian e-Health Research Centre (Brisbane).  This team  is focused on linking precision medicine and artificial intelligence methods to 3D MRI, CT, and PET data to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of disease diagnosis, treatment planning and treatment delivery. 

Projects in the team range from MRI based musculoskeletal image analysis, novel theranostics development, radiation oncology treatment planning, trauma related fracture detection, and paediatric lung analysis.  The paediatric lung imaging project aims to improve health outcomes for children with cystic fibrosis and ataxia-telangiectasia using MRI to non-invasively monitor lung status and disease progression. In collaboration with respiratory physicians and Siemens Healthcare, the team are conducting trials to develop and validate automated quantitative analysis methods. 

A/Prof Dowling has an extensive track record in medical image acquisition and analysis for automatic tissue identification, organ modelling, image registration, and radiation therapy treatment planning.  He has active collaborations with many Australian universities, hospitals, and industry (Siemens Healthcare) and holds honorary appointments at the Universities of New South Wales (medicine), UQ, Wollongong and UC (all engineering and IT), Newcastle and Sydney (both medical physics).  He is an Australian representative on ISO committee JTC1/WG12 (image segmentation), the NASA-led International Space Exploration Co-ordination Group; and is an Australian Space Agency advisory group member.