Our People

Prof Jennifer Alison PhD, MSc, Dip Phty, Cert Cardiopulmonary Technology; FThorSoc

Professor Jennifer Alison is a Professor of Respiratory Physiotherapy, Discipline of Physiotherapy, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney and the Conjoint Professor Allied Health (Chronic Diseases) Sydney Local Health District and Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney. She teaches cardiopulmonary physiotherapy in the BAppSc (Physiotherapy) and Master of Physiotherapy programs at the University of Sydney and led the development of the clinical simulation unit in the Faculty of Health Sciences. Prof Alison was a clinical specialist physiotherapist (Level 6) in Pulmonary Rehabilitation, Department of Physiotherapy, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital until 2015 and now holds an honorary appointment in this department.

Publications

Prof Janette Burgess BSc(Hons) PhD

Prof Janette Burgess is a Rosalind Franklin Fellow, who has  joined the Department of Pathology and Medical Biology, Medical Biology section at the University of Groningen, in the Netherlands. 

Janette’s research focusses on the role of the extracellular matrix (ECM) in lung pathology.  She is intrigued by the changes in the tissue and airway structures of the lungs that occur during disease development and progression and wants to know if these changes are a cause or a consequence of the pathology.  Working with primary human cells, human lung tissue samples and patient clinical information, the research seeks to characterize the changes in the ECM that occur during disease in the lungs and to understand the mechanisms that underlie these changes.  By novel in vitro cell models, ex vivo human lung tissue models and advanced microscopy imaging techniques she is unravelling the complex nature of the regulation of the ECM and exploring its potential as a future target for therapeutic intervention. This research links basic science to the goods of prevention and treatment of human lung diseases that afflict millions of people worldwide.

A/Prof Nicole Goh MBBS FRACP PhD

Dr Nicole Goh is a Respiratory and Sleep Consultant at Austin Health and Alfred Health.

She completed her PhD at the Imperial College in London in 2008 and explored the prognostic markers in scleroderma lung.

Publications

Prof Philip Hansbro BSc PhD

Professor Phil Hansbro is an internationally recognised research leader in the study of respiratory diseases, such as asthma, chronic obstructive airway disease (COPD, aka emphysema) and infections and is developing interests in lung cancer. His work is substantially contributing to understanding the pathogenesis and developing new therapies for these diseases. His work has made internationally important contributions and led to the identification of novel avenues for therapy that are under further study. This is achieved through the development of novel mouse models that recapitulate the hallmark features of human disease, including infections, asthma and COPD and now lung cancer. He employs these models in integrated approaches (infection, immunity and physiology with particular expertise in lung function analysis) to understand human diseases, and develop new treatment strategies. Research outcomes have a translational goal and his studies are conducted in parallel with collaborative human studies with clinical researchers. Prof Hansbro is also starting projects to test new treatments for COVID-19

Publications

A/Prof Yet Khor BMedSci(Hons) MBBS(Hons) FRACP PhD

A/Prof Yet Khor is a graduate of the University of Tasmania, who attained her Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians in 2014. After completing her NHRMC-funded PhD at the University of Melbourne in 2019, she undertook a fellowship at the Centre for Heart Lung Innovation (University of British Columbia, Canada), supported by an Australian Endeavour Scholarship.

Currently, she is an NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow at Monash University, a physician at the  Austin and Alfred Health Interstitial Lung Disease Services, and the Oxygen Service Lead at Austin Health. Her main research interests include risk prediction and disease burden management in interstitial lung disease.

Publications

A/Prof Edmund Lau BSc MBBS PhD FRACP

Prof Ben Marsland PhD

Professor Ben Marsland is a Professor in the Department of Immunology and Pathology, within the Central Clinical School at Alfred Hospital/Monash University.

Originally from New Zealand, and completing his PhD in Immunology at the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research and Otago University, he spent 14 years in Switzerland split between the ETH Zürich and the University of Lausanne. He now leads the Respiratory Immunology laboratory, where the main focus of research revolves around the microbiome in the gut, lung and skin and how it can influence respiratory diseases. In particular, his laboratory studies host-microbe interactions within the context of allergy, asthma and lung transplantation.

Publications

A/Prof Steve Mutsaers BSc PhD

Associate Professor Mutsaers is the Head of the Tissue Repair Group. His research interests are in molecular mechanisms underlying lung fibrosis and mechanisms regulating mesothelial cell and serosal repair at the Institute for Respiratory Health in Perth.

He has developed an international reputation in tissue repair, particularly of the lung and mesothelium. Manuscripts arising from his research have been consistently published in leading international scientific journals and he has received an increased number of personal invitations to contribute review articles for high impact factor journals such as Pharmacology and Therapeutics. 

Publications

Dr Vidya Navaratnam

A/Prof Cecilia Prêle PhD

Associate Professor Cecilia Prêle is a Principal Research Fellow within the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Western Australia. She was awarded her PhD in Biochemistry from University College London, UK in 2001. After completing a short postdoctoral position at Guy’s, St Thomas’ and Kings College London she relocated to Perth. Her research focuses on investigating signal transduction pathways activated in disease and on how these modified pathways contribute to the initiation and progression of disease. Her research is part of a larger collaborative program of research, which aims to investigate the mechanisms driving lung tissue repair and regeneration.

Publications

Prof Alastair Stewart

Prof Stewart leads the campus-wide interdisciplinary Therapeutic Technologies Hallmark Research Initiative at University of Melbourne and his laboratory conducts studies on target validation and drug discovery in tissue remodelling associated chronic disease. Prof Stewart supervises graduate researchers conducting studies on biomarker robustness across animal models, organoid human 3D cultures and clinical specimens, qualifying these markers in longitudinal plasma/serum samples, and in biospecimens from the pre-clinical models.

With respect to mentoring, he can specifically help candidates with interests in entrepreneurship and Biotech/Pharma engagement

A/Prof Lauren Troy PhD, FRACP, MBBS, BMedSci

A/Prof Troy is a Respiratory Staff Specialist at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and Chris O’Brien Lifehouse, and is a Senior Clinical Lecturer through the Sydney Medical School.

Lauren completed her PhD in exercise and sleep physiology in ILD and her clinical and research interests include ILD, interventional pulmonology, bronchiectasis, respiratory infection and education.

Publications

Prof Margaret Wilsher MBChB, MD, FRACP, FRACMA, FThorSoc

Margaret is the Chief Medical Officer at Auckland District Health Board and a Respiratory Physician working in both the Public and Private sectors. She is an active clinical teacher and researcher with Honorary Professor status at the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland. She is an advisor to the MOH on clinical research, a member of the NZ Health Research Strategy implementation steering committee and holds accountability for the ADHB research portfolio and the DHB’s academic relationships.

Areas of specialisation: General Respiratory, Interstitial Lung Disease, Sarcoidosis.

Current areas of research: Interstitial lung disease - structure function relationships, mechanics of pulmonary fibrosis and the healthy aging lung. Collaboration between the Auckland Bioengineering Institute and Respiratory Services.

Publications