Program Schedule
Society for Brain Mapping and Therapeutics Program Committee 2014
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A/Prof Charlie Teo (Co-convener) Dr Charlie Teo is currently the Director of the Centre for Minimally Invasive Neurosurgery and Chairman of Neurosurgery at the Prince of Wales Private Hospital. He is a Founding Board Member of V.I.N.E. (volunteers for international neurosurgical education) and Founder of the Cure for Life Foundation which has successfully raised over 12 million dollars and is Australia’s leading charity devoted to the advancement and treatment of patients with brain tumours. He holds senior academic positions in the USA, Luxembourg, Germany, Peru, Vietnam and Singapore and directs an internationally acclaimed fellowship in minimally invasive neurosurgery. He has been honoured as a Member of the Order of Australia. |
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A/Prof Kuldip Sidhu (Co-convener) A/Professor Kuldip Sidhu, BSC (Medical), PhD, is a stem cell specialist at the Faculty of Medicine, the University of New South Wales, Australia. He also represents SBMT USA as its Vice President. He worked with Prof James Thompson, Wisconsin USA (2000) who produced the first human embryonic stem cells in 1998 and also together with Prof Shinya Yamanaka, the Noble Laureate, 2012. His team was the first in Australia to produce hESC and human iPSC lines. His research focus is on neural stem cells derived from both the embryonic and non-embryonic sources for developing future cell therapies for various neurodegenerative diseases, like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other neuronal diseases. His team has developed technology around patient-specific iPSC clones for disease modelling and drug discovery. He has served on the International Society of Stem Cell Research Sub Committee and the NHMRC Cell Therapy Advisory Committee. He is on the expert panel on iPSC research for the European Union. He has published over two books, 168 papers including abstracts in reputed journals like Nature Biotechnology and is recognised with many awards and distinctions. |
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Professor George Paxinos George Paxinos completed his BA at The University of California at Berkeley, his PhD at McGill University and spent a postdoctoral year at Yale University. He is the author of The Rat Brain in Stereotaxic Coordinates, which is ranked by Thomson ISI amongst the 50 most cited items in the Web of Science. He has also written another 38 books on the structure of the brain of humans and experimental animals. His work was recognised by an AO, Ramaciotti Medal, Humboldt Prize, Award of Excellence of The Association of American Publishers, and the Australian Psychological Society's Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award. |
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Professor Gary F Egan Gary Egan is an NHMRC Principal Research Fellow and foundation Professor and Director of the Monash Biomedical Imaging research facilities at Monash University. He is the lead investigator of the Victorian Biomedical Imaging Capability that has established MRI and PET-CT imaging facilities at four Victorian research organisations, and he is the Deputy Director of the Australian National Imaging Facility. He undertakes high resolution structural and functional brain mapping research and clinical neuroimaging research in Huntington's disease and Friedreich’s Ataxia. In 2008 Prof Egan was awarded the Sir John Eccles Plenary Lectureship and a 2008 Churchill Fellowship. |
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Professor John Justin Gooding John has an extensive experience in the modification of surfaces with self-assembled monolayers for the development of biointerfaces, biosensors and molecular electronics. He is an Australian Research Council Australian Professorial Fellow and a UNSW Scientia Professor. His research contributions have been recognised by a number of international and national awards including being the recipient of a NSW Young Tall Poppy Award, an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship, the 2007 Lloyd Smyth medal from the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI), the 2009 Eureka Prize in Scientific Research and a 2011 Stokes medallist from the RACI. Professor Gooding has published one book, seven book chapters and over 200 journal papers which collectively have received over 6000 citations. |
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Dr Alfredo Martinez-Coll He has more than 16 years experience in biomedical research in Venezuela, the United States, and Australia covering design of artificial organs, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular physiology, membrane transport, and oxygen transport to tissue. Alfredo’s main areas of interest are sustainable funding for science, entrepreneurship, innovation, project management in science and business development (all part of a number of submissions to the State and Commonwealth governments). Following a practical training scholarship in technology transfer and commercialisation in The Netherlands, Alfredo worked in the area of intellectual property and commercialisation across a number of Area Health Services in NSW. |
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Professor Perry Bartlett, Professor Perry Bartlett is renowned in the field of cellular and molecular neuroscience. He was appointed Foundation Chair in Molecular Neuroscience at the University of Queensland in 2002, and inaugural Director of the Queensland Brain Institute in 2003. Previously he was an NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow and Head of the Division of Development and Neurobiology at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, where he developed a strong program of discovery, which led to several paradigm shifts in our understanding of the nervous system. Most notable was his laboratory’s co-discovery in 1992 of the presence of stem cells in the adult brain that had the capacity to produce new neurons. His group was first to isolate and characterise these stem cells in 2001 and more recently revealed the presence of a latent hippocampal stem cell population. He was appointed as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2003. He is a past president of the Australian Neuroscience Society. He has served as an executive member of the International Brain Research Organisation and the Federation of Asian and Oceanian Neuroscience Societies. He was appointed Honorary Professor at the Second Military Medical University in Shanghai in 2011. He is regularly invited to speak at the world’s foremost scientific forums and has published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers. |
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A/Prof Caroline Gargett Caroline works in the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences at Monash University as a Senior Research Fellow. She is a Deputy Director of the Ritchie Centre in the Monash Institute for Medical Research and heads the Women's Health Theme, where she leads the Endometrial Stem Cell Group. Her research focuses on characterising epithelial progenitor cells and mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) she discovered in the highly regenerative lining of the uterus (endometrium) and examining their role in endometriosis and endometrial cancer. She leads a collaboration with CSIRO to develop a tissue engineering approach as a cell based therapy to treat pelvic organ prolapse using endometrial MSC and novel scaffold materials. |
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Mr Glenn Cross Glenn is the Chief Operating Officer of AusBiotech and is responsible for business development, finance and general operations. With 30 years' experience in general management, Glenn’s primary expertise lies in sales, marketing, finance, distribution and manufacturing in the life sciences market. Glenn has experience in finance, human resources and product development with extensive experience in product development and distribution networks both locally and internationally. He has extensive experience in key/large corporate account management and business development in Australia, Asia, Japan, Europe and North America. |
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Professor Perminder Sachdev Dr. Sachdev is Scientia Professor of Neuropsychiatry at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Co-Director of the Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA) and Clinical Director of the Neuropsychiatric Institute (NPI), The Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney, Australia. He has extensively examined the outcome of psychosurgery, and is currently involved in examining brain stimulation techniques (TMS, DCS, VNS and DBS) for psychiatric disorders. Dr. Sachdev is past-president of the International Neuropsychiatric Association and inaugural Chair of the Section of Neuropsychiatry of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists. He is current President of the International College of Geriatric Psychoneuropharmacology. He has published five books and over 350 papers in peer-reviewed journals. His most recent books are ‘The Yipping Tiger and other tales from the neuropsychiatric clinic’ and ‘Secondary Schizophrenia’. His H-index is 43, and total citations are over 7000. He was named a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 2011 for his services to medical research in the field of neuropsychiatry. He was awarded the 2010 NSW Scientist of the Year for Biomedical Sciences. |
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A/Prof Megan Munsie A/Prof Megan Munsie is a scientist who has combined her extensive technical expertise in stem cell science with an interest and understanding of the complex ethical, social and regulatory issues associated with stem cells in research and in the clinic. A/Prof Munsie is the Head of the Education, Ethics, Law & Community Awareness Unit, a position jointly funded by the University of Melbourne and Monash University. She is also the Policy and Outreach Manager for the Stem Cells Australia initiative. A/Prof Munsie regularly provides advice and information to Australian researchers, academics, politicians, media, patient advocacy groups and community members on stem cell science and associated issues. She is a member of an international research team that is exploring community expectation in relation to stem cell science and in particular stem cell tourism and has developed several educational resources for the public and health professionals on stem cells. |
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Kirsty Grimwade Kirsty is involved in Exhibition Management, Bio Pro courses, AusMedtech, Coordination of national student programs. She will be the administrative contact for 11th SBMT meeting. |
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Dr Babak Kateb Babak Kateb is a neuroscientist with more than 15 years of research experience. His research has been focused on peripheral neuropathy, stroke, epilepsy, fetal cell transplant into the brain, pancreatic islet xenotrasplantation, human brain computer interface and brain implants, effect of hypothermia in traumatic brain injury patients with low Glasgow Coma Score, image guided surgery using NASA’s thermal and UV imaging technology, optical imaging and laser spectroscopy, microwave ablation, stem cell research, nanoneurosurgery and virtual reality neurosurgical simulation. Babak has been serving as the founding chairman of the board of directors for SBMT and the Brain Mapping Foundation, as well as Chief Executive Officer and Scientific Director of SBMT and the Brain Mapping Foundation since 2004 as well as Director of National Center for Nano-Bio-Electronics. He chairs the publication committee of SBMT, as editor in chief. He has established a new publication with PLoSOne called: NeuroMapping & Therapeutics collections and was the force behind 3 successful IBMISPS-NeuroImage special issues with high impact factors. He is editor of “Nanoneurosurgery” Text book, which is scheduled for release by Taylor & Francis Publisher by 2012. |