Professor Ray Lund FRS received his PhD in Anatomy from University College London, after which he joined the faculty and received tenure within 2 years.  Shortly thereafter, he moved to the United States to join the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania.  Throughout his career, Dr. Lund has held several impressive academic positions including  Chair of Anatomy at the University of Cambridge, the Duke Elder Professorship at the Institute of Ophthalmology in London, Chair of the Anatomy Department at the Medical University of South Carolina, Chair of the Neurobiology and Anatomy Department at the University of Pittsburgh,, and the Calvin and JeNeal Hatch Chair of Ophthalmology at the Moran Eye Center at the University of Utah.  In 2007, Dr. Lund was recruited to the Casey Eye Institute at the University of Oregon.

Throughout his career, Dr. Lund's research has centered on the response of the central nervous system to injury and mechanisms of rescue and repair. Focusing on the retina and its connections with the brain, he pioneered techniques of eye transplantation in mammals in the late 70s. Currently, he is investigating the use of cell-based therapies for photoreceptor degeneration in animal models of human disease. The goals of his research are to determine whether the animals can see after the cell-based therapies, characterize the extent and mechanism of vision recovery, and find viable sources of retinal cells. As a result of his efforts, he has forged several collaborations with biotechnology companies to facilitate the translation of his laboratory discoveries to clinic.  Some of his work has already advanced to Phase I clinical treatment trials.

PLEASE JOIN US FOR REFRESHMENTS from 11:45am

In 2008 Dr Wolvetang was appointed Associate Professor in Stem cell Biology at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and nanotechnology in the University of Queensland where he now leads the stem cell engineering group. Prior to that he was head of the Basic Human Embryonic Stem Cell Biology Laboratory at the Australian Stem Cell Centre (ASCC) as well as Honorary Senior Lecturer in the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at Monash University. Before joining the ASCC he was a Post-doctoral Research Fellow in the Centre for Early Human Development in the laboratory of Professor Martin Pera (2003-2006) at the Institute for Reproduction and Development, Monash University. During that period he investigated the role of signalling/gene regulation pathways in the control of growth, differentiation and apoptosis of human embryonic stem cells (hESC) by using lentiviral delivery of shRNA's and cDNAs. This work culminated in his first authored publication in Nature Biotechnology, describing for the first time the relationship between the expression of CD30, apoptosis and genetic instability in hESC. Dr Wolvetang is an editor of several stem cell journals, has submitted three recent patents in the stem cell field and is the director of the Australian Stem Cell Centre Reprogramming and induction of pluripotency program. At present Associate Professor Wolvetang investigates fundamental biological processes of hESC, the development of hESC bioreactors and induced pluripotent cells.

Education:

Primary Academic Appointment:

UF Department of Neurology, College of Medicine

Other Appointments:

Brain Rehabilitation Research Center (VA RR&D), Veteran Affairs Medical Center

Research Interests:

Treatments for cognitive disorders induced by neurologic disease or injury

Professor Murray Mitchell has a worldwide reputation for his research into the biology of preterm labour and the biochemistry of hormones related to this. He directed research in Oxford and held Professorships in Texas and San Diego, and later directed the Division of Reproductive Sciences at the University of Utah's Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology for six years. He was formerly the Head of the Department of Pharmacology and Clinical Pharmacology at The University of Auckland, and was later appointed Associate Dean (planning) and Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences. Murrray is Deputy Director of the Liggins Institute. He leads its Reproductive and Developmental Biology group and received a prestigious 2007 James Cook Fellowship from the Royal Society of New Zealand. This will allow him to focus on his research investigating how environmental factors can modify the actions of key genes in the fetus and placenta to influence not only the course of a pregnancy but the baby's health as an adult.

Dr Albert Mellick, GMRC: Dr Mellick took up his GMRC Fellowship at the end of 2007 after completing a research fellowship at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories (CSHL), NY, one of the leading research institutes in the world. While at CSHL Dr Mellick worked on understanding the role of bone marrow stem cells in cancer biology, and played an integral role in defining and characterising a population of bone marrow derived tumour endothelial cells; also referred to as endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs). This work research is at the fore front of stem cell biology and cancer. His current work is focused on the role of microRNAs in bone marrow stem cell biology and he has other research interests related to the role of the host/stroma in cancer biology. Dr Mellick is also the author Lab Ref Volume 2 (CSHL Press). Based at Griffith University on the Gold Coast, Dr Mellick lectures in Molecular Biology at the School of Medical Science. His lab is part of the Gene Therapy Program, Griffith Institute of Health and Medical Research, and he is a visiting scientist at QIMR and CSHL.  Dr Mellick is the recipient of ARC, Queensland Cancer Fund and GU New Investigator grant funding. To contact Albert, e-mail a.mellick@gu.edu.au alt: mellick@cshl.edu.

Associate Professor Mellick is a Clinical Neuroscientist who trained in the Medical School of the University of Queensland graduating with a Doctor of Philosophy in the field of Medicine in 1996. During the year 2000 he undertook further training as a Research Fellow at the prestigious Karolinska Institute in Sweden. He is now head of the Clinical Neuroscience Program at the Eskitis Institute, Griffith University. He also holds Honorary Scientist appointments in Neurology at both the Princess Alexandra and Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, Brisbane. George has devoted his research career to studying all aspects of neurological disease with an emphasis on the cause and treatments for parkinsonism. His group is one of the most productive Parkinson's disease research groups in Australia. With Prof Peter Silburn, A/Prof Mellick established the Queensland Parkinson's Project, an ongoing research cohort that is contributing to many local, national and international studies into PD. He has published over 70 peer-reviewed research papers and delivered invited lectures to many National and International Conferences including the World Congress of Neurology and the International Congresses on Parkinson's Disease and Related Disorders. A/Prof Mellick is an advocate for people affected by Parkinson's disease and has served as the President of Parkinson's Queensland (PQI) and on the Board of Parkinson's Australia.

Professor Mackay-Sim was educated at Macquarie University (BA Hons, PhD) and the University of Pennsylvania (post-doc) and had faculty positions at the University of Sydney, the University of Wyoming and the University of Adelaide before moving to Griffith University in 1987. He is Australia's leading expert on the sense of smell and for the last 10 years concentrated on the human sense of smell and clinical applications. He recently directed a Phase I clinical trial of autologous olfactory ensheathing cell transplantation into the injured spinal cord in human paraplegia. More recently he is focussing on the olfactory stem cell that regenerates the olfactory sensory neurons throughout life. In 2002 Professor Mackay-Sim was awarded $12M by the Queensland Government Smart State Fund to establish the Eskitis Institute for Cell and Molecular Therapies.

In 2003 he was named Queenslander of the Year for research on neural development and regeneration. In 2006 he was awarded $22M by the Department of Health and Ageing to establish the National Centre for Adult Stem Cell Research.

Refreshments will be available at the conclusion of the seminar courtesty of Invitrogen.

Olivier Salvado received his M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from ESIEE, Marne-la-Vallée France, and he graduated with a PhD in Biomedical Engineering (Medical Imaging) from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

He worked for several years as a principal engineer for an international engineering company (now Siemens), in the field of signal processing and system control design. Before joining CSIRO in 2007, he was Instructor in Radiology at the University Hospitals of Cleveland where he was conducting research on neuroimaging and atherosclerosis diagnosis using intravascular MRI. He was also involved in image analysis projects using cryo-imaging and small animal molecular imaging.

Olivier is now leading the Biomedical Imaging team at the Australian e-Health Research Centre part of the CSIRO ICT division. His group conducts research projects on image analysis, especially Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), as well as surgical simulation. His research interests include molecular imaging, digital image processing, physics of MRI and PET, and neuroimaging. Olivier is Adjunct Associate Professor at the Information Technology and Electrical Engineering department of the University of Queensland.

Refreshments will be provided at the conclusion of the seminar courtesy of Millipore and Millennium Science.

His research aims to generate and evaluate nongenetic risk factors for schizophrenia. He has forged productive cross-disciplinary collaborations linking risk factor epidemiology with developmental neurobiology (e.g. using animal models to explore candidate exposures). For example, based on clues from the epidemiology of schizophrenia, John and his group have made important discoveries about the importance of prenatal vitamin D on brain development. In addition, he has supervised major systematic reviews of the incidence and prevalence of schizophrenia.

He has won several national and international awards including the Premier's Award for Medical Research, a Queensland-Smithsonian Fellowship, and a Centenary Medal for 'distinguished contribution to mental health research'. In 2005 he was awarded the Senior Research Award from the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, and a Bellagio Residency from the Rockefeller Foundation. In 2007 he as appointed a Member of the Order of Australia. He is on the editorial boards of several international journals. Since 1990, he has been awarded over 30 grants from national and international peer-reviewed, competitive funding agencies. He has published over 180 peer-reviewed papers, 18 book chapters and 3 books.

He has been a consultant and external reviewer for several Australian research groups and government agencies. He has given several Plenary and Keynote addresses at national and international conferences.