Keynote Speakers

Prof Graeme Eisenhofer
David Rothfield Memorial Oration

Graeme Eisenhofer received his PhD in 1983 from the University of Otago, New Zealand, with clinical research on autonomic and neuroendocrine systems. He then moved to the NIH where he carried out basic and clinical studies mapping the pathways of catecholamine metabolism. In 1988 he moved to the Baker Heart Research Institute (Melbourne, Australia), where he worked on sympathetic nervous system function in health and disease. He returned to the NIH in 1991 where together with Dr. Jacques Lenders, Dr. Eisenhofer developed measurements of plasma metanephrines for laboratory diagnosis of pheochromocytoma. He was also responsible for the first ever synthesis of 18F-fluorodopamine as a positron emission tomographic imaging agent for localizing catecholamine-producing tumors. In 2007 he took up a Professorship at the University Hospital Dresden, where he heads a Clinical Research Unit and an associated laboratory focused on adrenal hypertension and disorders of adrenal function.

A/Prof Jyotsna Batra
David Curnow Plenary Lecture

A/Prof Batra has been continuously involved in scientific research in the area of Genetics since 2002. The focus of her PhD thesis was on asthma, which is a widespread respiratory tract ailment. She has undertaken large- scale population and family based studies, which led to the identification of some novel features in various key genes associated with asthma. A/Prof Batra then moved field to cancer genetics to undertake her postdoctoral studies in Australia. In 2010, she was awarded two highly prestigious and competitive NHMRC Fellowships - a Peter Doherty Fellowship (accepted) and an NHMRC Overseas Biomedical Fellowship (offer not accepted). With the award of her CIA NHMRC Project Grant (2011, $565,000), she started to establish her own research group on Molecular Genetics at the Translational Research Institute and is now successfully running her group with 7 PhD students, one post-doc, one honours student and one research assistant. Studying the genetic variation in the miRNAs and their functional role in prostate cancer has been a major focus for her current Fellowship, which she plans to expand to a Genome scale for multiple additional traits. In addition to genetic association studies, she is incorporating high end bioinformatics analysis, in order to more broadly define genes that define disease risk and to understand the basic molecular mechanism behind these genetic associations. A key part of her current activities involves being the Principal Investigator of the Brisbane node of PRACTICAL (the largest international prostate cancer consortium), which has rewarded her with four Nature Genetics publications (the top ranked journal of the field) and additional publications in highly regarded Journals.

Prof Louise Cullen

Louise Cullen is a Pre-Eminent Staff Specialist in Emergency Medicine, a clinical trialist and outcomes researcher in acute diseases. She is enthusiastically involved in the translation of research by clinical redesign and innovation.

As an accomplished acute disease researcher, Prof Cullen has focused on the diagnosis and management of patients presenting with possible Acute Coronary Syndromes (ACS) in the Emergency Department (ED). She has been engaged in many international collaborations and has authored over 200 publications in peer-reviewed journals including The New England Journal of Medicine and the Lancet, focussed on strategies to improve efficiency, whilst maintaining safety for patients with possible ACS, syncope, heart failure, shortness of breath and atrial fibrillation.

Professor Cullen’s mantra is that “you do not do research for research sake” and as such, clinical redesign and translational research is a key part of her endeavours. She is currently the Professional Lead of the Promoting Value-based care in EDs (PROV-ED) project, supporting widespread implementation of established clinical redesign initiatives in Emergency Departments (EDs) across Queensland Health (QH).

Dr Andrew Fellowes

Dr Fellowes is the Lead Scientist for Molecular Diagnostic development. He began his career in diagnostic genetics in the Molecular Pathology Section at Canterbury Health Laboratories in 1989 and headed the section from 2002 until 2011, when he joined the Pathology Dept of the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. He completed a PhD at Otago University, is a fellow of the Human Genetics Society of Australia and a founding fellow of the Faculty of Science of the RCPA.

He sits on a number of national and international committees including the Diagnostic Advisory Group of the Melbourne Genomics Health Alliance, the Australian Genomics Health Alliance Diagnostic Steering Committee, the RCPAQAP Molecular Genetics Advisory Committee, and the International Affairs Committee of AMP. Dr Fellowes focuses on implementing personalised medicine by translating genomic technologies and laboratory automation to the diagnostic labs.

Mr Grahame Grieve

Grahame Grieve is HL7's Product Director for "FHIR" - the leading healthcare data exchange standard of the future. Grahame has a background in laboratory medicine, software vendor development, clinical research, open source development and has also conceived, developed and sold interoperability and clinical document solutions and products in the Australian market and around the world. Grahame has worked to develop standards and solutions with several US vendor consortiums, and the national programs of Canada, England, Singapore, and Australia.

Dr Belinda Pope

Belinda Pope is the Quality and Improvement Manager for Douglass Hanly Moir Pathology. Belinda takes a keen interest in helping to identify and formalise risk management processes within the medical pathology laboratory.Belinda was awarded her PhD in the field of stem cell research in 2016 that was based on her work as production manager of the laboratory that processed cord blood stem cells for transplantation. From this experience Belinda gained valuable insights into Quality frameworks, therapeutic goods regulatory requirements and the development of risk mitigation strategies.

Prof Michael Stowasser

Professor Stowasser has over 25 years clinical research experience in pathogenesis and management of hypertension and especially of endocrine varieties including primary aldosteronism, renovascular hypertension, pheochromocytoma and familial hyperkalemic hypertension. Working with mentor Dr Richard Gordon, he helped to demonstrate that primary aldosteronism is at least 10 times more common than previously thought, and is the commonest specifically treatable and potentially curable form of hypertension. Ongoing studies are aimed at determining genetic bases and pathogenesis of primary aldosteronism, examining non-blood pressure dependent effects of aldosterone excess, improving methods of detection, diagnostic workup and management of primary aldosteronism and exploring the pathogenesis and genetics of other salt sensitive forms of hypertension. Michael was chosen to serve on an international Task Force to develop the first international guideline for the diagnosis of primary aldosteronism. He is currently President of the High Blood Pressure Research Council of Australia and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Human Hypertension.