AUSTRALASIAN BRAIN CLUB 2025

Nicola Austin is a Neonatal Paediatrician involved in all aspects on newborn care and has special interests in the neurodevelopmental outcomes of preterm and sick newborns as well as the assessment of cardiorespiratory function and improving nutrition. She graduated in 1982, and gained her Fellowship (Paediatrics) in 1992 after 3 years advanced training in Southampton where she completed a DM.

She is a Clinical Associate Professor (2011) of the University of Otago.  Her research has involved a large number of multicentre studies advancing neonatal care and outcomes. She has been part of the Very Preterm cohort study since soon after its inception, and has been involved from 1 to 17 years which she led. 

Until recently has been the Clinical Director of the Neonatal Service at Christchurch Women’s Hospital. Her national roles include being the past president of the Paediatric Society of NZ, and is now the Chair of the New Zealand Child and Youth Clinical Network Governance Group and on the RACP - Paediatrics and Child Health Division Council.

Justin an internationally established researcher in developmental brain injury and neurophysiology at the University of Auckland. His biomedical research focuses on understanding the cellular mechanisms driving normal brain development, and how these change in infants born prematurely. His laboratory team and collaborators are noted for original work on the evolution and detection of neuroinflammation and brain dysmaturation injury arising from complications of prematurity, and the development of therapeutic approaches to restore normal brain development. Justin is Head of the Physiology Department, Auckland University, is a member of the NZ Board of the NZ Council for the Care of Animals in Research and Teaching (ANZCCART), is the NZ co-lead for the Horizon Europe Brain Health Partnership, and internationally is an appointed editorial board member of the Journal of Physiology, UK. 

Dr Fleiss is a developmental neurobiologist with considerable expertise in studying perinatal brain disorders, including in models in mice, rats, non-human primates, and piglets and using human samples.  Dr Fleiss has current research interests that include the basic development of microglia; sex differences in glial responses in encephalopathy of the preterm infant (EoP); innovative approaches in delayed chronic pharmacologic interventions to improve outcomes in EoP; and investigating the utility of a biocompatible hydrogel as a vehicle to deliver drugs to regenerate the brain in a rat model of neonatal stroke. 

Nancy has held senior roles as a Clinical Trials / Quality Manager and Scientist working in a number of world-renowned tertiary hospitals with an excellent understanding of the regulatory environment, promoting continuous improvement and risk management to sustain the delivery of safe, quality cell therapies in healthcare.

With over 20 years’ experience her key responsibilities include managing the development, implementation and governance of a cellular therapy program; inclusive of an apheresis service, compliant with the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) regulatory framework for biologicals, the National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA) and the Foundation for Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT).

Professor Marcel F. Nold is a clinician-scientist, pediatrician and neonatologist. His work, carried out in Germany, the USA and for the last ~15 years in Australia, is focused on interventional immunology and anti-inflammatory cytokines. Marcel is passionate about his research making a meaningful difference to his patients and their families. Therefore, aiming to lay the foundations for, and then establish, much-needed new therapies, he employs bedside-to-bench-and-back approaches to explore the molecular and microbiome-related mechanisms underpinning severe illnesses that affect infants and children, eg infection and sepsis, neonatal chronic lung disease, pulmonary hypertension, necrotising enterocolitis and brain injury. In addition to early life-diseases, his work in translational molecular medicine aspires to develop and advance novel cytokine-based therapeutics towards clinical application, thus bringing urgently needed relief to patients with autoimmune and viral illnesses such as systemic lupus, influenza and Covid-19.

Prof Salvatore Pepe is Co-Group Leader of the Heart Research Group at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne. 

With the primary aim to translate research innovation to clinical and surgical practice, his work has focused on myocardial adaptive remodelling in myocardial injury, cardiomyopathy, heart failure, donor heart management in transplantation, and perioperative complications of cardiopulmonary bypass surgery. A key focus is the safe translation of cell therapy protocols to augment cardiac surgery intervention outcomes in congenital and acquired heart conditions. He is a co-principal investigator of a recently completed first-in-human clinical safety trial of cord blood cell therapy in neonates with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome undergoing the Norwood cardiopulmonary bypass operation. 

Working with cardiac surgeon Christian Brizard and cord blood bank director Ngaire Elwood, current work involves extension of these protocols to a safety trial of allogeneic cord blood in this cohort and large animal model dosage and efficacy studies. His previous appointments were held at the Dept of Cardiothoracic Surgery and Heart & Lung Transplant Service, Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, Australia; Cardiac Surgical Research Unit, Baker Heart & Diabetes Research Institute, Melbourne; and National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health Intramural Research Program, Johns Hopkins Hospital Bayview Campus, Baltimore, USA.

Professor Kym Rae is the Principal Research Fellow and Group Lead in Indigenous Health at Mater Research Institute (appointed in 2020), collaborating with the Aboriginal community-controlled health sector across the country.  She is a non-Indigenous woman who has been working alongside Aboriginal communities for over 15 years. Building on her background in quantitative research in maternal infant health, she has prioritised and developed expertise in qualitative research, specifically in hearing the stories behind the data and working directly with communities. She has built these relationships predominantly in NSW and Queensland. Her outstanding track record in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health research allows her to partner with communities to co-design research projects that meet community health needs. She has a particular interest in understanding the origins of health and disease. She is committed to reciprocity with community and has led health education and promotion using her significant expertise in ArtsHealth. She has designed and delivered over 100,000 hours of health education using arts, and cultural activities in collaboration with Aboriginal Elders. Her work is multidisciplinary in nature, and she is internationally recognised for her extensive expertise in successfully developing cohorts with Indigenous community members. Across her career Professor Rae has received over $13.5 million dollars in grants towards her work researching with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and attained 15 awards in recognition of her expertise. Above all she fosters genuine relationships and capacity building as the foundations of the work her and her team undertake.

Dr Cia Sharpe is a clinician researcher at Starship Children’s Hospital in Auckland, New Zealand. She completed her training in Paediatric Neurology at University of California, San Diego, and began working in neonatal seizure clinical trial research there. She was a lead researcher in the NEOLEV2 RCT studying Levetiracetam compared with Phenobarbital for the first line treatment of neonatal seizures. She is a PI for the currently recruiting NEOLEV3 multi-center trial which is a phased dose escalation study of very high dose LEV and employs a stratified treatment strategy.

A/Professor Flora Wong is a Consultant Neonatologist at Monash Newborn, and a NHMRC leadership fellow at the Department of Paediatrics, Monash University and the Ritchie Centre (The Hudson Institute of Medical Research). She is head of the Neonatal Brain Protection Laboratory at The Ritchie Centre. Her research expertise is in neonatal brain development, brain injury and neuroprotection; with 115 publications and >4100 citations. She is one of Australia’s foremost experts in neonatal neurovascular research and cerebral haemodynamics, and has successfully obtained >$8.2M of research funding ($5.5M as CIA).