Dr David O’Donnell is a Cardiologist and Electrophysiologist, and the CEO of Advara HeartCare, Sleep and Respiratory. He has a long-standing clinical interest in arrhythmias, and specialises in atrial fibrillation, with a specific interest in athletes with atrial fibrillation. In recent years, his clinical and research focus has been on pioneering the newest techniques for Cardiac Resynchronisation Therapy (CRT) devices in heart failure patients.

Associate Professor Benjamin Kwan is the Head of Department of Respiratory and Sleep Medicine, The Sutherland Hospital, and Director of Sleep Medicine and Pleural Medicine Lead in St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney. He has extensive interests in the field of sleep apnoea, smoking cessation and lung cancer, and new models of care. He has published widely, including co-authorships in articles published in NEJM and JAMA. He has also co-authored state-wide guidelines and GP health pathways. He has received multiple seeding grants and is currently involved in multicentre studies in the field of smoking cessation, malignant pleural effusions and airway diseases.

A/Prof Natasha Smallwood is a consultant respiratory physician at the Alfred Hospital, Head of the Chronic Respiratory Disease Research Group, and Associate Professor at Monash University. In addition to her respiratory qualifications, she holds postgraduate qualifications in Medical Leadership, Epidemiology and Palliative Care. She has authored over 100 publications and been awarded over $9 million as major research grants. She has clinical and research interests in severe lung disease, particularly COPD. A/Prof Smallwood serves as a Board Director for the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand and the Victorian Doctors Health Program, and holds multiple leadership roles. She is a taskforce member for various national and international respiratory guidelines.

Duncan Topliss is Senior Endocrinologist in the Department of Endocrinology and Diabetes at the Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, after stepping down as Director in 2020, and is a Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne Australia.
He is a past-President and Life Member of the Endocrine Society of Australia.
He has a long interest in thyroid physiology and disease with an MD thesis and many publications in this area. In recent years he has been an investigator in several pivotal trials of multikinase inhibitor therapy of advanced thyroid cancer, and is active in evaluation and treatment of thyroid cancer and thyroid nodules.
He has a long-term interest in the prevention and management of acute and chronic complications of diabetes and has been an investigator on multiple major international diabetes trials relating to this. He is a current Editor of Clinical Endocrinology and is a frequent reviewer for Clinical Endocrinology, the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, Thyroid, and other endocrine journals.
His other interest is drug regulation and safety. He chaired the Adverse Drug Reactions Advisory Committee of the Therapeutic Goods Administration (ADRAC) 2001-2010, and is a member of the Advisory Committee on Medicines of the TGA (1999- ) He has chaired the Drugs and Therapeutics Committee of Alfred Health since 1988.
He was awarded an AM in the 2023 King’s Birthday Honours list for significant service to endocrinology, and to professional organizations.

Dr Sharon Salmon is Technical Officer, Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN), WHO Regional Office of the Western Pacific. Prior to re-joining WHO, Sharon was the Assistant Director of Nursing, Infection Prevention at the National University Hospital, Singapore and Associate Consultant, Ministry of Health Singapore. She has 20 years of IPC experience including extensive international consultative experience, providing technical advice for IPC national programmes, hospital assessments and development of national guidelines across several countries in Asia. Sharon holds a Bachelor of Nursing and Master of Public Health from the University of Sydney and a PhD from the University of NSW, Australia.

Dr Jocelyne Basseal leads the strategic development of the Institute and fostering local, national and global partnerships. She is a graduate from the University of Sydney with a PhD in Medical Microbiology and has supervised post-graduate students, delivered lectures, organised scientific conferences and published in peer-reviewed journals and textbooks. After leaving academia, Jocelyne spent 8 years as the Managing Editor, Research and Policy Manager for the Australasian Society for Ultrasound in Medicine. With strong governance knowledge, skills in policy development and communication, Jocelyne was instrumental in advocating for best practices in Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) for medical imaging. During this time, Jocelyne was a consultant for commercial companies as an IPC advisor and delivered educational workshops, supported medical associations with their peer-reviewed journals and developed the research grants scheme for a philanthropic organisation. Since April 2020, Jocelyne worked as an IPC consultant for the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 response supporting low-middle income countries in the Western Pacific Region. She is currently the President for the Australasian Medical Writers Association, an active member of the Standards Australia HE-023 committee and facilitating IPC guideline development for Radiology Across Borders.

Professor Glasziou, who was the director of Oxford University’s Centre for Evidence-Based from 2003 to 2010, is a general practitioner and an international leader in evidence-based medicine. He is the author of seven books related to evidence based practice, and has lead over 100 EBM workshops in dozens of countries. Now at Bond University in Australia, his research focuses on improving the clinical impact of publications by reducing the more than $85 Billion annual loss from unpublished and unusable research (Chalmers, Glasziou, Lancet 2009). As a family practitioner this work has particularly focused on the applicability and usability of published trials and reviews.

Professor Clara Chow AM is Academic Director of the Westmead Applied Research Centre (WARC), Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney. She is a cardiologist and Clinical Lead of Community Based Cardiac Services at Westmead hospital and is also a member of the Western Sydney Local Health District (WSLHD) Governing Board, Sydney, Australia. Professor Chow is Director of the Australian Stroke and Heart Accelerator (ASHRA) and was honoured with a Telstra Brilliant Woman in Digital Health Award in 2022 and is past-President of the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand. Professor Chow’s research focuses on the prevention of cardiovascular disease, innovation in the delivery of cardiovascular care and the evaluation of digital health interventions.

Nicholas Cox is the Director of Cardiology at Western Health. He is Clinical Associate Professor, University of Melbourne; Board Member of the National Heart Foundation; and Interventional Cardiologist at Epworth Health Care. He is a Graduate Australian Institute of Company Directors; Fellow of the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand and Fellow Royal Australian College of Physicians; He completed his MBBS University of Melbourne and Interventional and Research Cardiology Fellowship Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston MA. His interests include radial access coronary angiography, systems of care for patients with cardiogenic shock; new models of care for elderly patients with heart failure; and systems of care for patients undergoing coronary intervention.

Prof Mark Flynn is a Professor at the University of Newcastle and the Chief Audiology Officer at Sound Scouts. He is passionate for the development of innovative technology to assist people with hearing loss.

Mark has a PhD from the University of Melbourne, a dual MBAs from Georgetown University and ESADE, and won 22 individual and group prizes for his professional work. For his product innovation, he has been responsible for over 20 medical products and services, inventor of 17 international patents, author of over 100 publications, and raised over $74M in grant funding.

Danielle A. Wilhour, MD is an Assistant Professor of Neurology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, she received her medical degree from Sidney Kimmel Medical School. She completed her Neurology residency and Headache Medicine fellowship at Thomas Jefferson University. Dr. Wilhour joined the faculty of the University of Colorado in 2019. She has contributed several papers to the field of headache medicine. Her primary interests include non-pharmacologic treatment of headache as well as headache during pregnancy. Devoted to teaching, she became Fellowship Director for the Headache section in 2022.

The overall goal of my present research work at the Kirby Institute is two-fold. Firstly to define the basic mechanisms of HIV spread, from tracking entry and fusion of single HIV virions through to the more logistically challenging task of tracking viral spread through cell-cell contact. To date our laboratory is one of only a few laboratories worldwide that can image HIV spread in live HIV infected primary cell types. The second component of my laboratory is currently involved and actively collaborating with research groups involved in using gene therapy for a treatment of a range of chronic diseases including HIV. Indeed a functional cure for HIV may lie in gene therapy. For instance, functional removal of human genes that HIV needs or attacking the viral genes directly, all represent ways to silence the viral reservoir in the long term. Whilst there are many approaches that work in cell line models, the present limitation to this approach is gene delivery. For instance the cells of the immune system that HIV attacks are unfortunately very difficult to deliver genes to. The broad aim of this project is to systematically determine the best protocol for gene delivery by using different combinations of viral proteins. We are actively looking for capable honours, masters and PhD students who have a strong interest in the intersection of virology and cellular biology to undertake NHMRC funded projects.