Nathan Bartlett is Professor and head of the Viral Immunology and Respiratory Disease group and is based at the Hunter Medical Research Institute. He also retains an honorary academic appointment at Imperial College London, UK. Following the award of PhD, Dr Bartlett undertook a 5 year Postdoctoral research position, first at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford, then in the Department of Virology, Imperial College London. Dr Bartlett then undertook a second Postdoctoral position in the Department of Respiratory Medicine within the National Heart and Lung Institute (NHLI), also at Imperial. After joining the NHLI, Dr Bartlett continued to build on his virology training leading to Bartlett et al, Nature Medicine 2008, the world’s first mouse rhinovirus infection model. He has investigated the interaction of respiratory viral infection with type-2 immunity to uncover pathogenic mechanisms in asthma exacerbations. He was a co-applicant on several successful project and program grants and since his Lecturer appointment at Imperial in 2011 was successful as the Lead Investigator in achieving an MRC project grant to study the role of IL-25 in asthma exacerbations, the research from which was published as the featured cover story in Science Translational Medicine (October 2014). Dr Bartlett has contributed to several scholarly books including the Rhinovirus chapter for the Encyclopaedia of Virology (Elsevier) and ,edited Rhinovirus Infections: Rethinking Impact on Human Health and Disease (Elsevier). Dr Bartlett is considered a world expert on in vivo and human airway epithelial models of rhinovirus infection and consults for a number companies that are bringing novel therapies for respiratory infection and inflammatory airways diseases to the clinic.He is also an Associate Editor for the American Journal of Physiology – Lung, Cellular and Molecular Physiology (AJP-LUNG) and a member of the European Respiratory Society College of Experts. In 2015 Dr Bartlett accepted an academic appointment at the University of Newcastle where he has received funding from HMRI, Asthma Australia, NH&MRC and multiple Industry Partners and associated Government grants. He work has led to the publishing of multiple patents related to treatments currently in development for respiratory virus infections and exacerbations of chronic respiratory diseases. He is now exploring novel therapies and treatments to fight COVID-19, a novel coronavirus which was declared a pandemic in March 2020. His team is exploring a range of anti-viral options for this virus, partnering with other researchers to explore different methods to fight the virus. For example Dr Bartlett is working with Professor Hubert Hondermarck to assess the safety and efficacy of a range of cancer drugs which have the potential to be repurposed. Dr Bartlett continues to work with Ena Respiratory who have developed an innate immune stimulant that protects the lungs against respiratory virus infections. Boosting lung innate immunity bridges the gap between vaccine mediated long term protection and anti-viral drug to treat active infection. He is now using coronavirus infections models to determine the efficacy of this approach. He is also helping local industries that are focusing their business to produce disinfectants, sanitizers and virus inactivating materials that will become part of everyday life as we adapt to coexist with new respiratory viruses such as SARS-CoV-2.

Our laboratory is interested in understanding how neural systems encode time and generate rhythmic physiological and behavioral outputs to adapt to the temporal structure of the environment. We use a comparative approach that capitalizes on animal models that range from the laboratory mouse to humans.

Virtually all living species have biological clocks that generate and control the daily cyclic variations in physiology and behavior, such us the sleep-wake cycle, rhythms in locomotor activity, core body temperature and hormonal secretion. In mammals, the master control of these so-called circadian rhythms is exerted by a biological clock located within the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of the brain. We use behavioral, physiological and molecular techniques in order to understand how the SCN, in concert with other circadian oscillators in the brain, generates and orchestrates this array of circadian rhythms. We also study human circadian rhthms through non-invasive methods to assess the effect of electric light and the urban environment on the timing and quality of sleep.

Ann Kirkness is a Clinical Nurse Consultant in Cardiac Rehabilitation at the Royal North Shore Hospital. She has extensive clinical experience in working with people with cardiac disease, which includes development of many educational resources.

Ann has a specific interest in the role of lifestyle choices and the importance of exercise in the ongoing management and prevention of heart disease. She has also been involved in a number of research and quality improvement programs specifically related to risk factor modification and improving outcomes in patients with pre-existing cardiovascular disease.

Ann has publications in a number of international peer reviewed journals and presented a number of conference papers at state and national level.

Professor Vanessa McDonald is co-director of the NHMRC CRE in Severe Asthma, Co-director and research leader in the Priority Research Centre for Healthy Lungs and an academic clinician in the Department of Respiratory and Sleep Medicine. She also leads the Chronic Disease and Older Person Research group within the School of Nursing and Midwifery.

Professor McDonald joined the University of Newcastle in 2011, following the completion of her PhD. Prior to this, she worked clinically within the Hunter New England Local Health District as a Respiratory Clinical Nurse Consultant. She has been a nurse for over 20 years and it is her clinical background and experience that drives her innovation in research.

Vanessa’s research program is centred around the development of innovative approaches to the management of chronic diseases. Her translational research program links biomedicine, clinical effectiveness and health policy development.

At 8 years post-doctoral, Prof Vanessa McDonald established a productive track record publishing over 110 peer reviewed journal articles. Her work is published in high impact journals including the Lancet, the AJRCCM, Thorax and the Eur Resp J. Complimenting her publication catalogue is a suite of other outputs. She has authored 10 book chapters, six separate national clinical practice guidelines for Asthma and COPD, national reports, multimedia resources, and national patient education publications.

John Blakey is a Consultant in Respiratory and Sleep Medicine at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Perth. He has clinical expertise in asthma and airways diseases.

His main research interest is in health service delivery, particularly the move toward assessment of future risk as a key aspect of asthma care, and the use of newer connected techologies.

His research has been published in leading journals such as The Lancet, JACI, Thorax, and AJRCCM. He continues to be research active through adjunct positions with Curtin University and UWA. He undertakes advisory and committee work for Asthma Australia and Asthma WA, and is WA branch President of TSANZ.

Dr Diem Pham is a General Practitioner who balances clinical work with her role as a Senior Medical Officer role at a Federal Government Department. She has further training in Public Health, Occupational Health and Environmental Medicine. She is particularly passionate about medical education and helping to improve health literacy in the general community.

Stuart is a British born and trained medical doctor and general practitioner who emigrated with his family to Australia in 2016. He now works as a GP in Queensland and as a Clinical Editor for Health Pathways. Prior to reading medicine in his early 30’s, Stuart originally trained as a nurse, subsequently working in a range of clinical, operational and strategic management roles across a wide range of health sectors.
Stuart is passionate about family general practice due to the breadth of medicine it allows him to practice, as well as the long-term relationship and continuity of care it enables him to offer patients. He enjoys being a medical generalist but has special interests in male health, chronic disease management, occupational medicine and is increasingly exploring an interest in medical writing.
Stuart is married to Lizzie, who is also a GP and enjoys spending time with his young family, travelling, being in the water and the great outdoors.