Dr Joanna Harnett holds a Doctoral, Masters and Bachelors degree in Health Science majoring in Complementary Medicine. Joanna currently holds a full-time teaching and research position with the University of Sydney’s School of Pharmacy. An estimated 50% of the Australian population take or have taken a Complementary Medicine in the last 12 months. Despite the prevalent use, there is limited knowledge amongst health care professionals, regulatory bodies and the general public regarding the efficacy and safety of many of these medicines. Joanna is involved in a number of projects that aim to contribute towards education in, and quality use of Complementary Medicine. Joanna’s’ own PhD work investigated the role of probiotics in altering the intestinal microbiota, symptoms and quality of life in individuals with Coeliac disease.

Associate Professor Wheate completed a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree with 1st class honours from the University of New South Wales whilst at the Australian Defence Force Academy. He then completed a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in medicinal chemistry under Professor J. Grant Collins. Since then he has worked in the School of Biomedical and Health Sciences at the University of Western Sydney (Australia) and the Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Science (Scotland) before taking up a position in the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Sydney (Australia) in 2012. In 2020, Associate Professor Wheate was awarded a Doctor of Science (DSc) from the University of Sydney. Associate Professor Wheate was previously the Program Director of the pharmacy undergraduate degrees at The University of Sydney and the Head of Cancer Research in the Faculty of Pharmacy. Awards The Australian Research Awards 2023, Best in Field (Inorganic Chemistry) Senior Fellow, Higher Education Academy, 2019 Royal Australian Chemical Institute Nyholm Lecturer, 2018

Dr Furfaro is a NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow within the Medical School, Division of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. As a microbiologist, she is interested in microbes in the context of pregnancy and early life. Her research explores targeted antibiotic alternatives such as bacteriophage therapy to treat leading neonatal pathogens such as Group B Streptococcus. Lucy has a strong discovery to translation focus to her research and is an active science communicator.

I investigate bacteria, fungi and viruses and the effects of antimicrobial products. I am interested in the effect of antimicrobial compounds on microorganisms as well as microbial interactions with human and animal cells.

Professor Sunil Badve is a senior staff specialist nephrologist at St. George Hospital, Sydney and Conjoint Professor at UNSW Medicine and Health. His medical education has been at the University of Mumbai and the University of Ottawa. He also has a PhD from the University of Queensland. He is a fellow of the American Society of Nephrology. Professor Badve’s primary research focus is in clinical trials, meta-analyses and epidemiology, particularly in progression of chronic kidney disease, anticoagulation and treatment of cardiovascular disease in chronic kidney disease. He has received more than $12 million NHMRC research funding as a chief investigator. Professor Badve is the Nephrology Subspecialty Editor for the Internal Medicine Journal and serves on the Editorial Board of the American Journal of Kidney Diseases.

Dr Peter Swoboda is a consultant cardiologist and senior Lecturer in the University of Leeds. His main area of research is the relationship between exercise and cardiac disease. He is funded by the British Heart Foundation to carry out research into understanding risk of cardiac rhythm disturbance in sports people particularly as they get older. His other areas of research include studies to improve the diagnosis and treatment of heart failure. His area of clinical expertise is in the field of cardiac imaging. He leads the cardiac MRI service at Mid Yorkshire Teaching Hospitals Trust and sits on the board of the British Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (BSCMR).

Dr Katherine Cullerton is a Research Fellow in the School of Public Health. Katherine joined the School of Public Health in August 2018 after completing postdoctoral research at the MRC Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge, UK where she investigated whether it’s ever acceptable for nutrition researchers to engage with the food industry and if it is, under what conditions. Her current research involves understanding the barriers to evidence informing public policy and how advocates can better influence policy in Australia with a particular emphasis on the effects of framing and public opinion. Dr Cullerton is also the academic lead for external engagement for the School of Public Health.

Dr Jennifer Lacy-Nichols is a Commercial Determinants of Health researcher whose program of work focusses on corporations, politics and health. She is currently based in the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health at the University of Melbourne. Her research interests include corporate power, commercial political practices, privatization and equity, corporatisation of the food system and the political benefits of corporate social responsibility. She completed a DPhil at the University of Melbourne in 2019 that analysed the soft drink industry’s political strategy to position itself as ‘part of the solution’ to obesity.

Dr Bennett graduated in 2018 from Macquarie University. Her PhD investigated the use of cognitive assessments to determine fitness to drive for individuals with dementia. Her PhD involved conducting cognitive assessments with older adults and adults with dementia and performing driving assessments to determine their driving capacity. Dr Bennett has a keen interest in research which investigates the relationship between cognitive function and road safety across the lifespan, and for all road users (including drivers and vulnerable road users such as pedestrians). She has also conducted research into the emerging field of automated vehicles. Dr Bennett is currently a lecturer in Psychology at the Australian Catholic University in Strathfield. In her role as a lecturer she specialises in teaching research design and statistics to both undergraduate and postgraduate students. Dr Bennett has 10 years of experience in teaching statistics and runs specialised workshops on advanced statistical techniques such as structural equation modelling and meta-analysis.

As a Research Excellence Scholarship recipient, I am currently pursuing a PhD and Masters in Clinical Neuropsychology at Macquarie University with a focus on the effects of screens and technology on the brain and cognition. My research has led to numerous publications covering topics such as gaming and screen addiction, artificial intelligence, and moral psychology. Alongside my research, I have been a sessional teaching academic at the University of Melbourne and Macquarie University, where I have taught a range of undergraduate units.

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.