Dr Sheryl Van Nunen OAM is a Visiting Medical Officer at Northern Beaches Hospital in Sydney and a Clinical Professor of the Northern Clinical School of Sydney Medical School at the University of Sydney. She first described the association between tick bites and the subsequent development of mammalian meat anaphylaxis, documented the first instance of a proven IgE-mediated mechanism in anaphylaxis to a food (mammalian meat) in systemic mastocytosis and first described ticks as an insect causing anaphylaxis in systemic mastocytosis.

From 1985, until its merger with the Department of Clinical Immunology in late 2012, she was Head of the Department of Allergy at Royal North Shore Hospital. During this time she fostered innovation and scholarship within the Department and was the chief investigator in clinical trials of 75% of all new treatments for allergic conditions introduced to Australia. Dr Van Nunen was subsequently Senior Staff Specialist in the Department of Clinical Immunology and Allergy at Royal North Shore Hospital until her resignation on 30 June 2020.

Dr Van Nunen, as a media spokesperson for allergy, in a voluntary capacity, for the Australasian College of Physicians, the Australian College of Allergy, the Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy, the National Asthma Campaign and the National Asthma Council Australia, has contributed to the understanding of allergic conditions by the public via numerous requested media contributions to television, radio, print media (popular books, newspapers, magazines and pamphlets), video productions and presentations, media launches and releases and audiotape presentations.

Currently, her research interests comprise tick-induced allergies (both mammalian meat and tick induced anaphylaxis), new treatments for, and causes of, hayfever, egg allergy management in children and adrenalin autoinjector use in anaphylaxis, whilst being a member of the Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy’s Working Parties on Anaphylaxis and Insect Allergy.