NRP's Current Chief Investigators
The NRP involves collaboration between neuroscientists from the University of Western Australia (UWA), Royal Perth and Sir Charles Gairdner Hospitals and WAIMR, dedicated to contributing to the global effort to prevent nerve damage and achieve central nervous system regeneration and repair. Many of these scientists are recognised and respected world-wide for their experience and expertise in their respective fields of study, which include anatomy, neuropathology, biochemistry, zoology, molecular biology and neurosurgery.
Professor Alan Harvey
Professor Alan Harvey began his scientific career at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. Years later, he completed his PhD in visual neurophysiology at the Australian National University, Canberra. After spending time in the USA and at Flinders University in Adelaide, he came to The University of Western Australia (UWA) in 1984.
Promoted to Professor in 2001, Alan Harvey continues to be based at UWA's School of Anatomy & Human Biology. He is Chair of the UWA Neuroscience Discipline Panel and a Board Member of both the Neurological Council of WA and WA Neurosciences (WANS). Professor Harvey is a member of the Editorial Board for several Medical Journals and is also an ad-hoc reviewer for many journals and research grants.
He is one of the world's leading scientists in the field of neural regeneration, focusing in particular on the spinal cord and the visual system. Professor Harvey's current work with the NRP involves examining the role of olfactory ensheathing glia in the central nervous system (in collaboration with Dr Giles Plant, UWA), developing gene therapy techniques to promote regeneration after neurotrauma (in collaboration with Professor Don Robertson and Dr Kathryn Heel, UWA) and testing whether current methods used to facilitate new neural connections end up disrupting the accuracy of the circuits being formed (in collaboration with Dr Rachel Sherrard, UWA).
Dr Giles Plant
Dr Giles Plant completed his PhD at The University of Western Australia (UWA). He travelled to the United States in 1996 to join the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, where he was among the first of two groups to transplant adult olfactory ensheathing glia (OEG) into the injured spinal cord.
Having returned to Perth in 1999, Dr Plant began working with Professor Alan Harvey, as well as other members of the NRP team, building on science's current understanding of OEG and Schwann cells, the use of gene therapy, bone marrow cell transplantation and other techniques, such as training, to promote regeneration and recovery following spinal cord injury.
Dr Plant has been a contributing member of the American Paralysis Association research consortium into spinal cord repair and in recent years has been involved with national and international efforts to optimise global cooperation and standardisation of protocols to ensure the safe and effective conduct of clinical trials in the field of spinal cord injury (for example, ASCIN - Australasian Spinal Cord Injury Network - and ICCP (International Campaign for Curing Paralysis).
For 2007-2008 Dr Plant has been awarded funding for two NRP projects. The first, in collaboration with Professor Alan Harvey, UWA, asks whether OEG are a myelinating cell within the central nervous system. The second, in collaboration with Dr Stuart Hodgetts, UWA, Dr Paul Simmons, Victoria, Dr Phil Horner and Dr Drew Sellers, Washington USA, investigates human stromal cell transplant therapy for spinal cord injury in rat.
Professor Sarah Dunlop
Professor Sarah Dunlop began her studies in London, completing a science degree at Kings College, followed by a PhD in Zoology at Queen Elizabeth College. She joined The University of Western Australia (UWA) in 1979, where she is based today, as a Professorial Fellow in the School of Animal Biology.
Professor Dunlop's study of development and regeneration of the visual system in various species has helped to pin point where the human nervous system fails in its attempts to recover function following injury. Comparisons can now be made between species that can successfully regenerate central nervous tissue to regain function following injury (such as fish), those that demonstrate some regeneration without functional recovery (lizard), and those that show minimal regeneration, including humans.
Professor Dunlop has worked extensively with Professor Lyn Beazley over the years to determine the mechanisms whereby injured nerve fibres are guided to their target tissue and re-establish functional connections. One of the factors found to be vitally important for functional recovery is regular training during the regeneration period, underlying the principal of 'use it or lose it'.
Professor Dunlop is currently working with Dr Lindy Fitzgerald, UWA, on an NRP project to examine the potential of a glaucoma drug to minimise secondary degeneration following neurotrauma.
She also heads a multi-disciplinary research team embarking on 'MAP' (the Move Again Program), focusing on clinical research into the effectiveness of exercise training protocols following spinal cord injury and, ultimately, other forms of neurotrauma. The MAP chief investigators are Professor Frank Mastaglia and A/Professor Gary Thickbroom, CNND, Dr John Ker and A/Professor John Buchanan, RPH, Professor Robert Grove, Dr Barby Singer, Professor David Lloyd, Dr Brendan Lay and Dr Liz Geelhoed, UWA, and Professor Peter Hamer, Notre Dame University, Australia.
Dr Paul Watt
Beginning his scientific career at The University of Western Australia (UWA), Dr Paul Watt went on to complete his PhD in Biochemistry (Molecular Biology) at the University Of Oxford. He was then awarded a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Harvard University, followed by two further Fellowships - one with the UK's Imperial Cancer Research Fund and the second at Linacre College, Oxford.
Dr Watt has changed fields several times, publishing consistently throughout his career. He is an inventor on multiple patent applications (including several granted US patents) and has embraced the importance of commercialising Australian biotechnology. He was the founder of the start-up venture InfaMed Ltd., which commercialised a drug delivery device he developed for asthmatic children. InfaMed was acquired by Visiomed Group Ltd, of which Dr Watt is a non-executive director. Approximately 10,000 Funhalers have been sold to distributors in Australia, regulatory approval has been received with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the device is now also CE-marked for sale into Europe.
Now based at the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research (ICHR), Dr Watt is an ICHR Honorary Research Fellow and an Adjunct Senior Lecturer at UWA. He has developed a new drug-screening platform, which has excited interest from several international biotechnology companies. The technology has been spun-off into the start-up venture Phylogica Ltd, of which he is Scientific Director. In recognition of his commercial achievements, Dr Watt was awarded the Curtin University Commendation prize at the 40-under-40 awards in 2003.
Dr Watt is now collaborating with Associate Professor Adrian West, University of Tasmania, Dr Bruno Meloni, CNND and Dr Nadia Milech, ICHR on an NRP project to identify Phylomer peptides that reduce secondary cell death following traumatic brain injury and stroke.
Dr Rachel Sherrard
Dr Sherrard began her science career in the field of Anatomy & Cell Biology at The University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom. She completed her PhD there in Developmental Neurobiology, before embarking on Medicine and practicing as a paediatrician, both in the UK and at the Royal Children's Hospital in Brisbane, Australia.
While based at the Queensland University of Technology, as a Lecturer in Anatomy & Physiology, Dr Sherrard she set up her own laboratory from scratch and began re-establishing her research career. She then lectured in Anatomy at James Cook University before moving to Perth, where she is now both a Senior Lecturer at the University of Notre Dame Australia and a Senior Research Fellow at The University of Western Australia (UWA), within the School of Anatomy and Human Biology.
Much of Dr Sherrard's research experience has been in studying factors involved in neuronal plasticity of the developing mammalian central nervous system and how they may be utilised to improve re-connectivity as a treatment for brain injury. At present she is interested in whether some current experimental treatments being used to stimulate new connections are doing so at the expense of the accuracy of these connections. Hence, Dr Sherrard is now collaborating with Professor Alan Harvey, UWA, to test whether virally-induced high growth factor expression disrupts the accuracy of the circuits it facilitates to re-form.
Dr Barbara Singer
Physiotherapist Dr Barbara Singer practiced in her home country, New Zealand, for three years before moving with her family to Perth jn 1984 and becoming a Senior Physiotherapist in the area of neurosurgery at QEII Medical Centre.
During her final year at QEII, Dr Singer completed a Graduate Diploma in Neuroscience. Deciding then to focus her energy on research aimed at improving outcomes following stroke and brain injury, she completed her Masters at Curtin University of Technology, followed by a PhD at The University of Western Australia (UWA). Dr Singer is now Programme Co-ordinator for the Graduate Diploma in Neurological Rehabilitation, within UWA's Centre for Musculoskeletal Studies.
Dr Singer has published research in a range of journals and been a NH&MRC and Physiotherapy Research Foundation grant reviewer since 1998. In recent years, her work has attracted significant funding, particularly from the Raine Medical Research Foundation and more recently the NRP.
She is currently involved in two NRP-funded clinical studies. The first, in collaboration with Professor Kevin Singer, UWA, and Dr John Dunne, RPH, will test the effect of a specific treatment regime on calf stiffness and spasticity after brain injury. Dr Singer is also a CI on the MAP (Move Again Program) headed by Professor Sarah Dunlop, UWA.
Associate Professor Gary Thickbroom
A/Professor Thickbroom began his career studying physics and mathematics at The University of Western Australia (UWA), before becoming interested in the human condition and completing his Masters and then a PhD in electrophysiological testing.
He became a Research Officer in the Departments of Biophysics and Neurology at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital (SCGH) and the Department of Medicine at UWA. A/Professor Thickbroom developed and applied visual, somatosensory and auditory evoked potential techniques to the study of neurological conditions. When the first CT scanner was installed in Perth, he was involved in analysis and quantitation of scans and later implemented single photon emission tomography of the brain. He was amongst the first in Australia to implement a quantitative EEG analysis system at SCGH.
By 1990, A/Professor Thickbroom was Head of the Brain Research Laboratory that he helped establish with Professor Frank Mastaglia at the Centre for Neuromuscular and Neurological Disorders (CNND) at UWA. He has consolidated an interest in clinical neuroscience and focussed his research efforts on the study of the physiology and pathophysiology of the motor system. He developed Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation mapping of the cortex and implemented functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) at SCGH. The fMRI technology has been used in neurosurgical planning and in a number of research projects.
Now an Associate Professor at UWA's Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry and Deputy Director of CNND, Gary Thickbroom's research interest is in brain testing and imaging and recent projects have looked at cortical representation, plasticity, reorganisation and recovery of function following injury/disease. He has just embarked on a new NRP clinical project with Dr Dylan Edwards and Professor Frank Mastaglia, CNND, testing the use of brain stimulation to help drive recovery after spinal cord injury and stroke.
Professor Stefan Schug
Having studied medicine at the University of Cologne, Germany, Professor Stefan Schug became an Anaesthetic Registrar and then a Specialist Anaesthetist and Co-Director of the Cancer Pain Management Centre/Pain Clinic in Cologne by 1988.
He travelled to NZ in 1991, taking on a post as a clinician and a Senior Lecturer at the University of Auckland. By 2000 he was promoted to a Professorship and Chair of Anaesthesiology at this University.
Professor Schug moved to Australia and is now Professor and Chair of Anaesthesia at the School of Medicine and Pharmacology, The University of Western Australia (UWA). He is also Director of Pain Medicine within Royal Perth Hospital's Department of Anaesthesia, and remains an Honorary Professor of Anaesthesiology at the University of Auckland.
Professor Schug is a Fellow of the Australian New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA) and of the Faculty of Pain Management of ANZCA. He also has membership with many other Professional Colleges, Faculties and Societies, as well as Academic, Research and Professional Committees and Industry Advisory Boards.
His main areas of research interest are pain (acute and chronic) and pain management, regional anaesthesia and analgesia. Professor Schug has in 2007 commenced an NRP clinical study looking at a holistic and multi-disciplinary approach to the treatment of pain for individuals following spinal cord injury, utilising a biopsychosocial model. His co-investigators are Patricia Ray, Dr Allyson Browne, Dr John Ker, Tracy Redwood, Nicky Fortescue and Dr Michelle Byrnes, RPH and UWA.
Associate Professor Jonathan Foster
Associate Professor Jonathan Foster completed his doctorate in Neuropsychology at the University of Oxford, where he held a Senior Scholarship. He then undertook further training in Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology at the Rotman Institute of Baycrest Centre at the University of Toronto, where he held a Royal Society/NATO International Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biological Sciences.
A/Professor Foster has worked across the academic, clinical and commercial sectors in North America, Europe and Australia. He is the only Clinical Neuropsychologist from WA to have been elected to the National Executive Committee of the College of Clinical Neuropsychology of the Australian Psychological Society. He has been nominated as Coordinator for Clinical Neuropsychology in the Health Department of WA (Neurosciences and Sense Clinical Network) and as the Chair of the WA Section of Clinical Neuropsychology of the Australian Psychological Society. He is a Senior Research Fellow in Cognitive Neuroscience at Edith Cowan University, an Adjunct Associate Professor of Neuropsychology at the University of Western Australia, an Honorary Research Fellow of the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research and an Honorary Research Associate at the Health Department of Western Australia's Neurosciences Unit.
In collaboration with Professor Ralph Martins, ECU, and Clinical Associate Professor Neville Knuckey, CNND, A/Professor Foster has recently undertaken an NRP clinical project looking at the role of 'APOE' as a modulator in recovery from traumatic brain injury.
Professor John Beca
Professor John Beca studied medicine in New Zealand and soon became a Paediatric Registrar at Auckland Hospital. He has continued to work with children, briefly in London, then in paediatric critical care units in Canada, Melbourne (where be became a Research Fellow, funded through the NH&MRC) and again, as an Intensivist, in Auckland.
Professor Beca is a member of the Society of Critical Care Medicine and the Australia New Zealand Intensive Care Society. He is currently Clinical Director of the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit at the Starship Children's Hospital in Auckland, and an Intensivist at Auckland City Hospital's Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit.
Professor Beca has commenced a new NRP clinical project in collaboration with Dr Simon Erickson, Staff Specialist at Princess Margaret Hospital's Intensive care Unit (and an Instructor at The University of Western Australia's Centre for Anaesthesia Skills and Medical Simulation) and Associate Professor Warwick Butt, Staff Specialist at the Intensive Care Units of the Royal Children's Hospital and The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne (and a Principal Fellow in Paediatrics at The University of Melbourne).
These investigators have been awarded funding to conduct a pilot study in preparation for a multi-centre clinical trial. This work assesses the efficacy of using early, prolonged hypothermia to treat children with traumatic brain injury. It is hoped that this intervention will improve recovery outcomes for children with severe brain injuries.
Associate Professor Jamie Cooper, Dr Geoff Dobb and Mr Paul Bannan
A/Professor Jamie Cooper is a physician, currently heading Trauma Intensive Care at The Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Melbourne. He is also a Clinical Associate Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Surgery at Monash University and an NHMRC Practitioner Fellow.
A/Professor Cooper is the Australian Chief Investigator heading a research team that was awarded a three-year NRP grant in 2004 for the Perth component of a multi-centre trial known as 'DECRA'. This trial looks at a surgical procedure that is sometimes used following head injury to decrease the brain pressure caused by severe swelling. The operation, referred to as decompressive craniectomy (DC), is performed during the early phase after injury and may improve neurological outcomes in patients.
The clinicians involved in the WA component of DECRA and Dr Geoff Dobb, a Senior Specialist in Intensive Care at Royal Perth Hospital and a Clinical Senior Lecturer in the Department of Medicine at The University of Western Australia, and Mr Paul Bannan, a neurosurgeon at Royal Perth Hospital. There are also many other clinical research staff associated with the trial in sites throughout Australia and New Zealand.
