NATIONAL STEM CELL FOUNDATION OF AUSTRALIA - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Children 's Medical Research Institute
Dr Ashley Ng is revealing how blood stem cells are controlled, and how they sometime go rogue, leading to blood cancers. He has discovered how a protein known as ‘ERG' underpins healthy development of blood cells, and how it also plays a role in Down syndrome-associated leukaemia and a range of other blood cancers.
Independent Non-Executive Director and Chairman of the Company, appointed 17 August 2011, and Member of the Finance, Audit and Risk Management Committee. Dr Blackman is a former Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the Victorian College of Pharmacy and a former director of IDT Australia Ltd, an Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) listed public company operating in the pharmaceutical industry. He was a director of the Australian Stem Cell Centre. He has been a member of various Commonwealth and State advisory committees and working groups in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, including the Australian Biotechnology Advisory Council, the Pharmaceutical Industry Working Group and the Pharmaceutical Industry Strategy Group. He chaired the Australian Government's Pharmaceuticals Industry Action Agenda, which developed a policy framework for the industry over a ten year period. (show less)
Independent Non-Executive Director and Chairman of the Company, appointed 17 August 2011, and Member of the Finance, Audit and Risk Management Committee. Dr Blackman is ...
Job Titles:
- Non - Executive Director
- Assoc Professor
- Director of the BMDI Cord Blood Bank
- Vice President of the International Board of Directors for the Foundation
Dr Ngaire Elwood is the Director of the BMDI Cord Blood Bank and Head of the Cord Blood Stem Cell Research Laboratory at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute in Melbourne.
Dr Elwood has extensive experience in the field of stem cells, cellular therapy, cancer and cord blood. Her current research is aimed at understanding cord blood stem cell biology, improving cord blood transplant outcome and exploring the use of cord blood for regenerative therapies.
Dr Elwood serves as Vice President of the international Board of Directors for the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT) and sits on various executive committees within FACT. She is the Regional Vice President (2018 - 2020) for the Australia New Zealand Region of the International Society for Cellular Therapy (ISCT). Previous roles include the Chair of the AusCord network of public cord blood banks and as member on the Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry National Ethics Committee.
Job Titles:
- Co - Director of the New Melbourne Children 's Centre for Cardiovascular Genomics
- Murdoch Children 's Research Institute, University of Melbourne Newborn Babies Offer Clues for Healing Hearts
For a few short days after birth, the heart can regenerate damaged tissue. Enzo Porrello wants to understand why this ability turns off, so that he and colleagues can switch it back on to heal broken hearts.
In recognition of his leadership in stem cell research, Enzo Porrello has received one of two $50,000 Metcalf Prizes from the National Stem Cell Foundation of Australia.
Enzo Porrello has had an interest in science and medicine for as long as he can remember, but he feels a personal connection to heart health.
Enzo is also co-director of the new Melbourne Children's Centre for Cardiovascular Genomics and Regenerative Medicine (CardioRegen) at MCRI.
Geoff Lindeman, a clinician-scientist, is Joint Head of the Cancer Biology and Stem Cells Division at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (NHMRC Leadership Fellow) and a medical oncologist (breast cancer) at the Peter Ma cCallum Cancer Centre and Royal Melbourne Hospital. He holds an honorary appointment as Professorial Fellow in the Department of Medicine, Royal Melbourne Hospital, University of Melbourne. He leads the Centre for Translational Breast Cancer Research (TransBCR), enabled by a NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence grant. His laboratory is studying molecular and cellular regulators of normal mammary gland development and events that go awry that lead to breast cancer. His team identified breast stem cells and has contributed influential discoveries into how stem cells and their descendants are regulated by female hormones and ‘master regulators' of cell fate. The discovery of the culprit cell that gives rise to breast cancer in women with a faulty BRCA1 gene has led to an international breast cancer prevention study, BRCA-P, currently underway. His group has also generated patient derived xenograft (PDX) models that are being used in ‘proof-of-principle' pre-clinical studies, to study promising drugs. Several of these have been further investigated in early phase clinical trials for patients with relapsed breast cancer. He has been elected as Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences. (show less)
Geoff Lindeman, a clinician-scientist, is Joint Head of the Cancer Biology and Stem Cells Division at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (NHMRC Leadership Fellow) and ...
In 2013 we funded Kathryn Davidson to return from Seattle, USA to Melbourne, bringing her cell reprogramming skills to the Centre for Eye Research Australia. There she turned skin cells into stem cells, and then into eye cells in order to study eye diseases, such as aged-related macular degeneration. Kathryn is now based at the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute where she is working towards engineering stem cell therapies to treat stroke.
Professor Megan Munsie is an internationally recognised biologist who has made a significant contribution to policy development and community engagement in stem cell science and regenerative medicine at a domestic and global level. She holds positions at the University of Melbourne's School of Biomedical Sciences and the Melbourne Medical School.
Professor Munsie serves on advisory committees to national and international scientific organisations and is the Chair of Ethics Committee for the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) and is the Vice-President of the Australasian Society for Stem Cell Research. She was awarded the 2018 Public Service Award from ISSCR in recognition of her contribution to public outreach and policy advocacy in stem cell science.
Job Titles:
- Independent Non - Executive Director and Member of the Finance, Audit
Independent Non-Executive Director and Member of the Finance, Audit and Risk Management Committee appointed 16 December 2011. Mr Collins is a partner in an accountancy and consultancy firm and has previously held senior executive positions in companies in Europe and the UK within the media industry. Mr Collins was Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Stem Cell Centre from September 2009 until November 2011. (show less)
Independent Non-Executive Director and Member of the Finance, Audit and Risk Management Committee appointed 16 December 2011. Mr Collins is a partner in an accountancy a...
Mr Graeme Mehegan was appointed Company Secretary 8 November 2011 and appointed General Manager on 1 March 2019. He is a Member of the Finance, Audit and Risk Management and Science and Ethics Committees. Mr Mehegan was Chief Financial Officer for the Australian Stem Cell Centre from August 2009 until November 2011. He was Chief Financial and Operations Officer and Company Secretary for Pioneer Electronics Australia from January 2001 until March 2008 and prior to that held senior roles in the book publishing industry over twenty years including the positions of Director, Company Secretary, Business Manager and Financial Controller with Random House Australia and Financial Controller and Company Secretary with Pitman Publishing Australia. (show less)
Mr Graeme Mehegan was appointed Company Secretary 8 November 2011 and appointed General Manager on 1 March 2019. He is a Member of the Finance, Audit and Risk Management...
Independent Non-Executive Director and Chairman of the Finance, Audit and Risk Management Committee appointed 17 August 2011. Mr Gooley had a 42 year period in the accounting profession with Arthur Andersen and Ernst &Young, and retired from public practice in 2008. During his career he was the Australian head of Andersen's Accounting and Audit practice and the Asia Pacific Risk Management Practice Director. Mr Gooley was the Victorian State President of CPA Australia in 1994, and served on the Australian Auditing and Assurance Standards Board and the International Auditing Practices Committee. Outside of the accounting profession he has served on the board of two educational institutions, and is currently a director of Lahaina Holdings Pty Ltd, Tai Tam Investments Pty Ltd, Wilson Transformer Company and Mornington Yacht Club. He was a director of the Australian Stem Cell Centre. (show less)
Independent Non-Executive Director and Chairman of the Finance, Audit and Risk Management Committee appointed 17 August 2011. Mr Gooley had a 42 year period in the accou...
Job Titles:
- QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute and Royal Brisbane and Women 's Hospital