SNOW MEDICAL - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Associate Director, Policy and Operations
As Associate Director, Policy and Operations, Ann-Marie Heinrich is responsible for policy and overseeing Snow Medical's operations. Ann-Marie has been instrumental in developing and implementing Snow Medical's key gender equality initiatives. She has a background in research strategy, policy, IP, governance, business development and commercial research/consultancy operations. Previously, Ann-Marie has held positions in legal and business affairs at some of the world's leading media organisations, including the BBC, Foxtel and Ingenious.
Job Titles:
- in 2019 As a Project Manager
Brian Murphy joined Snow Medical in 2019 as a Project Manager and has responsibilities covering communications, events, grants management system oversight, and provides support to both our board and Scientific Review & Advisory Committee. Prior to Snow Medical, Brian gained experience supporting senior executives and project roles across federal and state government departments, NGO, and education sectors, including Australia's Marriage Equality campaign and the Australia Council for the Arts (now Creative Australia).
Job Titles:
- in 2023 As a Project Manager
Christopher joined Snow Medical in 2023 as a Project Manager and has responsibilities in managing the Transformation Fund projects. He is an experienced public policy and project manager with over 16 years' experience in the NSW public sector. He has a strong record of delivery of innovative, evidence-based policies and projects across several portfolios, including science and medical research, innovation, trade and investment, economic development, regional development, and sport. Shaped by a background in a family small business, he has a Bachelor of Business (Honours) degree from Western Sydney University.
Derek Van Dyk is Director, Strategy at Snow Medical. Since 2019 Derek and the Snow Medical Team have worked with Tom Snow and the Snow family to establish the initial strategy and direction of the Snow Medical Research Foundation. Derek has a commercial research background in biotechnology coupled with science and innovation policy experience in Government and university sectors. He completed his PhD at UNSW in biopharmaceutical production and proteomics.
Job Titles:
- Doctor
- Group Leader at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
- Group Leader Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
Dr Melanie Eckersley-Maslin is a group leader at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and research fellow in the Department of Anatomy and Physiology at the University of Melbourne.
Melanie studied Advanced Sciences with honours at the University of Sydney where she received the university medal before completing her PhD in molecular biology at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory's School of Biological Sciences in New York, USA with Prof David Spector. In 2014, she moved to the Babraham Institute, Cambridge UK to work with Prof Wolf Reik as a postdoctoral research fellow supported by an EMBO Fellowship, Marie Curie Independent Fellowship and a UK government Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council Discovery Grant. Her postdoctoral research focused on the epigenetic control of early embryonic cell fate transitions including zygotic genome activation and gastrulation. This led to the discovery of new control factors that are important in early embryonic development.
Melanie is applying her previous research in embryonic development in the USA and UK, and her discovery of factors that control embryonic development, to understand cancer progression. Her research explores how cell identity and function is established in embryos and how these processes are deregulated in cancers, with the ultimate aim to identify new prognostic markers and therapeutic targets.
In 2020, Melanie was awarded the prestigious 2020 Metcalf prize for Stem Cell Research by the National Stem Cell Foundation reflecting her upcoming leadership in the field. In 2021, she returned to Australia as a group leader at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre investigating the concepts of epigenetic plasticity in development and cancer using stem cell and cancer models and single-cell and CRISPR-based technologies.
Dr Gavin Knott is a Laboratory Head in the Biomedicine Discovery Institute and Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Monash University. Gavin has a long-standing interest in RNA. At Monash, his research program is focused on harnessing nature's toolbox to discover innovative solutions that empower RNA biomedicine.
Gavin completed a Bachelor of Science with first-class Honours in Biochemistry at the University of Western Australia where he received the Faculty of Life of Physical Sciences Medal. With a prestigious Hackett postgraduate scholarship, he completed a Ph.D. at the University of Western Australia under the supervision of Prof. Charlie Bond and A/Prof. Archa Fox. In 2016, Gavin relocated to the University of California, Berkeley to work with Nobel Laureate Prof. Jennifer Doudna as a postdoctoral research fellow supported by an American Australian Association Fellowship. During a prolific 5-year postdoctoral fellowship, he made fundamental contributions to the understanding of CRISPR tools that are now used for RNA detection, DNA editing, and the control of gene editors. His work has been recognized with the Australian Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Boomerang Award and the Robin Anders Young Investigator Award in 2019.
In 2021, Gavin was awarded an NHMRC Early Leadership Investigator Grant and returned to Australia to establish the Nucleic Acid Sensors lab in the Biomedicine Discovery Institute at Monash University. With the critically enabling support of a Snow Fellowship, Gavin and his team are working to uncover the next generation of innovative molecular tools to power the global RNA biomedicine revolution.
Job Titles:
- Doctor
- S Work
- Snow Fellow
- Working Group Head of Cellular Responses to Disease and Vaccination at Burnet Institute
As a Snow Fellow, Dr Boyle will aim to transform our understanding of immune development to malaria by using best unique human samples and cutting-edge technologies. Malaria is a parasitic disease which remains one of the biggest killers in children under five years of age globally. In areas of high malaria transmission, disease also drives social and economic hardships. Part of the difficulty in malaria control is the lack of an effective vaccine for children. Dr Boyle's research will shed light on how immunity to malaria develops and is disrupted in children who are infected with malaria. Using new tools to study the human immune system, Dr Boyle's team will then identify and test drugs that can be used to improve protection. Immune boosting therapeutics may have application to other intractable infections and in vulnerable communities such as the elderly.
Dr Boyle completed her PhD in 2012 (University of Melbourne) and received the Victorian Premier's Award for Health and Medical Research, Commended Award (2013). From 2013-2015, she was an NHMRC CJ Martin Early Career Fellow at University of California, San Francisco. Returning to Australia, Dr Boyle developed an independent program focused on
cellular mechanisms driving human immunity to malaria. She was awarded the AIPS Young Tall Poppy Science Award (2016) and was recruited to QIMR-Berghofer in 2018 as an EMBL-Australia Group Leader. Her current research at Burnet Institute is supported by a CSL Centenary Fellowship.
Dr Boyle has a focus on improving equity and diversity in research and will continue to focus on training research scientists from underrepresented groups including women, and researchers from malaria endemic areas.
Dr Boyle's research aims to develop vaccines and therapeutics for malaria through novel insights in human immunity. Her research has made fundamental discoveries of specific types and functions of antibodies that protect from malaria, and the CD4 T cells that drive protective responses. To translate these findings, she is currently leading a human malaria infection clinical trial to investigate if host directed therapy can boost immune development.
With the Snow Medical Fellowship, Dr Boyle will accelerate her research program by directly investigating the human immune response within secondary lymphoid tissues within the body where immunity develops. With a team of national and international collaborators, she will study the development of malaria immunity in tonsils and spleens collected from children and adults with malaria. These unique clinical samples will allow Dr Boyle and her team to dissect the immune response directly in human malaria infection for the first time. To take this research to the mechanistic level, Dr Boyle will use a laboratory based germinal centre system using human cells and use this system to identify and test therapeutics that can boost the immune response.
Findings for this research will have broad implications for other chronic infections where protective immune development is compromised, and in populations such as the elderly and immune compromised individuals who have sub-optimal immune responses.
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- CEO the Snow Foundation and Terry Snow AM, Chair and Founder the Snow Foundation
Geo rgina was appointed CEO of the Snow Foundation in 2006 and has br oadened the reach and impact of the Foundation fr om the Canbe rr a region to include la rge social change pr ojects, including the Ma rr iage Equality campaign and eliminating Rheumatic Hea rt Disease and scabies in Indigenous communities, th rough on-the-gr ound, community-led action and education as well as political advocacy.
Geo rgina is passionate about cr eating social change to imp rove the lives of Aust ralians, especially women and gi rls and Fi rst Aust ralians. She is a di recto r of Good360 Aust ralia, Sydney Community Foundation and Chai r of Philanth ropy Aust ralia's Family Foundation Netwo rk, and the Sydney Women's Community Fund Adviso ry Council. She has also se rved as a di recto r fo r the Aust ralian Women Dono rs Netwo rk, and Hands Ac ross Canbe rr a Community Foundation. Collabo ration is cent ral to the Foundation and Geo rgina has led seve ral co-funding initiatives and br ought innovative pr og rams to the ACT.
Befo re he r roles in philanth ropy, Geo rgina had 13 yea rs in the co rpo rate secto r holding senio r executive positions in David Jones and AMP. She is a gr aduate of the Aust ralian Institute of Company Di recto rs, and holds a Bachelo r of Business Deg ree and a Gr aduate Diploma in Applied Finance & Investment. Geo rgina lives in Sydney with he r husband and fou r daughte rs.
Ginette Snow is a driving force behind the establishment of Snow Medical, and is on the Scientific Review and Advisory Committee. A former pharmacist, Ginette worked at Canberra Hospital for 11 years during which time she completed a Bachelor of Science at the Australian National University. She is also director of The Snow Foundation and an accomplished photographer and author of three books which include many of her own photos: Where did we come from? A Family History: Condon, Snow and Byron; Canberra Airport: A Pictorial History; and Two Dads, written for her 14 grandchildren as a memento of how the babies of son Tom Snow and his husband Brooke ‘were made'. Ginette is a keen campaigner for gay and lesbian rights and marriage equality.
Ginette has had photographic exhibitions in Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane. As official photographer of Canberra Airport, Ginette has documented the transformation of the airport since 1998 when the Snow family acquired it from the Commonwealth. Ginette divides her time between Canberra, Sydney and their property at Willinga Park on the NSW South Coast. She and Terry have been married for more than 40 years.
Gordon Wallace, an esteemed innovator and educator is a scientist at the forefront of health technologies, where medical devices complement the body's own systems to treat disease and repair injuries. An example of this is the ‘Biopen', used by surgeons to directly print healing cells into a patient's body during procedures, like knee surgery. With research interests in organic conductors, nanomaterials and electrochemical probe methods of analysis in intelligent polymer systems, his extensive scientific contributions have broken new ground in every aspect of electromaterials research; academic performance and outcomes, training the next generation of researchers, and facilities development.
These contributions to the enhancement of Australian materials research has led to a number of high accolades for Gordon including being awarded an ARC Laureate Fellowship (2011) and the Eureka prize for leadership in Innovation and Science (2016), being named NSW Scientist of the Year (2017), and appointed an Officer in the General Division of the Order of Australia (2017). Professor Wallace is Director of UOW's Intelligent Polymer Research Institute; Director of the Australian National Fabrication Facility - Materials Node and Director of the Translational Research Initiative for Cellular Engineering and Printing.
Job Titles:
- Group Leader of the Cardiac Bioengineering Group at QIMR Berghofer
- Professor
Professor James Hudson is Group Leader of the Cardiac Bioengineering Group at QIMR Berghofer. His research focuses on the development of human cardiac organoids that provide a representation of human heart tissue in a dish. This has led to the discovery of biological processes regulating cardiac biology and new therapeutic candidates.
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. The $8-million Snow Medical grant will fund Professor Hudson's research to speed up drug development pipelines by providing a publicly available model of the heart and new therapeutic targets to treat cardiovascular disease.
Professor Hudson will investigate different signaling pathways to build a computer model of the heart so that researchers can better understand how the heart works. This computer model will accelerate research by being able to do experiments in the computer and predicting the best therapeutic targets, rather than using normal models on animals which can take years. Using these approaches, Professor Hudson hopes to find new ways to improve heart function.
Professor Hudson graduated from The University of Queensland with a PhD in Biotechnology. He completed his postdoctoral training under the guidance of Professor Wolfram-Hubertus Zimmermann, one of the most prominent cardiac tissue engineering researchers. In his spare time, he is a keen surfer and enjoys spending his weekends fishing and camping.
Sca rlett is an expe rienced Speech Pathologist and has been wo rking with child ren with disabilities and complex communication needs fo r ove r ten yea rs. She has he r own pr actice in Canbe rr a and focusses on pr oviding ea rly inte rvention fo r child ren and language suppo rt fo r adults with disabilities.
She holds a Maste rs of Speech Language Pathology (Honou rs) fr om Sydney Unive rsity and a Bachelo r of Comme rce fr om Macqua rie Unive rsity, and spent time in Ghana, Af rica wo rking as a Speech Pathologist in community settings. Pr io r to qualifying as a Speech Pathologist, Sca rlett wo rked in consume r resea rch running qualitative and quantitative resea rch and coo rdinating communication campaigns.
Sca rlett is passionate about pr oviding evidence-based the rapy that is pr actical and family focused and lives in Canbe rr a with he r husband and th ree child ren. In addition to he r responsibilities with The Snow Foundation Boa rd, she sits on the Foundation's Small and Medium Gr ants Committee and ove rsees the assessment of all individual gr ant applications.
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer of Canberra Airport
Stephen Byron is Chief Executive Officer of Canberra Airport and the Capital Airport Group. Stephen has led the 21-year transformation of the Canberra Airport precinct with a focus on excellent customer experience and sustainable design. He oversaw the addition of $2 billion in airport infrastructure, a new terminal, a retail precinct and three business parks which now cater to more than 10,000 people working for government departments and private enterprise tenants. Stephen also managed the Snow family's expansion into real estate development at Denman Prospect, a new Canberra residential suburb and Constitution Place, an urban commercial precinct in the Canberra CBD.
Stephen grew up in Canberra and is now Chair of the Canberra Grammar Board and a member of the Council of the National Museum of Australia.
Professor Stephen Simpson AC is Academic Director of the Charles Perkins Centre, and a Professor in the School of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Sydney, and Executive Director of Obesity Australia.
Stephen was born in Melbourne. After completing his undergraduate degree at the University of Queensland, he undertook his PhD at the University of London. He spent 22 years at the University of Oxford, first in Experimental Psychology, then in the Department of Zoology and the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, before returning to Australia in 2005 as an ARC Federation Fellow.
In 2013 Stephen was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London as "one of the world's foremost entomologists and nutritional biologists", and in 2015 he was made a Companion of the Order of Australia "for eminent service to biological and biomedical science."
Professor Suzanne Cory is one of Australia's most distinguished molecular biologists. After graduating in biochemistry from The University of Melbourne, she undertook her PhD in Cambridge and postdoctoral studies in Geneva before returning to Melbourne in 1971, to a research position at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research.
She was Director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute and Professor of Medical Biology of the University of Melbourne from 1996 to 2009. She is currently Honorary Distinguished Professorial Fellow in the Division of Molecular Genetics of Cancer of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute. Professor Cory was President of the Australian Academy of Science from 2010 to 2014.
Professor Cory's research has had a major impact in the fields of immunology and cancer and her scientific achievements have attracted numerous honours and awards. She is an elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and the Royal Society and a Foreign Member of the US National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the French Academy of Sciences, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Japan Academy. In 1999 she was appointed Companion in the General Division of the Order of Australia and in 2009 was awarded the French decoration of Chevalier de I'Ordre de Ia Legion d'Honneur.
Job Titles:
- CEO the Snow Foundation and Terry Snow AM, Chair and Founder the Snow Foundation
Te rr y Snow is Executive Chai rman of Canbe rr a Ai rpo rt as well as owne r of Willinga Pa rk. In 2006, Te rr y was awa rded an Or de r of Aust ralia fo r his cont ribution to the city of Canbe rr a, as well as fo r his cha ritable wo rk th rough the Snow Foundation. In Octobe r 2009 Te rr y was announced as the inaugu ral recipient of the Canbe rr a Business Council's Chai rman's Awa rd fo r his significant individual cont ribution to the economic development of Canbe rr a and the capital region.
Tom Snow is Chai r of the Snow Medical boa rd and was a founde r and Co-Chai r of the Equality Campaign, which led and won the successful YES postal plebiscite on ma rr iage equality. He is a Rhodes Schola r, with a Maste rs in Economics, Bachelo r of Science and Bachelo r of Economics (Actua rial Studies).
He is a founde r of Whitehelm Capital, one of the wo rld's la rgest independent inf rast ructu re manage rs with $6 billion in assets unde r management. As a Fellow of the Aust ralian Institute of Company Di recto rs, he has had roles including di recto r of Pe rth Ai rpo rt, Canbe rr a Ai rpo rt, Bankstown Ai rpo rt, Po rt of Adelaide / Flinde rs Po rts, Etihad Stadium, Peninsula Link, Inte rnational Pa rking Gr oup and Whitehelm Capital. Tom Snow was bo rn and raised in Canbe rr a and has se rved as chai r of the Canbe rr a Convention Bu reau, chai r of Equality Aust ralia, di recto r of the Aust ralian Science Festival and di recto r of the Rhodes Schola rships in Aust ralia. He is also a pr oud fathe r of th ree kids.