Governance

Professor John Bertram (Co-chair)

Professor Bertram is the Head of Department Anatomy and Cell Biology and chair of the HSLri Steering Committee since its establishment in 2004.

Professor Bertram’s research focuses on the issue of nephron number, both its determination during kidney development and the consequences of low nephron number (underendowment) in adulthood. The number of nephrons in normal human kidneys ranges from approximately 300,000 to more than one million. No new nephrons are formed after birth. An increasing amount of evidence suggests that low nephron number (endowment) is associated with increased risk of developing hypertension and cardiovascular disease. Low nephron number may also explain in part the epidemic levels of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in some indigenous populations, including the Australian Aborigines. We conduct research on the molecular regulation of nephron development during embryogenesis and also examine the consequences of reduced nephron endowment in adulthood (hypertension and renal disease in indigenous populations).

Professor Euan Wallace (Co-chair)

Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Professor Wallace MBChB, MD, FRCOG, FRANZCOG, Clinical Director, Centre for Women's Health Research graduated in Medicine from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, where he completed his research and clinical training before joining Monash University in 1996. He has established and leads a Maternal-Fetal Medicine Research Group within MIMR’s Centre for Women’s Health Research.

The research interests of the Maternal-Fetal Medicine group focus on basic and clinical aspects of pregnancy. The team has an international reputation for its Down Syndrome screening program, the role of inhibins and activins in pregnancy, infections in pregnancy and early pregnancy events.

Professor Wallace is also Director of Obstetric Services at Southern Health, leading the development of these services at Monash Medical Centre, Dandenong Hospital and Casey Hospital, Berwick. He has particular clinical interests in high risk pregnancies, including recurrent miscarriage, multiple pregnancy, hypertension and endocrine disease in pregnancy. He heads the RANZCOG Intrapartum Fetal Surveillance Education Program, a national education program for doctors and midwives. He is also involved in a range of other professional education activities, both locally and nationally

Professor Richard Harding

Prof Richard Harding obtained his undergraduate training in the University of Melbourne followed by a masters degree at the Howard Florey Institute, Melbourne. He undertook his PhD at Edinburgh University in neuroscience and later embarked on a 5 year postdoctoral appointment in developmental physiology at the Nuffield Institute for Medical Research, Oxford, UK. For the last 10 years he has headed the Fetal and Neonatal Research Group at Monash University, Melbourne, a group that has made many significant and fundamental contributions to our understanding of the physiological and pathophysiological development of the fetus and newborn. For these contributions he was awarded the degree of DSc by Monash University in 1995. The major focus of his research group is the control of lung development and respiratory function in the fetus and neonate; his group is also involved in research on the causation and prevention of fetal brain injury. A central long-term objective of his research group is to determine the mechanisms by which prenatal compromises alter the development and later function of key fetal organ systems affecting postnatal health, and to identify potential preventative or ameliorative strategies. In particular he is interested in the causes and prevention of early developmental programming of respiratory illnesses. Prof Harding has edited a number of books on developmental physiology and is a consulting editor for Pediatric Research. He was the 2004 winner of the Monash University Vice-Chancellor’s award for excellence in postgraduate supervision and has recently been awarded a 5 year Program Grant by the NH&MRC (Australia).

Dr Rosemary Horne

Associate Professor Rosemary Horne is Scientific Director of the Ritchie Centre for Baby Health Research. Her area of research is paediatric cardiorespiratory physiology during sleep. She is recognized internationally for her work on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), which has bee focused on the physiological effects of the major risk factors for SIDS that have been identified by epidemiological studies, and by cardiorespiratory recordings of SIDS deaths. She is currently CIA on two large collaborative studies investigating the effects of sleep disordered breathing in children on cardiovascular control during sleep and neurocognitive outcomes. A/Prof Horne is Chair of the Physiology Working Party of the Global Strategy Task Force on SIDS, on the executive boards of the International Society for the Prevention of Infant Deaths and the World Federation of Sleep Research and Sleep Medicine Societies.

Professor Graham Jenkin

Professor Graham Jenkin is Deputy Director of Monash Immunology and Stem Cell Laboratories, Monash University. Professor Jenkin’s research has led to important observations on the development and control of ovarian function, early embryonic development and the restoration of fertility in women. He has a major research interest in the maintenance of fetal well being, particularly in pregnancies subject to intra uterine growth restriction and/or infection, and the prevention of premature labour. Recent research involves the use of fetal models to study stem cell engraftment and differentiation. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Biology.

Dr Ian Smyth 

Dr Smyth completed his PhD at the University of Queensland in 1999, contributing to the identification of the PATCHED gene as a gatekeeper in the development of basal cell carcinomas of the skin.  He then undertook postdoctoral studies with Prof Ian Jackson at the MRC HGU in Edinburgh as a Wellcome Trust Travelling Research Fellow, undertaking recessive ENU mutagenesis screens in the mouse which included his temporary secondment to the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.  He was then awarded a London Research Institute Fellowship with Prof Fiona Watt at Cancer Research UK (London) to study the Fras/Frem basement membrane proteins and their role in embryonic skin development. During this period he was jointly appointed as an Honorary Research Fellow of the Institute of Child Health (London), pursuing collaborative studies with Prof Peter Scambler. In 2006 he returned to Australia as a NHMRC R Douglas Wright and Monash (Logan) Fellow and established his laboratory as a joint appointment between the Departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Anatomy and Developmental Biology. Extending his work on cutaneous embryology he has recently studied models of a severe skin disease, Harlequin Ichthyosis. Dr Smyth has been extensively involved in ENU based forward genetic mouse screens and has consulted with the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute on the application of screens for cutaneous disease in knockout mouse models. His laboratory is interested in modelling developmental cutaneous diseases and identifying novel factors important for the development of our largest organ, the skin.

Professor Bruce Tonge

Deputy Head, School of Psychiatry, Psychology and Psychological Medicine; Head, Discipline of Psychological Medicine, School of Psychiatry Psychology & Psychological Medicine; Director, Clinical & Professional Services Division, School of Psychology Psychiatry & Psychological Medicine; Professor and Head, Monash University Centre for Developmental Psychiatry and Psychology. He is also Clinical Advisor of the Mental Health Program of the Southern Health at Monash Medical Centre in Melbourne, Australia. He has a distinguished record of teaching and research in child psychiatry. He established and directs the internationally recognised Monash University Centre for Developmental Psychiatry and Psychology. He has research and teaching interests in the area of developmental psychiatry with a particular focus in the areas of Autism Spectrum Disorders and behavioural and emotional disturbance in children and adolescents with intellectual disability and treatment outcome studies in childhood anxiety and depressive disorders. Relevant publications over the past 10 years include: 23 books/book chapters; 137 papers; 5 videos; 5 manuals and 31 invited addresses. He is editor of the Handbook of Studies on Child Psychiatry (Elsevier) and co-author of the Developmental Behaviour Checklist, an instrument which assesses behavioural and emotional problems in children and adolescents with intellectual disability. This instrument is widely used in clinical and research settings in both Australia and internationally.

Associate Professor David Walker

David W Walker received his PhD in 1978 from Monash University for research into the development of the autonomic innervation of the human fetal heart. He then worked for 8 years as a postdoctoral fellow at the Nuffield Institute for Medical Research at Oxford University, studying fetal development, firstly in relation to development of the adrenosympathetic system, and then on development of CNS pathways involved in the regulation of breathing movements and the onset of sleep/wake behavioural states. Returning to Monash University in 1982, he established his own fetal/neonatal physiology research group, continuing research into development of the brain of fetal sheep, and more recently into the mechanisms involved in causing hypoxia- and infection-related brain damage in late gestation. His group is now involved with evaluating treatments that might protect the fetal brain from damage during pregnancy, and which could be applied to human patients. He was awarded a D.Sc degree by Monash University in 2001.

Dr Lisa Hutton (Project Manager)

Dr Hutton works as a project manager with Prof Ian Smith in the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences Research Office at Monash University. She is involved in the organization and governance of a number of Monash University Research Networks and Initiatives, namely; the Healthy Start to Life Network, the Neuroscience and Mental Health Network, Monash Sleep Network, and the Monash Obesity Research Initiative. Lisa also represents Monash University in a number of state wide organisations, including the Victorian Obesity Consortium and the Australian Neuroscience Society. Lisa was awarded her PhD in 2006, under the supervision of David W Walker, in the Department of Physiology, Monash University. Her PhD examined the role of placental infection in brain injury of the fetus. Following completion of her PhD, Lisa continued to work in the Walker laboratory, focusing on the role of hypoxia in brain damage of the fetus and neonate in the precocial species, the Spiny mouse. Lisa established behavioural and functional testing methods for use in this unique species.