STEERING COMMITEE* & SPEAKING FACULTY 

Dr Chantelle Ahlenstiel
Senior Research Fellow, Immunovirology & Pathogenesis Program
Postgraduate Coordinator 
Kirby Institute 
University of New South Wales
Sydney, NSW

Dr. Ahlenstiel is a Senior Research Fellow at the Kirby Institute, UNSW, where she leads the RNAi Silencing Group. Dr. Ahlenstiel completed postdoctoral training at the Vaccine Research Center, NIH, USA and then the Kirby Institute, UNSW Sydney. Her research group develops short interfering (si)RNA molecules to silence virus infections. Dr. Ahlenstiel is a senior member of the UNSW RNA Institute, which in collaboration with the NSW-Production and Research Network (NSW-RPRN) generates large scale siRNA for in vivo mouse studies. Dr. Ahlenstiel’s group has developed a novel RNA therapeutic design platform based on experience with HIV-1, and has applied the platform to develop RNA therapeutics targeting other acute and chronic virus infections, including SARS-coronavirus, EBV, HPV and HTLV-1.




Professor Ian Alexander
Professor in Paediatrics and Molecular Medicine, University of Sydney
Senior Staff Specialist, Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network
Head, Gene Therapy Research Unit, Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network and Children’s Medical Research Institute
Chief Medical Officer VVMF Pty Ltd
Sydney, NSW

Professor Alexander is a clinician–scientist whose career has been devoted to developing novel therapies for infants and children affected by devastating genetic diseases. Internationally recognised as a pioneer of gene therapy in Australia, he has made significant contributions across the entire translational pathway—from the basic science of viral vector–mediated gene transfer through to the initiation of globally significant paediatric clinical trials. His leadership extends to building internationally significant GMP biomanufacturing capacity for gene transfer vectors and addressing the challenges of health system readiness for this transformative class of therapeutics. Professor Alexander’s contributions have been recognised with election as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (2015), the National Health and Medical Research Council’s Marshall and Warren Award (2020), and the Research Australia Peter Wills Medal (2022).




Dr Paula Cevaal
Department of Infectious Diseases, The University of Melbourne
The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity
Melbourne, VIC

Dr Paula Cevaal is a post-doctoral scientist in the lab of Professor Sharon Lewin. She received her MSc training in The Netherlands, specialising in infectious diseases and immunology. She then spent a year doing youth advocacy work at AIDS2018, after which she completed a joint PhD in virology and nanomedicine. Her work focuses on developing non-viral vectors to efficiently deliver therapeutics to primary CD4+ T cells. Specifically, she led a new line of research pioneering lipid nanoparticles for the delivery of mRNA-based latency-reversing agents to the latent HIV reservoir. Her work pioneering nanoparticle delivery to T cells has received national and international funding that led to the acquisition of the first NanoAssemblr microfluidic mixing system for the formulation of mRNA-lipid nanoparticles within the University of Melbourne. She is a named inventor on two patent applications related to this work and was awarded the prestigious Young Investigator Award at the International AIDS Society meeting in 2023




Professor Anthony Cunningham AO*
Director, Centre for Virus Research, The Westmead Institute for Medical Research
Professor, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney
Sydney Institute for Infectious Diseases (Sydney ID)
Director, Australian Centre for HIV and Hepatitis Virology Research (ACH4)
NHMRC Leadership Fellow
Chair, NSW & ACT Branch, Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences
Sydney, NSW

Professor Anthony (Tony) Cunningham, AO, FAHMS, MD, FRACP, FRCPA is an infectious diseases physician, clinical virologist and scientist, well known internationally for his research on the immunology of HIV and herpesviruses, his work on vaccine development and trialling, especially for shingles and herpes, and as an antivirals expert. He has been a longstanding global consultant to GSK, Seqirus and Merck on vaccines in the ageing and for shingles and herpes.  At the end of 2019, Tony stepped down after 23 years as the founding director of WIMR and has continued his research as an NHMRC Leadership fellow. He has extended his HIV and herpesvirus research to COVID-19 vaccine development and trialling, funded by large state and national grants, and assuming other advisory positions to government and pharma in this field, including the state COVID-19 Vaccines Committee and biological manufacturing committees. He has published more than 440 papers, with ~25,000 citations and is one of the top cited herpes vaccinologists internationally.




Dr Lucy Deng
Senior Medical Officer
Clinical Lead
AusVaxSafety at NCIRS
Sydney, NSW

Lucy Deng is a Senior Medical Officer and Clinical Lead of AusVaxSafety at NCIRS, where she oversees a team to run a multi-component national vaccine safety surveillance program. Lucy completed a PhD in vaccine safety, specifically post-vaccination febrile seizures and she led long-term follow up of adverse events of special interest following COVID-19 vaccinations. 




Dr Mohamed Fareh
Senior Research Fellow
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
Melbourne, VIC

Dr. Mohamed Fareh is a Senior Research Fellow at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre with expertise in RNA biology, CRISPR, and quantitative single-molecule biophysics. He completed his Ph.D. in France (2012), where he investigated how non-coding RNAs regulate tumour heterogeneity, before undertaking postdoctoral training in the Netherlands (Chirlmin Joo Lab, TU Delft). There, he developed advanced single-molecule tools combining protein complex pulldown with multi-colour TIRF microscopy to dissect the dynamics of RNA interference and CRISPR systems with high spatiotemporal resolution. Since joining Peter Mac in 2018, Dr. Fareh has pioneered CRISPR-based technologies to target oncogenes and pathogenic viruses. His research focuses on three primary areas: (i) elucidating the molecular mechanisms of CRISPR enzymes at the nanoscale level, (ii) engineering innovative CRISPR tools for precise genome, epigenome, and transcriptome editing, and (iii) advancing CRISPR mRNA therapeutics and lipid nanoparticle delivery platforms. Recently, his team uncovered key design principles of CRISPR-Cas13 (Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, 2024), enabling precise silencing of single-nucleotide variants (Science Advances, 2024), oncogenic fusions (under review), and viral pathogens (Journal of Hepatology, 2024; Nature Communications, 2021).





Professor Archa Fox*
School of Human Sciences and School of Molecular Sciences  
University of Western Australia
Perth, WA

Archa Fox is Professor at the University of Western Australia, where she has been running a lab for 15 years. Archa is most well known for her discovery, during her post-doc, of RNA-seeded ‘paraspeckle’ nuclear bodies. Her research career has focused on paraspeckle structure and function in cancer and neurodegenerative disease, leading her into many sub-fields including long noncoding RNA biology, phase separation and RNA therapeutics. She is Chair of the RNA Network of Australia and was an elected Director of the Board for the International RNA Society (2020-21). She is a member of the Expert Advisory Group for the Department of Industry, Science and Resources RNA Sector Development Plan. She is on the Scientific Advisory Board for the UNSW RNA Institute, the NSW RNA Production and Research Network, the Shine Dalgarno Centre for RNA and the Victorian mRNA innovation hub. She co-chaired a Roundtable discussion hosted by the Australian Academy of Science on RNA Biotechnology and was given the emerging leader award of the Australian/NZ Society of Cell and Developmental Biology in 2017.




Dr Andrew Geall
Co-founder
Chief Development Officer
Replicate Bioscience, Inc
California, United States

Dr. Andrew Geall is a co-founder and Chief Development Officer at Replicate Bioscience, a clinical stage company advancing a pipeline of self-replicating RNA treatments in several therapeutic areas. In addition, he is Board Chair for the Alliance for mRNA Medicine (AMM), an organization dedicated to advancing and advocating for mRNA and next generation encoding RNA therapeutics and vaccines for the benefit of patients, public health, and society. He also sits on the scientific advisory board of Verve Therapeutics, a Boston-based biotech company developing single-course gene editing medicines to treat cardiovascular disease. Dr. Geall has over 20 years of professional experience in the development of drug delivery systems and is a pioneer in the fields of mRNA vaccines and nucleic acid delivery. He is an inventor on 41 patent families, with 505 applications and 203 issued patents in multiple jurisdictions. Prior to joining Replicate, he was Chief Scientific Officer at Precision NanoSystems (1 year), Vice President of Formulations, Analytics and Chemistry at Avidity Biosciences (5 years), the mRNA vaccines platform leader at Novartis Vaccines (7 years).




Dr Doug Hilton AO
CSIRO
Chief Executive
Perth, WA

Dr Doug Hilton AO commenced as CSIRO Chief Executive on September 29, 2023. Dr Hilton is a molecular and cellular biologist and previously Director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI). At WEHI, his medical research focussed on understanding how blood cells communicate and using this knowledge to improve disease treatments. He and his team held more than 20 patents and translated their research through collaboration with venture capitalists and the biopharmaceutical industry. Through an honorary appointment in the Zoology Department at University of Melbourne, he also studies a family of tiny day-flying moths involved in the pollination of Australian plants. Beyond research, Dr Hilton has emphasised the importance of strong institutional cultures, and furthered diversity in science including as a member of the Champion of Change Coalition and a board member of Australians Investing in Women.




Dr Robert Hofmeister
Chief Scientific Officer
Create Medicines
Massachusetts, United States

Dr. Hofmeister joined Myeloid in February 2024. Previously, he was the CSO at Resonance Medicine where he drove the development of their research and development strategy, leveraging their therapeutic modality. Previously, he served as CSO at TCR 2 Therapeutics where he started as employee number one and was instrumental in building and leading the R&D function, driving the development of their proprietary TRuC ® -T cell platform from concept to first cleared IND (TC-210 program) and successfully contributed to taking the company public as well as securing multi-million dollar rounds of fundraising. Dr. Hofmeister also held various roles at EMD Serono where he was involved in the development of now approved Bavencio (avelumab) and building the company’s immuno-oncology platform. He started his biotech career at Micromet AG, now Amgen Research Munich, where he helped shape the development of Blincyto (blinatumomab), the first FDA-approved bispecific antibody for the treatment of refractory ALL. Dr. Hofmeister received his Ph.D. from the University of Regensburg in Germany, where he studied the signaling of the cytokine interleukin-1. He continued to work in the cytokine field as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Cancer Institute.




Professor Julie Leask AO*
School of Public Health
University of Sydney
Sydney Institute for Infectious Diseases
Sydney, NSW

Julie Leask AO is professor and social scientist in the School of Public Health, University of Sydney. She is co-lead of the Social and Behavioural Insights in Immunisation research group and holds an NHMRC Investigator Leadership Fellowship. Her research focuses on what people think, feel and do about immunisation; vaccine programs and policies; and risk communication. She is member of the Sydney Infectious Diseases Institute and visiting fellow at the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance. She sits on the NHMRC Health Research Impact Committee and the NSW Health Behavioural Science and Communications Advisory Group. Her previous roles include Chair, WHO Behavioural and Social Drivers of Vaccination working group (2018-2022); member, WHO Immunization and Vaccines related Implementation Research advisory committee (2019-2023); and member, WHO South East Asia Regional Immunization Technical Advisory Group (2020-2023).




Associate Professor Tim Mercer*
Group Leader, Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) 
Scientific Director, BASE
The University of Queensland 
Brisbane, QLD

Associate Professor Timothy Mercer is a Group Leader at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) at The University of Queensland where he is the Scientific Director of the BASE nucleic-acid synthesis facility. He also leads a diverse laboratory and bioinformatic research group into the expression and splicing of synthetic genes. Prior to this, he was Group Leader at the Garvan Institute for Medical Research, Sydney, where he pioneered the use of synthetic RNA and DNA controls to improve the accuracy of clinical genome sequencing. He also developed targeted RNA sequencing approaches for the diagnosis of fusion genes in cancer. Together, this reflects his ongoing interest in the development of genome biotechnologies. Before joining the Garvan, Tim Mercer has a PhD in Genomics from UQ and completed postdoctoral studies in transcriptomics, long-noncoding RNAs and splicing at Broad Institute, United States, Centre for Gene Regulation, Spain, and Max Plank Institute for Cell Biology, Germany.




Professor Catherine Mills
Professor of Bioethics
Monash University
Melbourne, VIC

Catherine Mills is Professor of Bioethics at Monash University, Australia.  Catherines' research addresses ethical, social and regulatory issues that arise around biomedical and technology innovation in human reproduction and her aim is to contribute to improve patient and consumer experiences.  Catherine works collaboratively with other researchers, industry partners, and community and professional stakeholders to achieve this.  Catherines’ research work progresses a novel combination of philosophy, empirical research and legal analysis, and she has extensive experience in leading multidisciplinary projects on ethical, social and legal issues in human reproduction. Catherines’ current projects include ethical and social research on prenatal testing, epigenetics, sperm and egg donation and mitochondrial donation, for which she has received funding from major national and international funders. Catherine leads the engagement and implementation stream of mitoHOPE, the clinical trial of mitochondrial donation in Australia that aims to improve the reproductive options available to people affected by mito.




Professor Terry Nolan AO*
Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity and MCRI 
The University of Melbourne
Melbourne, VIC

Professor Terry Nolan is Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor at the University of Melbourne, and head of the Vaccine and Immunisation Research Group (or VIRGo) at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. He was the Foundation Head of the Melbourne University School of Population and Global Health between 2001 and 2019. Prof. Nolan is a pediatrician and clinical epidemiologist, graduated in medicine and in medical science from the University of Western Australia, trained in paediatrics at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne and at the Montréal Children's Hospital, and was awarded a PhD in in epidemiology and biostatistics from McGill University in Montréal. His expertise relates to immunisation, pandemic vaccine planning and response, and clinical trials of new vaccines. He has authored more than 250 publications in scientific journals. He has provided advice and expertise to many of the world’s leading vaccine manufacturers and their scientists on the development and testing of dozens of new vaccines. He was Chair of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) for a decade. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, and a former member of SAGE, the World Health Organisation’s main advisory group on vaccines and Immunisation. Prof. Nolan is a recipient of several Awards, including as an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) and the National Immunisation Achievement Award from the Public Health Association of Australia.




Professor Gavin Painter
Science Team Leader, The Ferrier Research Institute
Victoria University of Wellington
Wellington, New Zealand
 
Professor Painter obtained his PhD in chemistry from the University of Otago in 1995 (synthetic methodology) which was followed by postdoctoral research at the University of Cambridge (the synthesis of inositol phospholipids for elucidation of PI3K pathways). Since joining the Ferrier Research Institute, University of Wellington in New Zealand his research laboratory has focussed on the synthesis of lipid-based materials including phosphatidyl inositol mannosides, glycolipids, glycolipid-peptide conjugates and novel lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) for encapsulation of various vaccine components including RNA, peptides, glycolipids and various immune stimulates. His research group is currently focussed on the development of novel LNPs for vaccine applications, including Malaria and chronic Hepatitis B, and therapeutic applications.




Dr Ianthe Pitout
Research Fellow
Group Leader of the Oligo Therapeutics Laboratory
The Personalised Medicine Centre, Murdoch University
Perth, WA 

Doctor Ianthe Pitout, PhD, is the group leader of the Oligo Therapeutics Laboratory at the Personalised Medicine Centre at Murdoch University in Western Australia, where she works with Professor Sue Fletcher, who is a pioneer in RNA-therapeutic research. Ianthe specialises in the design and development of splice-modulating antisense oligonucleotides to treat disorders of the central nervous system. She is an experienced biotechnology researcher, having worked in both academic and industry sectors and is an inventor of several splice-modulating antisense oligonucleotides in preclinical and clinical development for treating retinal, neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative diseases. Her research at the Personalised Medicine Centre currently focuses on the development of antisense oligonucleotide therapeutics for treating an inherited form of motor neuron disease.




Professor Colin W. Pouton*
Professor of Pharmaceutical Biology
Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Monash University (Parkville Campus)
Melbourne, VIC

Professor Pouton was awarded a PhD in pharmaceutical science by the University of London in 1982. After a series of academic appointments at the University of Bath (UK), Professor Pouton moved to Monash University in 2001 to take up the Chair of Pharmaceutical Biology. After the establishment of the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MIPS), Professor Pouton held a series of management positions, most recently as Theme Lead: Drug Delivery, Disposition and Dynamics (2015-2021). In October 2021, Professor Pouton relinquished this position to focus on their current major research program on mRNA therapeutics. Professor Pouton is an internationally recognised pharmaceutical scientist with research experience in small molecule drug delivery, nucleic acid therapeutics, and use of stem cell technology in disease modelling and drug discovery. Professor Pouton has published >180 full manuscripts including 40 peer-reviewed papers since 2018. Their work has been cited >12500 times (h-index – 46 (Scopus). In 2015, 2016 and 2018 Professor Pouton was identified by Thompson Reuters/Clarivate as a Highly Cited Researcher in the discipline of Pharmacology & Toxicology. They have supervised 72 PhD completions thus far and has 16 PhD students in progress. In 1995 Professor Pouton was recipient of the Pfizer Award for Pharmaceutical Science, and was elected Fellow of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists in 2003. Professor Pouton has managed >$20M independent grant funding since their arrival at Monash. Over the past five years they held 2 ARC Discovery Project grants, and 2 NHMRC project grants. Professor Pouton was a co-recipient of three MRFF grants in 2020, two for translation of an mRNA COVID vaccine, and additionally, in 2021, a $5M grant from mRNA Victoria to fund manufacturing of the Monash COVID vaccine for clinical development. Professor Pouton has also managed industrially funded projects in drug delivery, in recent years a directly funded oral delivery project from Capsugel (now Lonza) amounting to > $2M over a five-year period (2015-2020).




Professor Damian F.J Purcell*
Professor of Virology
Doherty Institute
Head, Molecular Virology Laboratory
Department of Microbiology and Immunology
The University of Melbourne
Melbourne, VIC

Damian Purcell is Professor of Virology at the University of Melbourne and head of molecular virology at the Peter Doherty Institute. He has a PhD in Medicine in 1987 from University of Melbourne and did a four year NHMRC funded postdoctoral fellowship in Molecular Microbiology at the NIAID, NIH Bethesda, USA until 1995. His research over 35 years has focused on molecular virology of the human retroviruses HIV and HTLV-1, and in the pandemic, SARS-CoV-2. He has deeply investigated RNA biology of viruses and developed some of the first RNA vaccines in Australia.  Insights from his research have provided strategies for new diagnostics, vaccine candidates and therapeutic approaches. He was President of the Australasian Virology Society from 2011 – 2015, Executive Committee Member of the Australian Centres for HIV and Hepatitis Virology since 2000, and Governing Councillor of the International Retrovirology Association since 2017. Damian is a founding board member of the Australian RNA production consortium and executive member of the RNA Network of Australia (RNA).




Professor Kiat Ruxrungtham
Professor of Medicine
Chula Vaccine Research Center (Chula VRC) 
Chula School of Global Health (Chula SGH) and Faculty of Medicine
Chulalongkorn University
Thailand

Prof. Kiat Ruxrungtham is a Professor of Medicine and serves as the Director of both the Chula Vaccine Research Center (Chula VRC) and the Chula School of Global Health (Chula SGH) and Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University. He is the founder of Chula VRC and is dedicated to addressing global health disparities and promoting equitable access to vaccines and therapeutic RNA. His current research focuses on the development of mRNA vaccines and Therapeutic RNA for both prevention and treatment, targeting diseases such as COVID-19, dengue fever, HPV, avian influenza, Mpox, leptospirosis, Acinetobacter baumannii infections, Plasmodium vivax malaria, allergies, rare diseases and cancers. His work demonstrates a strong commitment to innovation and public health impact, particularly for low- and middle-income countries. He is one of the lead members of WHO/MPP SEA vaccine consortia, UK-SEA Vax Hub, Gate foundation RNA Network, Drew Weissman’s RNA technologies Global Access Initiative. Prof. Kiat has published over 390 peer-reviewed articles and has received numerous accolades, including the 2022 Royal Award for Contributors to the Development of the Country’s Vaccines.




Professor John Skerritt AM*
Enterprise Professor in Health Research Impact
University of Melbourne
Melbourne, VIC

Professor John Skerritt AM is the Enterprise Professor in Health Research Impact at the University of Melbourne (supporting commercialisation and policy translation of research) and Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Medicine and Health of the University of Sydney.  He was Deputy Secretary of the Australian Health Department and Head of the Therapeutic Goods Administration from 2012-2023 and was one of the public faces of Australia’s recent pandemic response. John is Chair of the Scientific Advisory Council of the Centre for Innovation in Regulatory Science and on the board of the Centre for Regulatory Excellence (Singapore).  He is also a member of the boards of Medicines Australia and of AusBiotech. He has been appointed to the Order of Australia, has a First Class Honours degree and university medal in pharmacology and a PhD from  Sydney University, is author of over 300 publications in many fields (including two recent reviews in “Vaccines” journal on mRNA vaccines and therapeutics), and has commercialised over a dozen biotechnology products. 




Mr Igor Smolenov
Chief Development Officer
Arcturus Therapeutics
California, United States

Igor Smolenov is the Chief Development Officer of Arcturus Therapeutics. Dr. Smolenov is an infectious disease physician dedicated to the clinical development of novel vaccines, with a proven record of accomplishment in both small biotechnology and large pharmaceutical companies. He contributed to the successful development and licensure of several novel vaccines, including the recent licensure of the first self-amplifying mRNA vaccine. Before starting his career in the industry, he progressed through multiple academic steps, from junior researcher to professor and head of the Allergy/Immunology department at the university. He is the author of over 70 peer-reviewed journal publications in vaccine development, safety, and innovative study design.




Dr Matthew Snape MBE
Vice President, Clinical Development Paediatric and Maternal Vaccines
Moderna
Oxford, United Kingdom

Dr Matthew Snape is a Vice President at Moderna, where he is Head of UK development and of Paediatric and Maternal Vaccines. Before joining Moderna in 2022, he was Professor of Paediatrics and Vaccinology at the University of Oxford, combining work as a clinical General Paediatrician with leading clinical trials on vaccines against Ebola, meningococcus, pneumococcus, RSV, Influenza and COVID-19. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and was awarded an MBE in 2024 for services to public health.




Professor Natalie Trevaskis
Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Monash University
Melbourne, VIC

Natalie Trevaskis is a Professor, Pharmacist and Heads the Lymphatic Medicine Laboratory at the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Melbourne, Australia. Her research program is focussed on the role of lymphatics in acute, inflammatory and metabolic diseases, and understanding the delivery of therapeutics and vaccines to the lymphatics to treat these diseases. She has extensive experience in biopharmaceutics, pharmacokinetics and delivery of a range of therapeutic types. For the past 3 years, Natalie has been named as a Clarivate highly cited (Hi-Ci) researcher in pharmacology (top 0.1% or ~120 worldwide). Natalie’s research has resulted in >100 peer reviewed papers (>9300 cites) including significant papers in Nature, Nature Metabolism, Nature Nano, Nature Rev Drug Discovery, Angew Chemie, J Control Rel etc. She is also an inventor of 10 patent families (>60 individual patents), including for a lymph-directing prodrug technology licensed to Seaport Therapeutics with two candidates currently in clinical trials. Natalie has worked and consulted extensively with industry (Pfizer, Novartis, Astra Zeneca, Eli Lilly, Amgen, Genentech, Janssen, Protagonist, PureTech Health, Noxopharm etc.) to solve drug delivery problems.




Professor Daniela Traini
Macquarie University & Woolcock Institute of Medical Research
Sydney, NSW

Professor Daniela Traini is Professor of Respiratory Science at Macquarie University and the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, and Chief Scientific Officer of Ab Initio Pharma. Her research focuses on translational drug delivery to the airways, with a particular emphasis on inhaled and intranasal therapeutics for respiratory and neurological diseases. She has pioneered advanced in vitro and microfluidic models of the respiratory tract to evaluate nucleic acid formulations, aerosol deposition, and mucosal transport, supporting the development of next-generation RNA therapies. Professor Traini has published extensively in the fields of pharmaceutics and aerosol medicine, co-authoring more than 250 peer-reviewed papers, several book chapters, and international patents. She is an active collaborator with academic, clinical, and industry partners worldwide, contributing to the advancement of inhaled oncology treatments, nasal-to-brain drug delivery, and novel regenerative medicine platforms. In addition to her research, she is deeply committed to training the next generation of scientists and is widely recognised for her leadership in respiratory drug delivery science.




Professor Brandon Wainwright AM
Group Leader, Frazer Institute , The University of Queensland, and Co-Director
Children’s Brain Cancer Centre
Brisbane, QLD

Brandon Wainwright is a molecular geneticist and Group Leader at the Frazer Institute, and is the Co-Director of the Children’s Brain Cancer Centre.  From 2005-2019 he was Director of the Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB) at The University of Queensland.  Brandon’s group was the first to discover the role of hedgehog signalling in common human cancers and since that time has focused on the biology, genomics and therapeutic possibilities for treating paediatric brain cancer. 




Dr Kerrie Wiley
Senior Lecturer
Sydney Horizons Fellow / NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow
University of Sydney’s School of Public Health and Sydney Infectious Diseases Institute
Sydney, NSW

Dr Kerrie Wiley is a Senior Lecturer and Sydney Horizons Fellow / NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow with the University of Sydney’s School of Public Health and Sydney Infectious Diseases Institute, and co-leads the Social and Behavioural Insights in Immunisation group with Professor Julie Leask.  Dr Wiley’s work focuses on what drives people to take up or reject immunisation and other preventative health behaviours, and her research portfolio includes childhood and adult vaccination, animal vaccination, mosquito borne disease prevention, and public health policy.  She is a member of the WHO South-East Asia Regional Immunization Technical Advisory Group, the WHO Technical Working Group on guidance on evidence for community protection in health emergencies, and a steering committee member of the Australian Regional Immunisation Alliance.