Chair

 

Professor Hui Gan graduated from Melbourne University a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (MBBS). He is a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. He completed a Fellowship in Drug Development at the Princess Margaret Hospital (Toronto, Canada). He obtained his PhD from Melbourne University focusing on the development of a novel class of tumour-specific anti-EGFR antibodies.  Currently, he leads the following programs at Austin Health: head and neck cancer, primary brain tumours and Phase 1 clinical trials. Since 2016, he has been the head of the Cancer Clinical Trials Unit at Austin Health (Melbourne, Australia). In 2018, he became both the Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee of COGNO and the VCCC Research Lead and Education Lead for Brain Cancer. Since 2019, he has been the Co-Director of the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute (ONJCRI) Centre for Research Excellence in Brain Tumours. He is an international recognized trial investigator.  He has been involved with 10 drugs from ONJCRI that were successfully commercialised and continues to create and commercialise novel antibody therapeutics. In particular, he helped lead the development of mAb806, subsequently developed into ABT-414, from the laboratory to registrational Phase 3 studies. He has multiple publications to date including in Nature, Journal of Clinical Oncology and Neuro-Oncology.

 

Dr Eng-Siew Koh

 

Dr Koh is a consultant Radiation Oncologist based at Liverpool Cancer Therapy Centre, Liverpool Hospital, NSW. She qualified in Medicine at the University of Adelaide then completed her specialty training at Westmead Hospital. She undertook a three year Fellowship at the Princess Margaret Hospital, and the Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Canada, in the areas of adult and paediatric neuro-oncology and stereotactic radiotherapy, and also haematologic and breast malignancies.

Her clinical and research interests include neuro-oncology imaging, cognitive and behavioural sequelae in brain tumours, and clinical neuro-oncology care coordination. Dr Koh has a particular research interest in cancer survivorship and the study of late effects of cancer treatment in both adult and paediatric cancer patients.

She is the current chair of the Clinical Oncological Society of Australia (COSA) Neuro-oncology group and is the current Deputy chair of COGNO, and Deputy Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee and member of the Management Committee.

 

 

Professor Meera Agar is Professor of Palliative Medicine, Centre for Cardiovascular and Chronic Disease, University of Technology Sydney. She is a Palliative Medicine Physician and is the research lead for the South West Sydney Palliative Care Clinical Trials unit and the Clinical trials director, Ingham Institute of Applied Medical Research. Her research interests include delirium in advanced cancer, dementia end-of-life care, pharmacological and health service randomised controlled trials in palliative care and neuro-oncology supportive and palliative care research. She is the Chair of ImPACCT (Improving Palliative Care through Clinical Trials), the NSW collaborative trials group in palliative care.

 

Ms Liz Barnes

 

Ms Liz Barnes is a biostatistician and research fellow at the NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre, University of Sydney. She works on clinical trials and analysis of trial data in oncology and cardiovascular medicine. She is co-ordinator of units in the Master of Biostatistics (biostatistics Collaboration of Australia) and the Masters in Clinical Trials Research (University of Sydney) and currently provides a statistical consulting service at the Kids Research Institute at the Children’s Hospital, Westmead.

 

 

Dr Ben Chua is a radiation oncologist at the Royal Brisbane & Women’s Hospital and senior lecturer at the University of Queensland.  He is on the SAC as part of his role as co-convenor of the Ideas Generation Workshop.  He completed his specialty training in Brisbane and undertook a fellowship at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in CNS and head & neck oncology.  He has an interest in multidisciplinary management of glioma and brain metastases, and in integrating functional imaging to personalise treatment.  He is an investigator on local and multicentre clinical trials in these and other areas.  He is involved in teaching of radiation oncology registrars, and is a member of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists Radiation Oncology Research Committee and Anatomy and Contouring Working Group.

 

 

Prof Bryan Day holds a PhD from the University of Queensland and is Group Leader of the Sid Faithfull Brain Cancer Research Laboratory at the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute. He and his team focus on the most common and aggressive form of brain cancer, Glioblastoma (GBM) in adults and the most common brain cancer in children, Medulloblastoma. He currently sits on the Directorship for the Children’s Hospital Foundation, Centre for Child and Adolescent Brain Cancer Research. He is also on the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Cooperative Trials Group for Neuro-Oncology (COGNO) and Steering Committee for Brain Cancer Biobanking Australia. Additionally, he is a past Director for the Australian Society of Medical Research (ASMR).

 

Associate Professor Kate Drummond

 

Associate Professor Kate Drummond, AM, MD, MBBS, FRACS, graduated from the University of Sydney in 1988 and trained in Neurosurgery in Sydney and Melbourne. She furthered her training with both clinical and research fellowships in Neuro-oncology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard University in Boston. She was awarded an MD from the University of Melbourne in 2008. She is Director of Neurosurgery at The Royal Melbourne Hospital and Head of Central Nervous System Tumours for the VCCC Parkville Precinct. Her chief research and clinical interests are in the biology and clinical management of brain tumours. She has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles, many book chapters and is frequently invited to speak nationally and internationally. She has received more than $9,000,000 in grant funding for her research.

She is the former chair of the Neuro-oncology Committee of the Victorian Cooperative Oncology Group for the Cancer Council Victoria and serves on the committees of a number of national cancer and brain tumour groups, including the Neuro-Oncology Committee of the Clinical Oncological Society of Australasia and the Cooperative Trials Group for Neuro-Oncology. She supports community groups and charities advocating for patients with brain tumours and their families.

She is Neurosurgery Editor of the Journal of Clinical Neuroscience and Chief Examiner in Neurosurgery for the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. She is Deputy-Chair (formerly chair) of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, Section of Women in Surgery, and has received the RACS Medal for Services to RACS. She is Chair of Pangea Global Health Education, a not-for-profit organisation specialising in health education in low resource settings and Vice President of the Asian Australasian Society of Neurological Surgeons.

In 2019 she was awarded Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for services to medicine, particularly in the field of neuro-oncology and community health.

 

 

Dr Kathryn Field, MBBS(Hons), FRACP, DMedSc, MPH, is a medical oncologist. Since completing her training in 2008, she has been involved in clinical research related to brain tumours and bowel cancer. She completed her Masters of Public Health at Harvard University in 2013 as a Fulbright scholar and Frank Knox Memorial Fellow. Prior to this, she was awarded a postgraduate Doctor of Medical Science through the University of Melbourne, studying the use of patient factors and biomarkers to improve treatment and outcome for colorectal cancer and other malignancies. Kathryn is the principal investigator of the CABARET randomized phase II clinical trial for patients with brain tumors in Australia, having been involved with the trial from conception. This formed the basis of her PhD.

 

 

A/Prof Craig Gedye has trained as a medical oncologist, clinical trialist and basic science researcher. A/Prof Gedye works for people suffering melanoma, brain, kidney, prostate, testis, and bladder cancer at the Calvary Mater Newcastle. He is the Director for HMRI Clinical Trials, and the Clinical Research Director at the NSW Health Statewide Biobank. He is grateful to chair the Renal Cancer Subcommittee for ANZUP Cancer Trials Group, and to lead several investigator-sponsored trials for ANZUP and COGNO. His research focus is on cancer heterogeneity; why treatments work for some patients but not others, which leads to questions and challenges that span the translational spectrum from basic science through translational and clinical trials research, to patient experience and implementation.

Dr Ashray Gunjur

 

Dr Hovey is a Senior Staff Specialist in Medical Oncology at Prince of Wales Hospital (POWH), Conjoint Senior Lecturer at UNSW and Honorary Associate of the University of Sydney. After completing advanced training at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, she completed further post-graduate training at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Centre, New York, NY, USA (1998-2001) during which time she was the recipient of a full scholarship to complete a Master of Biostatistics in Patient-Oriented Research at Columbia University School of Public Health (1999-2001). Prior to her 2007 appointment at Prince of Wales Hospital she was a medical oncologist at Liverpool Hospital.
 
Liz’s main areas of expertise and research interest are neuro-oncology, genitourinary oncology and geriatric oncology. She is currently COGNO’s Secretary/Operations Executive Member, and was previously Chair of COGNO’s SAC (Scientific Advisory Committee). She was a previous Chair of the COSA (Clinical Oncological Society of Australia) Neuro-oncology Group after 2 elected terms (2006-2010); Co-Founder and current Co-Chair of the NSW Neuro-oncology Group (alongside Dr Parkinson) at the NSW Cancer Institute. She was the Project Officer for the development of “Australian Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Management Adult  Gliomas: Astrocytomas and Oligodendrogliomas” on behalf of Australian Cancer Network, and was on the Working Party and Co-Editor of the subsequent matching Consumer Guidelines. In 2014 she was the co-author of a chapter for the US textbook “Neuro-Oncology” (editors: Mark Bernstein/Mitchel Berger). She is an inaugural member of the Editorial Board of Neuro-Oncology Practice (published by Oxford Press) as well as being a Review Editor for “Frontiers in Neuro-Oncology” and a neuro-oncology reviewer for Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Oncology.

In 2013 she was an invited COSA ASM plenary speaker speaking on the topic of elderly patients with glioma; in 2014 she was the keynote speaker for New Zealand Cancer Society (giving 12 talks around New Zealand on the topic of brain tumours) and an invited speaker at a WFNO (World Federation of Neuro-Oncology) Masterclass in Istanbul, Turkey. In June 2015, she presented a Neuro-oncology Oral Presentation at ASCO, presenting Part 2 results of the CABARET study on behalf of COGNO co-investigators. She was the Co-Convenor of the 2016 COGNO-ASNO ASM (& was also Convenor of the 2009 COGNO-COSA ASM).

She is the Australian CIA for the CODEL study for oligodendroglioma patients (which secured Cancer Australia/NSWCC funding) and is one of the CI’s for the upcoming Adult Medulloblastoma study  (with CANTEEN funding) including participating in the International Steering Committee. She was the NSW CI on the NHMRC grant for the previous EORTC Low Grade Glioma Study.

 

Dr Lindy Jeffree

 

Dr Lindy Jeffree was inspired to specialise in surgery of brain tumours by working with Prof Andrew Kaye at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and Dr Charlie Teo in Sydney.  Her research experience includes glioma research at the University of Sydney, an MSc in electrophysiology at the University of Montreal and a B Med Sci year in the Physiological Laboratory at the University of Cambridge.  Currently she works full time at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, where she is privileged to collaborate with a fabulous multidisciplinary neurooncology team, and with translational scientists working on glioma and on metastatic brain tumours.

 

Professor Terry Johns

 

Since November 2017, Prof Terrance Johns has been Professor of Paediatric Cancer Research and Program Head of the Telethon Kids Cancer Centre, where he also leads the Oncogenic Signalling Laboratory.

He completed his PhD on new therapies for melanoma in 1993 at Monash University. He then conducted his post-doctoral studies on the central nervous system, developing a new animal model that today remains the gold standard for multiple sclerosis research. In 1998, he moved to the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in Melbourne to head the Oncogenic Signalling Laboratory. The main focus of the laboratory was developing antibodies that target receptors important for the survival and growth of cancer, especially brain cancer. Notably, Prof Johns was a major contributor to the discovery of a brain-cancer-specific therapeutic antibody that was subsequently licensed to AbbVie. This antibody, mAb 806 (now known as ABT-414), is in phase 3 clinical trial for brain cancer patients. In 2008, Prof Johns returned to Monash University, where he continued to develop novel strategies for treating brain cancer. Alongside this work, Prof Johns is actively working with international collaborators and pharmaceutical partners to move new drugs into clinical trials for brain cancer.

Professor Johns has worked hard to bring the Australian brain cancer research community together and accelerate the drug translation process. In 2012, he founded the Brain Cancer Discovery Collaborative, an Australia-wide consortium of researchers and clinicians dedicated to ensuring that promising therapeutic discoveries are translated into the clinic for the treatment of patients with brain cancer. He has been a member of COGNO’s Management Committee since 2012 and its Scientific Advisory Committee since 2013.

 

Miss Marina Kastelan

 

Dr Arian Lasocki is a Neuroradiologist in the Department of Cancer Imaging at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, where he is also the Head of Radiology Research and Co-Head of MRI. His main interests are in intracranial gliomas and intracranial metastatic disease, in particular metastatic melanoma. Arian has recently been awarded a Doctorate through the University of Melbourne, having investigated the preoperative MRI assessment of adult intracranial diffuse gliomas.

 

 

Professor Anna Nowak is an academic Medical Oncologist at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Western Australia, and Professor of Medicine in the School of Medicine and Pharmacology, University of Western Australia. Her clinical and research interests are in malignant pleural mesothelioma and neuro-oncology, with a PhD in tumor immunology and post-doctoral fellowship in clinical trials research giving her a niche as a ‘bench to bedside’ researcher who has implemented findings from her laboratory into first-in-man clinical trials. She has been a member of COGNO since its inception and her research in high grade glioma focuses on active participation in clinical trials and collaboration on psychosocial and supportive care research questions, as well as being co-chair of the AGOG tissue banking and genetic epidemiology project and Brain Cancer Biobanking Australia. In her association with COGNO, she has been a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee since its inception, was the Australian PI of the EORTC CATNON clinical trial, and is a member of the successful grant application team for the upcoming CODEL study. She has been site principal investigator of numerous clinical trials in high grade glioma at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital. Prof Nowak leads the neuro-oncology service at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, which sees around 130 new patients a year with glioma, and is committed to maximizing participation of these patients in clinical research.

 

 

Associate Professor Geraldine O’Neill is Acting Head of the Children’s Cancer Research Unit at Kids Research, The Children’s Hospital at Westmead. Geraldine is Academic Leader, Basic Research, for the University of Sydney Faculty of Medicine and Health (Western Precinct) and additionally coordinates innovative new Cancer units of study at Westmead within the School of Medical Sciences, University of Sydney. Geraldine has a long-standing interest in the role of the tumour microenvironment in cancer progression and response to therapy, with a particular focus on the development of improved preclinical models for brain cancer. She completed her PhD at the Kolling Institute of Medical Research, University of Sydney and then undertook post-doctoral studies at Fox Chase Cancer Centre in Philadelphia, USA, returning to Australia with award of an NHMRC Howard Florey Post-doctoral Fellowship. Next, as NSW Cancer Council Career Development Fellow, she established a program of cancer cell biology research at Westmead. Among other roles, she is Acting Deputy Head of the Kids Cancer Alliance, Cancer Institute NSW Translational Cancer Research Centre and member of the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Children’s Hospital Foundation, Queensland.

 

 

Associate Professor Mark Pinkham is a Radiation Oncologist based at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane and Gamma Knife Centre of Queensland. He is an Adjunct Professor at Queensland University of Technology and a Honorary Associate at the NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre, University of Sydney. He graduated from Oxford University in 2005 and obtained a Masters in Physiology with Honours in the neurosciences from the same institution prior. He completed specialist training in Brisbane in 2014 and then undertook an 18-month Clinical Oncology fellowship in neuro-oncology and intracranial stereotactic radiosurgery at the Christie Hospital, UK. His clinical practice and research activities focus exclusively on caring for patients with primary and secondary brain tumours. He is clinical lead for the eVIQ brain metastases SRS protocols and Chair of the SRS working group within TROG, which aims to establish universal quality assurance standards for radiosurgery trials across Australia and New Zealand.

 

Dr Michael Rodriguez is a neuropathologist based in Sydney.  After completing his anatomical pathology training in Sydney and post fellowship training in neuropathology in Western Australia he spent the next decade in the USA, for 5 years as a research fellow with Prof Elias Lazarides in the Division of Biology at Caltech working on possible animal models for Alzheimer’s disease and subsequently at USC School of Medicine as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Research Pathology, as a Clinical Fellow in Pathology at Harvard Medical School and as a Research Fellow in Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital characterizing brain degeneration mutants in the developing zebrafish brain. While in the US he also completed training and board certification in anatomical pathology and neuropathology.  He subsequently returned to Sydney and until recently worked as a neuropathologist for the Department of Forensic Medicine.  He is currently a consultant neuropathologist at St Vincent’s Hospital, Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney Children’s Hospital and Douglass Hanly Moir Pathology.  He is a Clinical Senior Lecturer at Macquarie University and an Honorary Associate of the University of Sydney.

Michael is passionate about fostering high quality diagnosis in surgical and autopsy neuropathology and has collaborated in tissue-based research projects in a number of fields including human neurogenesis, SIDS research, neurovirology, neuromuscular disorders, neuro oncology and neurodegenerative diseases.  He is a member of the NSW neuro-oncology group and serves on a number of committees including the RCPA Anatomical Pathology Advisory Committee and the NSW Tissue Resource Centre Management Committee.

 

 

Associate Professor Jeremy Ruben is a radiation oncologist at The Alfred Hospital where he heads the CNS, lung and radiosurgery programmes. He is Associate Professor at Monash University. He qualified in medicine (cum laude) in 1995. After specialist training he undertook a fellowship in advanced radiation techniques and undertook research leading to a MMed degree (2007), and a doctorate from Monash University in 2014. His clinical research interests are in neuro-oncology, lung, skin and stereotactic radiosurgery. He is the PI and CI on a number of clinical trials in these areas, many of which have attracted competitive grant funding. He authors a number of national guidelines including brain cancer, lung cancer and radiosurgery and is an invited conference speaker locally and internationally. Jeremy is actively involved in the training of specialists in radiation oncology. He is the Royal Australasian College of Radiology (radiation oncology faculty) training network director for Victoria and Tasmania, and contributes to number of RANZCR committees and special interest groups that have educational or clinical focuses. He is also a RANZCR accreditation panel member accrediting radiation oncology centres for specialist training standards and an examiner for the RANZCR final fellowship examinations.

 

Professor John Simes

 

Professor John Simes is Senior Principal Research Fellow and Director of the NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre (CTC), University of Sydney. He is undertaking clinical trials research, with particular interest in clinical trials in cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and neonatal medicine. His research interests include clinical trials methodology and integrating trial evidence with the goal of improving clinical practice and health outcomes. He is the Director of the Sydney Catalyst translational research centre, a virtual centre of cancer researchers in central Sydney and regional NSW.  Additionally, he is a member of the Interim Executive that formed in 2012 to drive the development of the Australian Clinical Trials Alliance (ACTA).  Professor John Simes practices as a medical oncologist in neuro-oncology at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and the Chris O’Brien Lifehouse. He has been awarded the Cancer Achievement Award by the Medical Oncology Group of Australia and the Distinguished Harvard Alum Award (Biostatistics) from Harvard University. He is a member of several research committees, trials groups and boards, including cancer cooperative groups and safety and data monitoring committees.

 

 

Mrs Desma Spyridopoulos is an experienced entrepreneur with a demonstrated history of understanding technical concepts and translating them for a wider audience. Skilled in business planning, operational and research strategies, Desma has joined COGNO as the Consumer Advisory Panel (CAP) Chair in 2019.

Graduating from USYD with honors in Art History, she worked as an Art Historian and then went on to further studies with a Master of Commerce from UNSW. She focused her research skills on business and worked as an analyst in large companies and start-ups in Australia and the US. In 2000, Desma co-founded GLiNTECH, an IT Consultancy servicing large corporates. Desma has presented and written about the changing corporate environment and how it affects people’s lives. She is currently leading the strategy team focusing on Research and Development.

Desma Spyridopoulos’ interest in COGNO began when her father was diagnosed with a Stage 4 Glioblastoma in April 2016. She took time off work to help him through his treatment and spent time researching his condition and explaining the potential treatments and trials available to him. When he passed away, Desma was given the opportunity to be part of CAP where the members have all been touched by brain cancer and understand the consumer’s perspective. Desma believes that CAP play an important role, through their input and by providing consumer reviews for COGNO trials, safeguarding that the consumer is front of mind in the research for brain cancer.
 

Dr Annette Tognela

Photo and bio available shortly.

Dr Helen Wheeler

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