Dr. Jasper de Boer leads strategic initiatives at the Australian and New Zealand Children’s Haematology and Oncology Group (ANZCHOG) to boost paediatric oncology research and clinical trials. Additionally, in his previous role as the Manager of the VCCC Alliance in Australia, he has extended his focus to adult cancer research and trials. His career, covering over two decades in research, clinical trials, and healthcare consulting, has led to significant contributions in medical innovation and therapy development. As the head of Novel Cancer Therapies at UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, Dr. de Boer has employed genomics, in silico analyses, and biology to enhance diagnostics and treatments for paediatric cancers. His impactful work includes the development of targeted therapies for MLL-rearranged leukaemias, the inhibition of H3.3 mutated histones in diffuse midline gliomas, and the establishment of a sequencing-based MRD test for paediatric AML.
Dr. de Boer's considerable output of peer-reviewed publications, together with his numerous invited talks, seminars, and conference presentations, demonstrates his pivotal role in the oncology field. Furthermore, his involvement in reviewing grant applications for funding bodies in Europe and Australia underscores his dedication and expertise in driving forward research in both paediatric and adult oncology.
Clare Delany is a professor in Academic Integrity and Professional Ethics in the Department of Medical Education, Melbourne Medical School, at the University of Melbourne. In the field of research ethics, Clare chairs the University of Melbourne Central Human Ethics Subcommittee. Clare has clinical training in physiotherapy, master degrees in health and medical law and musculoskeletal physiotherapy, and a PhD in medical ethics. Clare has extensive experience as a clinical ethicist working at the Children’s Bioethics Centre at the Royal Children’s Hospital and at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne. Clare also consults in clinical ethics for health services that do not have an embedded clinical ethicist. Clare teaches and conducts research in applied clinical ethics and health professional education. Clare has published extensively in applied clinical ethics, paediatric bioethics, critical thinking, and clinical reasoning. She is the lead editor of ‘Learning and Teaching in Clinical Contexts' (2018), bringing together 40 leading international researchers, theorists, and practitioners in clinical education. She is a co-editor of ‘When Doctors and Parents Disagree: Ethics, Paediatrics and the Zone of Parental Discretion’ (2017).
Dr. Benjamin John Dixon is an ENT surgeon specializing in head and neck oncology and skull base surgery. He is the director of ENT, Head & Neck Surgery at St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne. He spent two years at the University of Toronto undertaking a fellowship in head and neck oncology, endoscopic skull base surgery, microvascular reconstruction, and thyroid surgery. After further training in transoral robotic surgery at the University of Pennsylvania, he established the TORS program at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. He has a PhD in surgeon–computer interface design (University of Melbourne) and continues to research the integration of technology into the operating theatre and novel operative techniques. He is currently developing assessment tools to better measure intra-operative workloads to help guide and refine surgical technology development.
Dr. Michael Findlay is a fully qualified plastic, reconstructive, and hand surgeon and a multi-award-winning surgical researcher, with a strong focus on cancer surgery (head, neck, breast cancer, melanoma, and non-melanoma skin cancers, hand and lower limb resection and trauma), in addition to being a translational surgical researcher. Dr. Findlay is a former Fulbright scholar and is the director of Australasian Clinical Trials in Plastic, Reconstructive, and Aesthetic Surgery for the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. He heads the Program for Cellular and Molecular Innovation in Surgery at the University of Melbourne. A former visiting assistant professor at Stanford University and an Inaugural Stanford Applied Regenerative Medicine Fellow, he was the first Australian to become appointed as a member of both the Association of Academic Surgeons and the esteemed Society of University Surgeons in the United States and became a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons in 2013. Dr. Findlay was the recipient of the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017 in recognition of his ongoing contribution to clinical care and advancing surgical practice. He practices at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Canberra Hospital, Epworth Freemasons, and the National Capital Private Hospital and has private rooms at Reconstructive Plastic Surgery Melbourne and Canberra.
Dr. Maria Ftanou is the director of Psychosocial Oncology at Peter Mac and a senior research fellow at the School of Population and Global Health at the University of Melbourne. She completed her PhD studies at the University of Melbourne. She has over 20 years of clinical experience, primarily in the field of psychosocial oncology. She and her team provide evidence-based psychological interventions to people with cancer and their families across the cancer trajectory. She is interested in developing and implementing research that uses novel technologies and interventions aimed at improving the well-being and mental health outcomes for people with cancer and their families. She is committed to developing workforce capacity across the field to better address the psychosocial needs of people with cancer. She has been the recipient of multiple competitive grants and has published in national and international peer-reviewed journals.
Dr. Christopher D Hart is an oncologist with special interests in the breast, head and neck, central nervous system and lung cancers. He received his medical degree at the University of Melbourne in Australia in 2005. After completing his specialty training in oncology in Melbourne in 2013, he pursued additional training, travelling to Italy to undertake a translational research fellowship in breast cancer at the Prato Hospital Cancer Centre. In mid 2014 he commenced work as the Sandro Pitigliani Oncology Reseach Fellow at the Hospital of Prato, Instituto Toscano Tumori, in Italy, working with Dr Angelo Di Leo and his team. He has been consulting as a medical oncologist at St Vincent’s since 2016.
Ms Megan Howard is an oncology, lymphoedema, and respiratory physiotherapist with over 27 years of clinical experience. Her interests include lymphoedema, scar management, and respiratory physiotherapy. Megan received her physiotherapy degree from La Trobe University in 1997 and her Master of Physiotherapy (Cardiorespiratory) degree in 2005 from the University of Melbourne. She is currently the senior lymphoedema physiotherapist at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. Megan is a titled member (Cardiorespiratory, Oncology, Lymphoedema, and Palliative Care) of the Australian Physiotherapy Association and a member of the Australian College of Physiotherapists and the Australian Lymphoedema Association.
Dr. Tim Iseli is an Ear, Nose, and Throat Surgeon (also called an otolaryngologist, head, and neck surgeon). His completed his surgical training in the Victorian State training scheme, the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, and the University of Alabama at Birmingham in the United States of America. He is an expert on endoscopic sinus surgery and thyroid, head, and neck cancer surgery. He is the current head of the unit of the ENT department at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. His interests include thyroid and parathyroid surgery; endoscopic sinus surgery; head and neck cancer surgery; and general ear, nose, and throat surgery including paediatrics.
Prof. Brian Le is a palliative care physician and medical oncologist, the precinct director of Palliative Care at the Royal Melbourne Hospital (appointed in 2008) and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre (appointed in 2016), and honorary professor (clinical) at the University of Melbourne (appointed in 2009). His other appointments include honorary associate fellow in Palliative Care at the University of Technology Sydney, and he is co-chair of the Palliative Care Clinical Studies Collaborative. Alongside full-time clinical and service leadership responsibilities, he has a career total of more than 100 peer-reviewed publications. He has received a total of AUD 4.2 million as chief investigator and is an associate investigator for a further AUD 4 million, from funders including the National Health and Medical Research Council, Cancer Australia, and the Cancer Council Victoria. He has held numerous roles providing advice to government and community organizations about palliative care, including as a member of the Victorian Clinical Council, and to the Commonwealth Government and New South Wales Health. He is a previous chair of Palliative Care Victoria. He additionally has a keen interest in medical education, including as a past chair of the Training Committee for Palliative Medicine, with oversight of the training and certification of all specialists in palliative medicine across Australia and New Zealand.
Dr. Ernest Lekgabe is a radiologist and consultant at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. Dr. Lekgabe holds Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degrees from the University of Melbourne, Australia. His postgraduate qualifications include a Master of Medicine in radiology from the University of Melbourne. Dr. Lekgabe’s research interests include medical imaging and clinical neuroradiology.
Dr. Luke S McLean is a medical oncologist and researcher at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. He graduated from Monash University with honours and was awarded the prestigious Harry Hindlip Green Scholarship on completion of his studies. He completed his physician training at the Alfred Hospital, followed by oncology training at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and St Vincent’s Hospital. He has also completed a fellowship at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in head and neck and lung cancers. He is a member of the Molecular Therapeutics and Biomarkers Laboratory (Solomon Laboratory) where he is completing a PhD investigating immunotherapy resistance in non-melanomatous skin cancers. He is the recipient of a 2022 National Health and Medical Research Council Post-Graduate Scholarship and received the Robert Kirby Peter Mac Foundation Post-Graduate Award (2022) to support his research. He is also an active member of the head and neck service where he sees patients with head and neck, thyroid, and non-melanomatous skin cancers and is involved in clinical trials.
Prof. Paul Neeson completed a PhD at the University of Melbourne (Pathology) before undertaking postdoctoral training in the Paterson lab (University of Pennsylvania) where he worked on B-cell lymphoma vaccines. He returned to Melbourne and established the human translational lab in the Cancer Immunology Program at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. His lab has adopted state-of-the-art technologies to explore the immune context of human cancer. This information is being used to better understand the mechanisms of resistance and immune escape and to stratify patients for immunotherapy combination treatments (including CAR T cells) for better outcomes in patients with solid tumors. His recent work has focused on exploring the immune context of paediatric solid cancers and engineering CAR T cells to address the tumour microenvironment challenges.
Dr. Sweet Ping Ng is a radiation oncologist at Austin Health, Melbourne, Australia. She received her Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery, and Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Melbourne. She is also an honorary scientist at the Department of Radiation Oncology, Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness & Research Centre.
Dr. Lorraine A. O’Reilly is an experienced senior scientist working in the field of inflammation-driven cancers and autoimmunity at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Melbourne. She studied immunology at the University of Glasgow and completed her PhD in the Department of Immunology at University College London. Following post-doctoral training at the University of Cambridge, England, she joined the Walter and Eliza Institute of Medical Research as a Wellcome Trust fellow. Currently, Dr O’Reilly is based within the Inflammation Division at WEHI. Dr. O’Reilly’s current research program is focused on upper gastrointestinal cancers, particularly in the development of oral cancer early diagnostics and new therapies.
Dr. Anand Ramakrishnan is the director of the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Royal Melbourne Hospital. He is a Melbourne-trained adult and paediatric plastic and reconstructive surgeon who also operates at St. Vincent’s Private, The Alfred, and Melbourne Private hospitals. After completion of his plastic surgery training, he undertook fellowships in paediatric craniofacial surgery at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada, and the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, Australia. He also holds a fellowship in microsurgery research at the Bernard O’Brien Institute of Microsurgery at St. Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne. His postgraduate qualifications include a doctorate in stem cell biology fromthe University of Melbourne and a Master of Public Health in international and refugee health from Monash University.
Dr. David Rowe is an ear, nose, and throat (ENT) surgeon in Camberwell. He completed a degree in Science with Honours in paediatric neuroendocrinology at the Royal Children’s Hospital and a Graduate Diploma of Education at the University of Melbourne. He obtained a Medical Degree from the University of New South Wales in 2002. He began his surgical training in Melbourne, initially completing three years of general surgery training including liver transplant surgery experience at the Austin Hospital. He then began his ENT/otolaryngology training in 2011 by undertaking and completing a PhD in otolaryngology at the University of Melbourne. He completed five years of specialist clinical ENT training in 2018. This specialist training included rotations through the majority of the major Melbourne hospitals, gaining experience in paediatrics, general ENT, trauma, and head and neck surgery. He was awarded a fellowship in otolaryngology–head and neck surgery in February of 2019. He attends the Royal Melbourne Hospital where he has an appointment and also attends the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre Head and Neck Tumour Multidisciplinary meetings weekly.
Dr. Ankur Singh is an Australian Research Council DECRA senior research fellow with joint appointments at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health and Melbourne Dental School. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Adelaide and his M.Sc. in Dental Public Health from University College London. He has research training in social epidemiology and he applies a range of quantitative skills to quantify the impact of policy interventions on health inequalities. His research contributions are in the area of population oral health, tobacco control, and social determinants of health. He is also an adjunct fellow at the Public Health Foundation of India and collaborates extensively with colleagues locally and internationally. He is an associate editor of the Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology journal and holds leadership positions both within the International Association for Dental Research Global Oral Health Inequalities Research Network and IUHPE.
Dr. Alesha A .Thai is an early-career clinician scientist at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and Austin Health. Her research investigates the interplay between the tumour microenvironment, the host immune system, and viral causes of head and neck cancer. She places a strong emphasis on improving disparities in patient care, especially for patients from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and has led collaborative research efforts in this and head and neck cancer. She also sits on the gender equity committee for Peter Mac’s research division.
Dr. Tami Yap completed a Bachelor of Dental Science with Honours at Melbourne University in 2006. In 2013, she became a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons and returned to postgraduate training in the specialty of oral medicine and completed a PhD in molecular diagnostics in oral cancer in 2019. Tami is a senior lecturer in the Oral Medicine and Pathology Department at the University of Melbourne. She has clinical and teaching appointments at the Alfred Hospital, the Royal Dental Hospital, and the Skin Health Institute and is part of the multidisciplinary Dermatology Team at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.
Prof. David Wiesenfeld is an oral and maxillofacial surgeon, mainly practicing in the care of patients with head and neck cancer. He is the director of the Head and Neck Tumour Stream at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, and is also the Lead in Research and Education in the Head and Neck Tumour Stream at the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre. His clinical interests are oral cancer care, dentoalveolar surgery, the management of impacted teeth, the surgical correction of dento-facial deformities, and dental implants for the replacement of missing teeth. He received his Dentistry degree from the University of Melbourne in 1976, completed his specialist training in 1980, and completed three years of further training in Britain, firstly in Glasgow as Commonwealth Supernumerary Registrar and subsequently in London. He commenced specialist practice in oral and maxillofacial surgery in 1983. He has been appointed to visiting professor positions at universities in Bristol, Texas, Nebraska, and Cleveland. He has published more than 80 articles in the scientific literature and has contributed to four textbooks. He has co-supervised multiple Masters and PhD students.
