Associate Professor Steve Mutsaers
Associate Professor Steve Mutsaers
Honorary Researcher
BSc (Hons), PhD
Associate Professor Steve Mutsaers is an Honorary Research Fellow within the Tissue Repair Group and Head of the Discipline of Pharmacology and Toxicology in the School of Biomedical Sciences, UWA. His main research interest is investigating the mechanisms regulating tissue repair and regeneration and how a breakdown in these processes lead to disease.
He completed his PhD in the Dept of Pathology at UWA in 1993 studying the regeneration of the mesothelium and then did his postdoctoral training at the National Heart and Lung Institute and University College London (UCL), UK, studying the role of profibrotic mediators and the extracellular matrix (ECM) in pulmonary fibrosis, mesothelial healing and malignant mesothelioma growth. In 1997 he was promoted to Lecturer, Senior Research Fellow and Research Group Leader in the Department of Medicine, UCL and in 1998 he was awarded a UCL Medical School Prize Lectureship.
He returned to Perth in 2001 on a Raine Medical Research Foundation research grant working initially in the UWA Dept of Surgery at Royal Perth Hospital and then at the Institute for Respiratory Health. From 2006-2010 he also established a research laboratory in Anatomical Pathology at PathWest Laboratory Medicine WA. From 2012-2016 he held a joint position at the Institute and the newly established UWA Centre for Cell Therapy and Regenerative Medicine (CCTRM). While at the Institute he took up a fractional teaching role in Pharmacology and Toxicology in 2023 and in 2025 became a full time employee at UWA as Head of Discipline of Pharmacology and Toxicology in the School of Biomedical Sciences.
Associate Professor Mutsaers has an international reputation in tissue repair and fibrosis, particularly of the lung and mesothelium and in understanding the mechanisms regulating malignant mesothelioma development and growth. His research includes studies using cells and animal models to investigate biological mechanisms which have been translated into human studies using tissues, cells and fluids collected from clinical colleagues. He has obtained funding in Australia and overseas, including NHMRC and MRFF project grants, US Dept of Defence grants and a Clinical Centre for Research Excellence. He was the recipient of a Cancer Council WA Research Fellowship in 2013 and in 2014 he was awarded the International Mesothelioma Interest Group (IMIG) Service Award. In 2016 he received the Cancer Council Western Australia Cancer Research Career Achievement Award.
Associate Professor Mutsaers has published over 100 manuscripts in leading international scientific journals and books. He has had regular invitations to chair sessions and present his work at national and international scientific meetings, including invited symposium lectures at thoracic, cancer and fibrosis meetings in Australia, Asia, UK, Europe, North and Central America. His students have also presented their work at local, national and international meetings and have won numerous awards for their research.
Associate Professor Mutsaers sits on the editorial board of six international journals, is an associate editor for the Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine and sits on several grant review panels for a number of local, national and international granting bodies. He has held executive positions on several national and international societies, including President of the International Mesothelioma Interest Group (IMIG) and WA President of the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand. He also serves on a number of University committees and has organised several international conferences on mesothelioma and lung fibrosis. He has established active research collaborations with groups within Australia, the Netherlands, the UK and USA. He has successfully supervised 13 PhD students, three clinical MSc students in Surgical Science and over 20 Honours students.