Symposium Program

8.30 am Registration

9.00 am Introduction and Welcome

Welcome
Welcome to country
Opening from Hon Roger Cook, Deputy Premier

9.25 am Session 1

Institute for Respiratory Health – The first 20 years

9.25 am
Professor Philip Thompson, Institute for Respiratory Health and Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital
“The Institute for Respiratory Health – 20 years in the making“

9.45 am
Plenary Presentation
Professor Darryl Knight, President, Providence Health Care Research Institute, VP, Research & Academic Affairs, Providence Health Care and Associate Dean – Research, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia
“Journey to the centre of the lung: Barriers, dogma and the Matrix”

10.15 am
Associate Professor Steven Mutsaers, Tissue Repair Unit, Institute for Respiratory Health
“Mesothelioma: Dark side of the lung”

10.30 am
Dr Anna Tai, Cystic Fibrosis Unit, Institute for Respiratory Health and Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital
“Update on research at the WA Adult Cystic Fibrosis Centre”

Morning Tea, 10.45 am – 11.15 am

11.15 am Session 2

Respiratory –Omics; clarity or confusion?

11.15 am
Plenary Presentation
Dr Anthony Bosco, Telethon Kids Institute
“Decoding respiratory disease with Systems Biology”

11.40 am
Dr Melvin Chin, NCARD, The University of Western Australia
“Dichotomising in high dimensions – using genomic data to explore phenotypes with bulk and single-cell data”

11.55 am
Dr Sally Lansley, Pleural Medicine Unit, Institute for Respiratory Health
“Metabolomics in pleural effusion: A novel tool to improve the diagnosis and treatment of mesothelioma”

12.10 pm
Dr Britt Clynick, Stem Cell Unit, Institute for Respiratory Health
“Molecular determinants of IPF progression”

12.25 pm
Dr Patricia Agudelo-Romero, Telethon Kids Institute
“Using a multi-omic approach to assess primary airway epithelial responses to rhinovirus infection in children with and without cystic fibrosis”

12.40 pm
Dr Ingrid Laing, Telethon Kids Institute
“Can we predict the development of asthma using metabolomic biomarkers? A pilot study”

Lunch and poster session, 12.55 pm – 2.30 pm

2.30 pm Session 3

Lung Disease – emerging targets and therapies

2.30 pm
Plenary Presentation
Associate Professor Fiona Pixley, University of Western Australia
“Restraining tumour associated macrophages to treat invasive cancers”

2.55 pm
Associate Professor Alex Larcombe, Telethon Kids Institute
“What’s new in e-cigarette research”

3.15 pm
Associate Professor Phil Burcham, University of Western Australia
“Chemico-pharmacological strategies for blocking the toxicity of the inhaled pollutant acrolein”

3.30 pm
Professor Grant Waterer, Royal Perth Hospital
“Shifting the paradigm for non tuberculous mycobacterium disease”

3.45 pm
Clinical Associate Professor Siobhain Mulrennan, Cystic Fibrosis Unit, Institute for Respiratory Health and Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital
“Clinical trials and the evolution of CFTR modulator therapy”

4.00 pm
Dr Peter Noble, University of Western Australia
“Mechanopharmacology”

4.15 pm
Dr Deirdre Fitzgerald, Pleural Medicine Unit, Institute for Respiratory Health and Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital
“Novel Clinical Trials in Pleural Disease”

Afternoon tea and break, 4.30pm – 5.00pm

5.00 pm Oration

“Turning tears into medicines for serious lung disease”

Professor Gary Anderson, Director of the Lung Health Research Centre, University of Melbourne

In keeping with Phil Thompson’s never-ending quest for excellence and innovation in Australian science, Professor Gary Anderson will talk about a project that has taken well over 10 years and involved overcoming some very difficult problems.

The idea that science could turn human tears into life-saving medicines for lung diseases may seem improbable, but it is now reality.

And even more remarkably, this entire story starts with a butterfly…