Research

Since the mid 1990's I have been developing airway gene transfer methods to achieve a safe and effective treatment or cure for clinical use for the lung disease of cystic fibrosis. I have led the Adelaide CF Airway Gene Therapy group since establishing it in 1997. My establishment of reliable and effective in-vivo airway gene vector dosing and gene expression measurement has been coupled with developing effective, rapid and non-invasive measurement of airway health in CF airways using synchrotron and other X-rays along with other in-vivo imaging such as bio-photonic techniques based on luciferase gene transfer.

My interest and expertise covers three themes:

(1) Development of novel analysis methods with potentially wide applicability. Starting with novel measurements of single-neuron activity in the Aplysia animal model in-vivo (Science 221, 1203-, 1983), I have championed development of synchrotron X-ray imaging to investigate animal airway health and physiology in-vivo. 

(2) Enablement of practical advances in medical therapy with potentially fundamental value, demonstrated by the >30 years efforts in development of airway gene transfer for treatment or cure of CF airway disease. This theme advanced into the translational preclinical arena with trials of airway gene transfer in a non-human primate lung model.

(3) The last theme is the fostering of new and often cross-discipline collaborations, local and worldwide. My expansion into synchrotron X-ray physics to develop new airway health outcome measurements, based at the Japanese SPring-8 synchrotron, accompanied the provision of rodent animal model studies that formed the basis of X-ray velocimetry, now a well-accepted new method for assessing ventilation in all parts of the lung in animals and humans.

I have continually supervised Honors and PhD students to foster their research careers, and I played a key role in establishing a community-based research Foundation (www.cure4cf.org) that supplemented and supported the continuity, resilience, and bridging-salary needs of our CF airway gene therapy research program in the 2010's.