About NCT
Newborn Cell Therapies is an exciting field of research in perinatal medicine. With increasing survival of our sickest and most vulnerable babies, new innovations and therapies are required to give these babies the best chance of survival without long term complications.
Cell therapies (including stem cells and other biological agents) are derived from a variety of human tissue sources. These cellular agents offer promising prospects for new age innovations to improve specific organ function and outcomes.
Aim
To facilitate translation of cell therapy solutions for neonatal conditions.
Mission statement
To improve and facilitate pre-clinical and clinical research translation of neonatal cell therapy possibilities by bringing together scientists, clinicians, commercial partners, trial coordinators, clinical and research staff interested in cell therapies.
Meet the Team
Executive members
-
Co-DirectorA/Prof Atul Malhotra is a consultant neonatologist at Monash Newborn, and clinician scientist at Department of Paediatrics, Monash University and Ritchie Centre, Hudson Institute of Medical Research.
-
Professor Graham Jenkin
Using medical and networking skills to put research into practiceWith interests ranging from bones to babies and early IVF involvement, Professor Graham Jenkin is a busy man who likes to get things done. He's guiding research into antioxidant and stem cell therapies for at-risk babies, working with Mesoblast Ltd to commercialise a stem cell treatment for damaged backs and using his IVF expertise to help endangered species.
As an honorary professor of obstetrics and gynaecology, holder of a personal chair and deputy director of the Ritchie Centre at the Monash Institute of Medical Research (MIMR), clearly Graham has form.
-
Co-Director
Dr Courtney McDonald is a NHMRC Cerebral Palsy Alliance Early Career Research Fellow, working in the Neurodevelopment and Neuroprotection Research Group at The Ritchie Centre. She is a stem cell biologist, who completed her PhD at Monash University in 2013. Her research focuses on trying to understand how umbilical cord blood stem cells can be used to prevent or treat perinatal brain injury. She is also investigating which stem cell types are found in umbilical cord blood, how these populations change with disease and how these cells can reduce inflammation and contribute to brain repair.
-
A/Prof Rebecca Lim holds dual appointments at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Monash University and Deputy Director of The Ritchie Centre, Hudson Institute of Medical Research. She is also an adjunct Research Group Leader at the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute. A/Prof Lim pioneered the clinical use of allogeneic amniotic epithelial cells (hAEC). She led a dynamic team of biomedical and clinician scientists to completing a first-in-human hAEC trial in extremely premature babies with establishing severe lung disease. She is currently involved in further 5 approved hAEC clinical trials. She leads a cell manufacturing team responsible for GMP-compliant production, release and formulation of allogeneic hAECs for clinical use.
Extended Team
-
Professor Michael Fahey
In Australia, a child is born with Cerebral Palsy every 18 hours. As a physician and the Head of Paediatric Neurology at Monash Medical Centre, Dr Michael Fahey is too familiar with the human face of the condition. However, as a researcher specialising in neurogenetics, Dr Fahey also knows there is work underway that could one day lead to a cure.
-
Prof Miller is Deputy Director of the Ritchie Centre and leads the Fetal and Neonatal Health: Brain Injury and Neurodevelopment theme. Her research group provides a focus for experimental and clinical studies directed towards understanding, and inhibiting, the mechanisms that contribute to neonatal brain injury and functional deficits associated with cerebral palsy. The group comprises a multidisciplinary team of fetal physiologists, neuroscientists, stem cell biologists, brain imaging experts and neonatologists, all working towards new diagnostics and therapies to improve brain development in compromised infants. Prof Miller’s group has established preclinical models of the principal causes of pregnancy and birth complications leading to newborn brain injury – fetal growth restriction, intrauterine infection, preterm birth and birth asphyxia, and use these to interrogate the basic cellular pathways that are altered within the immature brain in response to these common but devastating complications. In turn, this knowledge underpins translational studies for targeted therapies to improve brain development.
-
Prof Rod Hunt is responsible for leadership and ongoing strategic development of newborn medicine research, and training innovation at Monash University, as well as fulfilling a clinical role at Monash Children’s Hospital.
Prof Hunt has been the Director of Neonatal Medicine at The Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne since 2010 and the Co-Director of Neonatal Research at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Melbourne. His clinical and research expertise is in the area of Neonatal Neurology.
-
Dr Tamara Yawno undertook her PhD at Monash University and was involved in studies, which showed that endogenous neurosteroid pathways in the fetal brain were essential for normal brain development. Several papers directly from this work have been highly cited and form the foundation for ongoing studies in this field and were the basis for a successful NHMRC grant. Her research group provides a focus for experimental and clinical studies directed towards understanding the mechanisms that contribute to perinatal and neonatal brain injury and functional deficits associated with cerebral palsy.
-
Kit Connelly
Suneetha Lobo
-
Chuanyu Wei
-
Tayla Penny
Ishmael (Mikee) Inocencio
Dandan Zhu
Yen Pham
Nancy Messino
Mirja Krause
Siow Chan
-
Lindsay Zhou
Abdul Razak
Ricki Marzan
Sandra Li
Kent Michelle
-
Bernard Thebaud
Manon Benders
Charles Cox
Yoshiako Sato
Won Soon Park
Augusto Zani
Madison Paton
Iona Novak
Nadia Badawi
Ngaire Elwood
Himanshu Popat
Megan Finch-Edmondson
-
Belinda Campbell
Laura Anderson
Tatum Mitchell
Brooke Hanson
-
Cell Care Australia
Generate Life Sciences
ExCellThera
Contact us
Interested in working together? Fill out some info and we will be in touch shortly. We can’t wait to hear from you!