Keynote SPEAKERS

Kathleen Pritchett-Corning

Director and Attending Veterinarian, Office of Animal Resources, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Wayne Hawthorne

Professor of Transplantation, Department of Surgery, University of Sydney
Director, National Pancreas and Islet Transplant Laboraties, Westmead Hospital

Professor Wayne Hawthorne is Professor of Transplantation at the Department of Surgery, University of Sydney, he is the Director of the National Pancreas and Islet Transplant Laboratories, at Westmead Hospital, Westmead. He is the Immediate Past President of the International Xenotransplantation Association (IXA) the current President of the Australasian College of Biomedical Sciences (ACBMS), Chairman of the Xenotransplantation Working Group of The Transplantation Society of Australia and New Zealand (TSANZ) and Chairman of the Western Sydney Local Health District Animal Ethics Committee. Chairman of the Xenotransplant Working Party for Development of Xenotransplant Regulations International for IXA and World Health Organization (WHO).  

Professor Hawthorne’s career has focused on treatments for Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) having established the laboratory and the techniques to perform islet cell isolation for Australia's First Clinical Islet Transplant program. Paralleling the clinical program Prof. Hawthorne has dedicated his research career to establishing Australia’s Islet Cell and Xenotransplantation research programs, having ongoing NH&MRC, JDRF grants >25 years, he has developed the Westmead non-human-primate facility and has extensive small and large animal surgical and anaesthetic expertise that few others have in Australia. He has decades of expertise for training of large animals including NHP’s in research along with handling, husbandry, and postoperative expertise. Having performed all organ donor surgery, islet cell isolations and transplants for the Islet and Xeno research programs for over 25 years. He continues to oversee the islet and xenotransplant research programs at the Westmead facility and remains dedicated to continuing to develop and provide the most Ethical and humane ways to run medical research projects and ensure their translation to the clinic along with the training of many scientists, clinicians and surgeons.  

Robert H. Quinn, DVM, DACLAM

SUNY Upstate Medical University, Department of Laboratory Animal Resources
President, American Association for Laboratory Animal Science (AALAS)

Dr. Quinn is currently Senior Director for Research Integrity and Director of the Department of Laboratory Animal Resources at SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse where he has worked for the past 24 years. Prior to that he was the Associate Director at the LSU Medical Center in New Orleans, LA. He received a bachelor’s degree from Utah State University and then his D.V.M. from Colorado State University in 1991. From there he did a 3-year residency in laboratory animal medicine at the University of Michigan. He is a diplomat of the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine (ACLAM). He has been a member of national AALAS for more than 30 years and currently serves as the Vice President. He has been active on many committees at the national level and is currently serving as an Emeritus Council Member for AAALAC, Int.

Briony Gliddon

Research Fellow, University of Adelaide

Dr Briony Gliddon completed a Bachelor of Science with Honours at the University of Adelaide before undertaking a PhD in the Lysosomal Diseases Research Unit at the Adelaide Women’s and Children’s Hospital. Upon completing her PhD, she undertook postdoctoral research at the Bio21 Molecular Science and Biotechnology Institute in Melbourne. Dr Gliddon was recruited to the Molecular Therapeutics Laboratory at the Centre for Cancer Biology in 2008 where she co-heads the brain tumour therapeutics group. She has developed advanced pre-clinical mouse models of a fatal brain tumour called glioblastoma and is using these mouse models to interrogate novel glioblastoma therapies.

Paul Thomas

SA Genome Editing Program, University of Adelaide & SAHMRI

Prof Paul Thomas leads the Genome Editing Program and SA Genome Editing Facility at the University of Adelaide and South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute. His research focuses on the development of CRISPR/CAS9 genome editing technology for a range of applications including genetic therapies for eye and muscle disease, generation and analysis of mouse models for neurodevelopmental disorders and synthetic gene drives for invasive rodent pest suppression. He has published >130 scientific articles and has >12,000 citations.

Paul Verma

South Australian Research And Development Institute

Paul, a reproductive biologist with over 30 years of experience, specializes in assisted reproductive technologies and research translation from humans to large animals. His career includes initiating and overseeing research programs in both corporate and academic sectors, notably at Monash, where he reported the first international findings on cattle, sheep, and endangered felid iPSCs, and Australia's first mouse and human iPSCs. He leads livestock research at SARDI, has over 100 publications, featured in Nature, and has edited three books for Springer Nature. His research interests include embryology, stem-cell biology, and genetic modulation, focusing on innovative biotechniques to address industry challenges.