Flinders experts join national health and medical sciences academy

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Professor Keryn Williams with Professor Ian Frazer.

Professor in Ophthalmology at Flinders University Keryn Williams has become a fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences.

She has joined Professor Ross McKinnon among 50 new fellows inducted at the AAHMS second annual scientific meeting in Brisbane this week.

AAHMS President Professor Ian Frazer said the new fellows “will help to ensure that the Academy can promote use of the best in research-informed health care for all Australians”.

Covering all aspects of health and medical science in clinical practice and allied health care, all 272 fellows have demonstrated significant and sustained contribution to the science of health in Australia.

Professor Williams (BSc PhD), NHMRC Principal Research Fellow in the Department of Ophthalomology at Flinders, is the scientific director of the Australian Corneal Graft Registry.

The registry contains records of more than 30,000 corneal transplants, some of which have been followed for 20-30 years, which helps to inform clinical practice and to identify risk factors for poor patient outcomes.

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Professor Ross McKinnon

Professor Williams’s research includes corneal transplantation, novel drugs and devices for ophthalmic use, and aberrant ocular angiogenesis.

Flinders School of Medicine PhD graduate Professor Ross McKinnon (BPharm, BSc, PhD, FGLF, FFIP), who is Director of the Flinders Centre for Innovation in Cancer, became a fellow of the International Pharmaceutical Federation in 2014.

His research interests are in pharmacology, pharmaceutical biotechnology and molecular oncology and is a co-inventor of patents relating to cancer chemo-prevention (PharmaQest) and the discovery of novel anti-inflammatory compounds.

Other Flinders University fellows include Professor Michael Kidd, Professor Paul Worley, Professor Julio Licinio, Professor Karen Reynolds, Professor Justine Smith, Professor David Currow, Professor David Watson, and also Professor Steve Wesselingh, Executive Director of the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) who spoke at the AAHMS conference on what to look forward to under the Medical Research Future Fund.

Professor John McGrath, Director of the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research at the University of Queensland, joined Professor Frazer in congratulating the new fellows. “(They) bring great skills and experience to our academy – the depth of talent in the Australian health and medical research community is truly inspirational.”

The academy was established independent of government to speak authoritatively on health and medical science issues.

 

 

 

 

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