Our researchers

Professor Colin Masters has focused his career on research in Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases, including Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Prof Masters’ career over the last 40 years is widely acknowledged as having had a major influence on Alzheimer’s disease research worldwide, particularly the collaborative studies conducted with Konrad Beyreuther in which they discovered the proteolytic neuronal origin of the Aβ amyloid protein which causes Alzheimer’s disease. Along with chairing the AIBL Scientific Management Committee, he is co-lead of the Australian Dementia Network (ADNeT) and Screening and Trials initiative.

More recently, his focus has been on describing the natural history of Alzheimer’s disease as a necessary preparatory step for therapeutic disease modification. His work has led to the continued development of diagnostics and therapeutic strategies and has been recognized by the receipt of many international awards. Prof Masters is also a Clarivate Web of Science “Highly Cited Researcher”.

Professor Ashley Bush is a professor neuroscience and psychiatry at the University of Melbourne and Clinical Lead for the Mental Health Theme of the Florey Institute of Neuroscience & Mental Health. A practicing psychiatrist, he achieved his PhD with Prof Colin Masters and did post-doctoral studies with Prof Rudolph Tanzi at Harvard Medical School.

His research over more than 30 years focuses on the role of metals in the pathophysiology of Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases, as well as bringing a blood test for Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis to clinical use in Australia. He has authored over 530 research papers, with over 80,000 citations and a H-index of 132 (Google Scholar). He is a Clarivates Highly-cited researcher.

Dr Liang Jin is a research fellow at the University of Melbourne with research interest in the development of therapeutics/formulations and biomarkers for the treatment and diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases including AD. During his research career, he has gained extensive experience with molecular biology techniques, imaging, animal surgeries, rodent behavioural assessment, LC MS assay development, and proteome and transcriptome technology.

He has 28 publications so far (50% of them as first author) and another one publication submitted as corresponding author. Since the award of Alzheimer’s Association Research Fellowship in 2018, he has commenced the research project to elucidate and target the neuroinflammation for the treatment of AD, and has established a fully functioning lab space in the Dementia Theme within Melbourne Dementia Research Centre (The University of Melbourne) and collaborated closely with several internal and external biomarker and lymphatic research groups (Prof. Masters at The University of Melbourne, Prof. Martins at Macquarie university, A/Prof. Trevaskis and A/Prof. Lim at Monash University) utilizing state-of-the-art genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and lipidomics approaches to explore the potential molecules for the detection and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. He is a current member of the Scientific Management Steering Committee of AIBL in Melbourne (Australia), which is a longitudinal cohort study focused on investigating the natural history of AD. His research has been funded by NHMRC, NIH, Alzheimer’s Association, philanthropic foundations and industry partners. He is currently leading a couple of projects aiming to develop validated blood or CSF markers associated with learning deficit in AD that could be used for early prognosis/diagnosis, initiation of prevention strategies in those at risk and monitoring of therapeutic efficacy in clinical trials.

Associate Professor Scott Ayton is an NHMRC Leadership Fellow (L1), Director of the NHRMC Centre of Research Excellence in Enhanced Dementia Diagnosis and head of the Translational Neurodegeneration Laboratory at the Florey Institute.

Dr. Ayton pursues both laboratory (biochemistry & physiology) and clinical research (fluid & imaging biomarkers, clinical trial) in neurodegenerative diseases to discover the underlying causes of these diseases, to develop better diagnostics, and to intervene with new therapeutics.

Kevin is a Research Associate in Neuroscience at Edith Cowan University who joined the Sir James McCusker Alzheimer’s Disease Research Unit, Perth in 1993. Kevin was instrumental in developing the novel invention of Professor Ralph Martins to identify inhibitors of beta amyloid induced toxicity and evaluating the therapeutic efficacy of candidate drugs.

Kevin is now Research Manager within the Neuroscience Research Group, supporting clinical research projects, including the Australian Imaging, Biomarkers and Lifestyle (AIBL) flagship study of ageing.

National Dementia Diagnostics Laboratory (NDDL).

The Florey, University of Melbourne, Australia

A/Prof Qiao-Xin Li has a long-standing record of research, especially in biomarker testing for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and related disorders, and is nationally and internationally recognised, with >150 publications. This has advanced the understanding of AD and other neurodegenerative diseases and neuropsychiatric disorders through the study of molecular biomarkers in patient samples and animal models. This is now translating into clinical practice through the development of biomarker-based diagnostic and precision medicine theragnostic tests for early dementia and psychosis. Together with Directors Professor Colin Masters and Professor Steven Collins, we have established the NATA-accredited National Dementia Diagnostics Laboratory (NDDL) to support clinical trials, routine practice, and commercial collaborations. She is a member of the AIBL biomarker team since its inception in 2007.

Paul Maruff is a psychologist whose expertise is in the assessment of cognitive change in individuals with, or at risk of, neurodegenerative disease.  He has also contributed to the design, execution, analysis, and communication of cognitive outcome from clinical trials of licensed and experimental medicines that act on the central nervous system, that have been sponsored by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and by academic investigators

Dr Jo Robertson is Senior Research Fellow at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, University of Melbourne. She is a University of Melbourne PhD, AHPRA-endorsed, practicing senior clinical neuropsychologist who assesses and diagnoses Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases in a complex, culturally and linguistically diverse population comprising patients aged 65 or older with multiple medical and psychiatric comorbidities.

Robertson has worked for 10+ years with the AIBL and ADNeT research groups, renowned for their contribution to the development and validation of Fluid, imaging and cognitive markers for the early detection and diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease pathology. She coordinates a national screening and trials program via which she manages 6 research teams around Australia who conduct detailed biomarker, cognitive and clinical phenotyping of older Australians with or without dementia and refer suitable candidates to local intervention trials as appropriate. Robertson sits on the scientific management committee of the AIBL study. She has contributed to the validation of CSF and PET biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease, which are now used routinely in research diagnosis, and are envisaged to be incorporated into revised clinical diagnostic criteria as the landscape for disease-modifying therapies evolves. She is closely involved in establishing and delivering upon commercial and academic collaborations with international pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology organisations, and investigator-initiated research projects. She contributes regularly to basic research activities and manuscript preparation. She has consulted for Roche Australia and CogState Ltd with respect to considerations of interventional trial design. Robertson is a Psychology Board of Australia-approved supervisor, involved in supervision of post graduate neuropsychology trainees, junior psychologists, and research students. She is engaged occasionally in print and screen media appearances, presentation of work at domestic and international conferences, peer-reviewing manuscripts for academic publications, and marking academic dissertations.

Professor Chris Rowe BMBS, FRACP, MD, FAANMS is a nuclear medicine physician and neurologist, with over 20 years of experience in dementia research and patient care. He introduced amyloid PET imaging into Australia in 2004 and has been imaging leader for AIBL since its inception in 2006.  Prof. Rowe and his team apply state-of-the-art neuroimaging technology to develop new diagnostic tests and biomarkers and support early intervention clinical trials in Alzheimer’s disease.

He is the Director of Molecular Imaging Research at Austin Health, Melbourne, Professorial Fellow University of Melbourne, a NHMRC Practitioner Fellow and is the inaugural Director of the Australian Dementia Network. His research focus is molecular imaging of neurodegenerative diseases, particularly AD, for better understanding, earlier more accurate detection, and to facilitate development of early therapeutic interventions.

He has over 400 publications and is in the 2022 Highly Cited Researcher list of the top 1% world-wide for neuroscience and has received the 2011 US Society of Nuclear Medicine Kuhl-Lassen Award for Outstanding Contribution to Brain Imaging and the 2016 Christopher Clark Award for advancing human amyloid imaging. He has named by THE AUSTRALIAN as the research leader for Geriatric Medicine in Australia each year from 2019-2022.

Dr Jurgen Fripp is Group Leader of Biomedical Informatics at CSIRO. He obtained a PhD in medical image analysis from The University of Queensland, under the supervision of Prof Crozier and Dr Ourselin. Along his role in AIBL, he is co-lead of the Australian Dementia Network (ADNeT) Technology initiative.

His research focus has been on the development and validation of medical image analysis and AI/ML methods to extract imaging biomarkers accurately from MRI and PET. More recently, he has focused on the use of AI/ML techniques (with imaging) to predict clinical outcomes. In his 5 recent years, he has led the research and development of a suite of software technologies including cloud-based applications for PET (CapAIBL) and MRI (CurAIBL, HIST) that are now used routinely in AIBL and other studies.

Professor Ralph N. Martins has dedicated the last 38 years to Alzheimer’s disease (AD) research and is widely acknowledged as a world leader in the field. His insight into this devastating disease has led to several ground-breaking discoveries, including the seminal discovery of beta-amyloid and its precursor, the amyloid precursor protein (APP) (while at Prof. Colin Masters’ lab) found in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients and now universally acknowledged as being fundamental to the molecular pathogenesis of AD.

Another landmark discovery has been identifying oxidative stress in the Alzheimer brain. Targeting beta amyloid and oxidative stress is now the focus of clinical research into prevention and treatment, and a target of the global pharmaceutical industry. Martins and his team have been at the forefront globally in developing non-invasive and cost-effective early diagnostics for pre-clinical AD. They have progressed a cutting-edge program of biomarker candidates for AD screening encompassing retinal amyloid imaging, proteomic and lipidomic analysis of blood and cerebrospinal fluid. Prof Martins and his team are also progressing a highly innovative program of therapeutic strategies and preventative interventions in pre-clinical AD. The reach and significance of Prof. Martins’ research is evidenced by more than 538 peer-reviewed publications (over 200 in the past 5 years), several in high-impact journals such as Nature, Lancet, the Journal of the American Medical Association, the New England Journal of Medicine, Molecular Psychiatry and Journal of Biological Chemistry. Over the last five years his publications have been cited over 30979 times, and he has an H-index of 88 (Scopus). Furthermore, in recognition of Prof. Martins’ outstanding achievements in AD research, he was awarded the highly prestigious Western Australian of the Year in 2010, the Western Australia’s Citizen of the Year (Professions) in 2011 and Officer of the Order of Australia in 2013.

Associate Professor Stephanie Rainey-Smith obtained a PhD in Neuroscience from King’s College London, under the supervision of Drs. Robert Williams and Marcus Rattray. Continuing her work in the area of neurodegenerative diseases, Stephanie joined Professor Ralph Martins’ team in the Centre of Excellence for Alzheimer’s disease Research and Care, based at Edith Cowan University (ECU), Western Australia

Stephanie plays a lead role in the Clinical and Preventative Strategies group at ECU, investigating lifestyle factors such as diet, sleep and physical activity, as well as nutraceutical agents, as potential preventative and therapeutic interventions for Alzheimer’s disease. Since 2011, Stephanie has also successfully coordinated the Western Australian arm of the Australian Imaging, Biomarkers and Lifestyle (AIBL) flagship study of ageing. Stephanie plays a leading research role in the Lifestyle stream of AIBL as well as making significant contributions to the Biomarker stream. Stephanie’s primary research focus is the identification of lifestyle factors which impact upon cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s-related pathology.

Associate Professor Brown is the Head of Graduate Research Education and Steering Committee Member in the Centre for Healthy Ageing at Murdoch University. Her expertise lies in examining the role of lifestyle in maintaining a healthy brain throughout ageing.

Her research programme applies a multidisciplinary approach to understand the ways in which lifestyle factors, specifically physical activity and exercise, protect the brain in older adulthood. The overall message from this body of research is that cognitive function, brain volume and dementia-related pathologies are changeable in later life, and exercise is a factor that may contribute to enhancing optimal brain health profiles.

Professor Simon Laws is Professor of Translational Genomics and Associate Dean of Medical and Exercises Sciences at Edith Cowan University (ECU). He is the Director of the Centre for Precision Health (CPH) where he leads the Neurological Conditions Stream and the Collaborative Genomics and Translation Research Group.

His research focus is on understanding the role of genomics in human health, particularly neurological conditions with an emphasis on Alzheimer’s disease. His research applies a Precision Health perspective, which aims to improve health outcomes through tailored clinical applications, including diagnostic and risk-stratification profiles and interventions (i.e. treatment/preventative strategies) based on an individual’s (or groups) biological (i.e genetic) factors and their variable responses to their environment/lifestyle. Professor Laws has published over 175 papers, which have been cited across over 25 disciplines from over 90 countries. He has secured research funding of over $27 million from competitive grant applications for medical research. Professor Laws is a member of the Australian Imaging, Biomarkers and Lifestyle (AIBL) Study’s Scientific Management Committee and leads the Genomics Stream. Professor Laws has significant international collaborations with leading genetics researchers and linkages into industry, including active research with large pharmaceutical companies. In 2019, he was awarded the highest research award at ECU – The Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Research.

Dr Tenielle Porter is a postdoctoral research fellow at Edith Cowan University (ECU), Perth. She is currently the Deputy Group Leader of the Collaborative Genomics and Translation Group and the Deputy Neurological Conditions Theme Lead of ECU’s Centre for Precision Health. Her research aims to investigate the genetic factors that influence disease onset and progression in Alzheimer’s disease, and further how lifestyle factors could be involved in this complex process. Dr Porter’s research focuses on the development of polygenic risk scores and profiles for the prediction of disease onset and rate of symptom progression in preclinical Alzheimer’s disease. She has published extensively on independent and combinatorial genetic approaches for the identification associations with measures of longitudinal cognitive performance.

Dr Jurgen Fripp is Group Leader of Biomedical Informatics at CSIRO. He obtained a PhD in medical image analysis from The University of Queensland, under the supervision of Prof Crozier and Dr Ourselin. Along his role in AIBL, he is co-lead of the Australian Dementia Network (ADNeT) Technology initiative.

His research focus has been on the development and validation of medical image analysis and AI/ML methods to extract imaging biomarkers accurately from MRI and PET. More recently, he has focused on the use of AI/ML techniques (with imaging) to predict clinical outcomes. In his 5 recent years, he has led the research and development of a suite of software technologies including cloud-based applications for PET (CapAIBL) and MRI (CurAIBL, HIST) that are now used routinely in AIBL and other studies.

AIBL Business Development Chair

Larry is a highly experienced biotechnology executive with broad R&D, product development, corporate and business development expertise. He has more than 25 years experience in the biotechnology industry at companies including Medicines Development for Global Health, Virax and AMRAD spanning from Laboratory Director through to COO and CEO. Larry has a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Queensland. His pedigree in Biotechnology is underpinned by a strong research background, having worked as a senior researcher for over 10 years in leading Australian and international organisations. Larry heads the business development function at AIBL as well as the Australian Dementia Network.