Node Directors

University of Queensland:
Node Director
Prof Ian Brereton

Professor Ian Brereton has over 20 years experience in the application of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance to the chemical and biomedical sciences. His current research interests are in structural biology, magnetic resonance engineering, hyperpolarised noble gas imaging and molecular imaging. Prof Brereton is the inaugural Director of the Queensland NMR Network established to provide state-of-the-art, high field nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) facilities, including a 900 MHz high-resolution spectrometer and a 700 MHz microimaging facility. Prof Brereton has interest and experience in commercialisation of research and was a co-founding Director of a spin off company Spin Systems (QLD) that develops and manufactures MR imaging hardware. In 2006, this company was acquired by US-based m2m Imaging Corporation and he remains a director of the Brisbane subsidiary.

Postal Address:
Centre for Advanced Imaging
Building 57,
University of Queensland
St Lucia, Qld 4072
Australia

P: +61 7 3365 4245 | E: ian.brereton@cai.uq.edu.au

University of Sydney:
Node Director
Prof Richard Banati

Professor Richard Banati is an internationally recognized scientist with interdisciplinary research interests in the brain's innate immune system and the development of advanced medical imaging for the non-invasive study of brain function. Professor Banati currently holds an ANSTO Distinguished Researcher Fellowship in a cross-institutional life sciences team that has unique access to a range of methodologies, including microPET/CT, microSPECT, life cell imaging, impedance spectrometry, quartz crystal microbalance measures, and protein structure analysis by x-ray and neutron-based techniques.

Postal Address:
Faculty of Health Sciences
University of Sydney
Sydney, NSW 2006
Australia

P: +61 2 9351 0848 | E: richard.banati@sydney.edu.au

University of New South Wales:
Node Director
Prof Caroline (Lindy) Rae

Caroline Rae is Professor of Brain Sciences at UNSW and has a background in biochemistry, magnetic resonance technologies and interdisciplinary brain research. Her research spans basic and clinical brain research with the overall aim of discovering how brain biochemistry underlies brain function. She has 20 years experience in NMR and 15 years experience in MR applications in vivo.

Postal Address:
Neuroscience Research Australia
Barker Street
Randwick, NSW 2031
Australia

P: +61 2 9399 1211 | E: c.rae@neura.edu.au

University of New South Wales:
Deputy Node Director
Prof Gary Housley

Director, Translational Neuroscience Facility & Chair of Physiology, School of Medical Sciences, Chair of the Biomedical Research Advisory Group, Faculty of Medicine. The Translational Neuroscience Facility (TNF) was established in the School of Medical Sciences as a research core with advanced electrophysiology, biophotonics and gene delivery platforms to support research and graduate training in brain sciences addressing neurological disorders. The TNF supports intravital multi-photon physiological imaging and integrates with complementary animal imaging modalities of the UNSW Animal Imaging Facility (part of the UNSW NIF node).

Postal Address:
Translational Neuroscience Facility
School of Medical Sciences
The University of New South Wales
UNSW Sydney, NSW 2052
Australia

P: +61 2 9385 1057 | E: g.housley@unsw.edu.au

University of Western Sydney:
Node Director
Prof William S. Price

Prof Price is Professor of Nanotechnology and directs the Biomedical Magnetic Resonance Facility at UWS. He has more than 20 years experience in NMR. His research interests focus on the theoretical and practical development of NMR diffusion measurements and magnetic resonance imaging techniques for studying molecular association (e.g., drug binding and protein self-association) and molecular dynamics (including restricted diffusion in porous systems). He also has interests in the development and applications of MRI technology into areas such as studying freezing injury in plants.

Postal Address:
Locked Bag 1797
Penrith South DC
New South Wales 1797
Australia

P: +61 2 4620 3336 | E: w.price@uws.edu.au

The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health:
Node Director
Prof Graeme Jackson

Professor Graeme Jackson is the Deputy Director of the Florey Neuroscience Institutes and Director of the Brain Research Institute, Australia. Graeme holds a number of other positions, both clinical and academic. He is a Professorial Fellow of the Department of Medicine, Austin Health, University of Melbourne. Professor Jackson's major research achievement is his impact on the understanding of epilepsy. He is a world leader on the use of imaging technologies in neurological disease, and has combined these interests to advance the understanding of epilepsy and to identify lesions that allow surgical cure of epilepsy. He was awarded the National Health and Medical Research Council Excellence Award.

Postal Address:
Melbourne Brain Centre
245 Burgundy Street
Heidelberg
Victoria 3084
Australia

P: +61 3 9035 7068 | E: gjackson@brain.org.au

University of Melbourne:
Node Director
Prof Roger Ordidge

Prof Ordidge is the Director of the Melbourne Brain Imaging Centre (MBIC), and also the Chair for Imaging Science in the Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience, at the University of Melbourne. Having held numerous senior research positions in both industry and academia, Prof Roger Ordidge is a pioneer in MRI technology. He has over 20 years of research expertise in the development and clinical application of Megnetic Resonance Imaging. Prof Ordidge and the University of Melbourne Node has joined NIF in 2011, housing Siemens combined PET/CT scanner, and 7T Tesla whole body MRI (operational in 2013).

Postal Address:
Centre for Neuroscience Research
Alan Gilbert Building,
University of Melbourne, Parkville
Victoria 3010
Australia

P: +61 3 8344 1953 | E: roger.ordidge@unimelb.edu.au

Monash University:
Node Director & NIF Deputy Director of Operations
Prof Gary Egan

Gary Egan is an NHMRC Principal Research Fellow and the Professor and Director of Monash Biomedical Imaging, a research platform that encompasses the biomedical imaging research facilities currently being established at Monash University. He has published over 150 papers and over 250 abstracts in peer reviewed journals. He undertakes high resolution structural and functional brain mapping research and clinical neuroimaging research in Multiple Sclerosis and Huntington's disease. He is also lead investigator of the Victorian Biomedical Imaging Capability and the Deputy Director of the Australian National Imaging Facility. For further information on Monash Biomedical Imaging (MBI) please refer to the MBI Research Platform brochure and MBI Overview.

Postal Address:
Monash Biomedical Imaging (MBI)
Bldg 220, 770 Blackburn Rd
Monash University, Melbourne
Victoria 3800
Australia

P: +61 3 9902 9750 | E: gary.egan@monash.edu.au

Swinburne University of Technology:
Node Director
Prof Susan Rossell

Prof Susan Rossell has over 15 years experience in the application of neuroimaging techniques to the understanding of clinical disorders. She has expertise in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Electroencephalography and Magnetoencephalography (MEG). Prof Rossell is the inaugural Principal of Neuroimaging at the brand-new state-of-the-art Neuroimaging Facilities at Swinburne University. These Facilities include, Siemens 3T MRI, Elekta Neuromag MEG, EEG laboratories, TMS laboratories and eye tracking facilities.

Postal Address:
Brain & Psychological Sciences Research Centre (BPsyC)
Swinburne University of Technology
Burwood Rd
Hawthorn, Victoria 3800
Australia

P: +61 3 9214 8173 | E: srossell@groupwise.swin.edu.au

Dr Tim Kuchel

Large Animal Research & Imaging Facility:
Node Director
Dr Tim Kuchel

LARIF is the large animal models of human disease development facility located in Adelaide. A fully serviced operating theatre complex complete with a 1.5T Siemens Sonata MRI is available exclusively for researchers using large animals (sheep and pigs). The surgical suites and supporting services is linked to a large animal holding facility. This facility will have provision for experimental rooms, tissue collection facility plus a cold room, deep litter sheep pens, pig pens to hold 20-30 pigs individually, and rooms to hold sheep in expandable metabolism crates. The facility will also have a workshop for physicists to design and create new RF coils to optimise MR images for example. The facility is planned to be operational by September 2008, and it will initially house the 1.5T MRI as well as a DEXA scanner, Image Intensifier equipment, and telemetric physiological monitoring equipment for large and small animals.

Postal Address:
SAHMRI - Preclinical, Imaging and Research Laboratory
101 Blacks Road
Gilles Plains, South Australia 5086
Australia

P: +61 8 8161 5155 | E: tim.kuchel@sahmri.com

University of Western Australia:
Node Director
Winthrop Prof David Sampson

Winthrop Prof Sampson is the Director of the Centre for Microscopy, Characterisation & Analysis (CMCA), a core facility of the University of Western Australia, and heads the Optical+Biomedical Engineering Laboratory (OBEL) in the School of Electrical, Electronic & Computer Engineering. He also directs the Western Australian node of the Australian Microscopy & Microanalysis Research Facility (AMMRF) and the Western Australian State Government's Centre for eMedicine. He leads the University's Bioimaging Initiative aimed at increasing the uptake and quality of microscopic imaging and related technologies in medicine and the life sciences. W/Prof Sampson's research interests are in biomedical optical engineering, with an emphasis on photonics, imaging and microscopy. He and his team are involved in activities ranging from the invention and investigation of new optical techniques, to the engineering of these techniques into practical instruments, and their application in clincial medicine and biology.

Postal Address:
CMCA
The University of Western Australia
M010, 35 Stirling Highway
Crawley, WA 6009
Australia

P: +61 8 6488 7112 | E: david.sampson@uwa.edu.au

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NIF Founding Nodes