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Science and Ethics Committee

The Science and Ethics Committee is a group of leading Australian stem cell scientists who provide advice to the NSCFA on scientific and ethical issues relating to stem cell research, the needs of researchers in Australia, public education and awareness, and importantly on government and regulatory developments.

Emeritus Professor Graham Macdonald AM, MD, BS, BSc (Med), FRACP, FRCP, FANZCC (Non-Executive, Deputy Chairman)

Deputy Chairman of the Company, Professor Macdonald brings a wealth of experience in clinical medicine, basic biomedical science and in the field of licensing and commercialisation to the Company. He has had an outstanding career first as an academic nephrologist, and then moving into the pharmaceutical industry with Merck Sharp and Dohme (Australia). During this time he successfully brokered a number of high profile agreements including a US$100 million-plus deal with AMRAD (now Zenyth Therapeutics) to develop a new asthma treatment. Graham is currently a director and Chairman of Vectus Biosciences Limited and director and chairman of Stem Cells Limited. In June 2012 Professor Macdonald received an Australian Queen's Birthday Honour in the General Division of the Order of Australia for ‘service to biomedical research in the areas of hypertension and renal disease, to medical education, to the promotion and awareness raising of organ donation, and as a mentor’.

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Professor Caroline Gargett BApplSci, MApplSci, PhD (Non-Executive Director)

Professor Gargett is currently Deputy Director (Women’s Health) at the Ritchie Centre and is also a National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Senior Research Fellow. In 2002 Professor Gargett discovered adult stem cells in the endometrium, the lining of the uterus, changing our understanding of how the endometrium regenerates each month. She leads a collaborative project with the CSIRO Future Manufacturing Flagship to investigate the use of endometrial mesenchymal stem cells for a tissue engineering application in pelvic floor prolapse surgery. Her research findings are promising for the development of potential therapeutics. Professor Gargett has served as President of the Australasian Society for Stem Cell Research (2013-2014) and Secretary for the Society for Reproductive Biology (2005-2008). She is/has been on the Editorial Boards for Fertility and Sterility (2011-2014), Biology of Reproduction (since 2013), and Reproductive Sciences (since 2009) and is an Associate Editor of Reproductive Sciences (since 2014) and Human Reproduction (2005-2008). She convenes the Human Reproduction Module in the Bachelor of Biomedical Science course at Monash University.

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Emeritus Professor Richard Smallwood AO, MB, BS, MD, FRACP, FRCP, FACP (Hon) (Non-Executive Director)

Professor Smallwood is Emeritus Professor of Medicine, University of Melbourne. As Professor of Medicine within the University of Melbourne, he was Head of the Department of Medicine, Chairman of the Division of Medicine and Director of Gastroenterology at the Austin and Repatriation Medical Centres. Professor Smallwood was President of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians from 1996 to 1998 and was Chief Medical Officer of Australia from 1999 to 2003. Professor Smallwood has served as a chair of a large number of organisations including the NH&MRC, the National Influenza Pandemic Advisory Council, the National Health Information Management Advisory Council, the National Health Priority Action Council, the National Blood Authority and the Ministerial Taskforce for Cancer in Victoria. Professor Smallwood is currently President of the Australian Medical Council. He was until 2010 a member of the Board of Governance of the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation and, until 2009, a director of the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. He was a director of the Australian Stem Cell Centre.

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Dr Ngaire Elwood PhD, BSc(Hons), MAICD (Non-Executive Director)

Dr Ngaire Elwood is the Director of the BMDI Cord Blood Bank and Head of the Cord Blood Stem Cell Research Laboratory at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute in Melbourne. Dr Elwood has extensive experience in the field of stem cells, cellular therapy, cancer and cord blood. Her current research is aimed at understanding cord blood stem cell biology, improving cord blood transplant outcome and exploring the use of cord blood for regenerative therapies. Dr Elwood serves as Vice President of the international Board of Directors for the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT) and sits on various executive committees within FACT. She is the Regional Vice President (2018 – 2020) for the Australia New Zealand Region of the International Society for Cellular Therapy (ISCT). Previous roles include the Chair of the AusCord network of public cord blood banks and as member on the Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry National Ethics Committee.

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Professor Geoff Lindeman, BSc(Med) MB BS(Hons) PhD FRACP FAHMS FAA

Geoff Lindeman is Joint Head of the Stem Cells and Cancer Division at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow). He is also a medical oncologist and Director of the Joint Peter Mac and Royal Melbourne Hospital Familial Cancer Centre in the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre. He holds an honorary appointment as Professorial Fellow in the Department of Medicine, University of Melbourne. Lindeman leads the Centre for Translational Breast Cancer Research (TransBCR), enabled by a NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence grant. His laboratory is studying molecular and cellular regulators of normal mammary gland development and perturbations that give rise to hereditary and sporadic breast cancer. Current research is focused on characterising the mammary epithelial cell hierarchy (the progression from long-lived stem cells to progenitor cells to mature epithelial cells) and delineating key cell fate specification and survival genes in the mammary gland. His group has also generated patient derived xenograft (PDX) models that are being used in ‘proof-of-principle’ pre-clinical studies, aimed at transferring promising drugs to the clinic.

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