Busselton Population Medical Research Institute (BPMRI) 

    Chairman BPMRI - Clinical Professor Bill Musk

Research Interests: Epidemiology of respiratory disease, Pulmonary physiology, Occupational lung disease

    Vice Chairman BPMRI - Clinical Associate Professor Alan James

Research Interests:  Epidemiology of respiratory disease, Pulmonary physiology, Airway remodeling, Sleep disorders

Associate Professor Alan James is a consultant respiratory physician at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and at Hollywood Private Hospital. His research involves the investigation of genetic and environmental risk factors for respiratory disease in populations including the Busselton Health Studies and the characterisation of respiratory disease in remote indigenous communities. His other area of research includes the investigation of airway narrowing in asthma and COPD, currently focusing on the stereological measurement of hyperplasia and hypertrophy of airway smooth muscle and the use of bronchial biopsy to study airway remodeling. A/Prof James trained in respiratory medicine in Western Australia prior to taking up a position as a Canadian Research Fellow in Vancouver to study airway mechanics in asthma, the subject of his MD. He has established an independent research laboratory in the West Australian Sleep Disorders Research Institute and currently holds adjunct appointments for teaching and research at the University of Western Australia and the Notre Dame University in Perth and is also supported by a NHMRC Practitioner Fellowship. He has published over 100 journal articles, book chapters and editorials.

    Professor Matthew Knuiman

Research Interests:  Biostatistics, Epidemiology and control of diabetes, vascular disease, respiratory diseases

Professor Knuiman is a biostatistician/epidemiologist whose primary training was in the field of statistics. After three years in the Department of Biostatistics at Harvard University he returned to The University of Western Australia in 1988 to help establish the postgraduate program in public health. He has responsibility for biostatistics teaching and supervises a number of PhD and Master's level research projects. He was Head of Department of Public Health 1998-2002. His current research interests focus on the population and clinical epidemiology of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and respiratory diseases. Since 1990 he has been the Biostatistician/Epidemiologist for the Busselton Health Study (BHS). He is the Chair of the BHS Research and Scientific Committee and is custodian of the BHS database. He has published 100+ peer-reviewed research articles/book chapters in the fields of biostatistics, epidemiology, public health, medicine and surgery.

    Clinical Associate Professor Joseph Hung

Research Interests:  Cardiovascular Disease

Professor Joseph Hung has current appointments as an Associate Professor of Cardiology at the University of Western Australia, Head of Department, Cardiovascular Medicine at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, and Deputy Head of Unit, School of Medicine & Pharmacology at SCGH. He has had a long standing research interest in the epidemiology, mechanisms, management, and prevention of atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease. He has been involved as a Principal Investigator and author of numerous publications in these areas of investigation. He is a member of the Western Australian Heart Research Institute and contributes to the Cardiovascular Program specifically in the areas of Molecular Biology, Vascular Biology, Novel Risk Factors/Inflammation, and Cardiovascular Genetics. Since 1997, he has been successful as a CI on competitive grants totaling $1.8M. He has frequently served on NHF RGICs and is currently a Member of the NHF Research Advisory Committee. In 2004, he was on a NHMRC Disciplinary Panel. He is currently also a member of the Scientific Subcommittee of the Busselton Medical Foundation.

    Professor Timothy Davis

Research Interests:  Diabetes and General Medicine

Professor Timothy Davis is a general physician, tropical medicine specialist and diabetologist at Fremantle Hospital, and Professor of Medicine, University of Western Australia. He has had research interests in diabetes since 1978 and in tropical medicine since 1987, and is still active in both areas. In diabetes, he is principal investigator of the Fremantle Diabetes Studies Phases I and II, a large-scale prospective study of diabetes in a community-based cohort which has also spawned the Busselton Diabetes study and the ongoing NHMRC-funded Fremantle Cognition in Diabetes Study. He is also an associate investigator on the United Kingdom Prospective Diabetes Study. His research team is involved in a number of epidemiological and multi-centre pharmaceutical intervention studies including the Fenofibrate and Event Lowering in Diabetes Study (he is on the International Management Committee of this trial), a Phase III study of inhaled insulin (he is a member of the International AERx Advisory Board, Novo-Nordisk Pharmaceuticals) and ADVANCE. He is a member of the Australasian Advisory Committee for the international Diabetes Attitudes, Wishes and Needs (DAWN) Study. He is also a co-investigator on a Malaysian study of glycaemic control and lipid abnormalities in the children of diabetic Malay parents. He has been a councillor on, and is currently secretary of, the Australian Diabetes Society. He reviews papers for diabetes journals such as Diabetes Care, Diabetologia and Diabetic Medicine, as well as those in allied areas such as Stroke and the Medical Journal of Australia. He is a member of Australian Diabetes Society and the American Diabetes Association and has given numerous invited talks on clinical and epidemiological aspects of diabetes at local, national and international diabetes meetings.

Research Interests:  Cardiovascular Genetics, Biochemistry

Associate Professor Beilby is a Principal Scientist in Clinical Biochemistry at PathWest and Adjunct Associate Professor with the University of Western Australia School of Surgery and Pathology Associate Professor Beilby established the routine molecular biology diagnostic testing laboratory at PathWest (Queen Elizabeth II Medical Centre), including many diagnostic genetic tests. Associate Professor Beilby is founding member of the Cardiovascular Genetics Research Group (at QEII) and Pharmacogenomics Group and he is member of the WA Cardiovascular Consortium.

David Ravine is Professor of Medical Genetics at the University of Western Australia, having returned to Australia from the UK where he was director of the Genetic Diagnostic Laboratory within the Medical Genetics Service for Wales. After graduating from the medical school at UWA, David moved to The Royal Children's Hospital and Murdoch Children's Research Institute in Melbourne for postgraduate training in clinical genetics and research (supported by an NHMRC Postgraduate Medical Scholarship). He then transferred to the UK to gain additional clinical and research experience at the Institute of Medical Genetics Service within the University of Wales College of Medicine. Significant earlier research achievements included defining the natural history and phenotype-genotype correlations of autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (in both Melbourne and the UK), and an active contribution to the multicentre collaborative effort that found mutations in a major gene responsible for tuberous sclerosis.

Research Interests:  Biostatistics, Cancer epidemiology, Child health, Occupational and environmental epidemiology, Respiratory health

Professor de Klerk joined the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research in 2000 after leading the Occupational Respiratory Epidemiology Group in the Department of Public Health at the University of Western Australia for 10 years. Before that he gained broad experience in biostatistics and epidemiology both in Western Australia and England. He is currently the Head of Biostatistics and Genetic Epidemiology at the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research.

    Dr Digby Cullen

Research Interests:  Gastrointestinal disease, Haematochromatosis

Dr Digby Cullen graduated from the University of Western Australia before undertaking Physician and Gastroenterology training at Royal Perth Hospital.  He was previously a visiting gastroenterologist at Royal Perth Hospital  and Fremantle Hospital (1995-2005). Currently he works primarily from St John of God Hospital Subiaco with sessions also at Swan District Hospital, Mercy Hospital, Bethesda Hospital and Margaret River Hospital.  His main interests are  in enteroscopy and interventional endoscopic techniques.  Dr Cullen has been a member of the Board and Scientific Committee of the Busselton Population Medical Research Institute for the past 16 years and has research interests in the epidemiology of gastro-intestinal disease as well as gastro oesophageal reflux disease, Coeliac disease, iron-related disease and peptic ulcer.

Research Interests:  Immunology, Biogenetics

Dr Peter Hollingsworth heads the Section of Autoimmunity and Immunopathology at PathCentre and is Head of The Department of Clinical Immunology at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital. He is a Clinical Senior Lecturer in Pathology at the University of Western Australia and a former Examiner in Immunopathology for the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia. After graduating from the University of Western Australia he was appointed Medical Officer in the Nuffield Department of Medicine in Oxford where he gained a Doctorate in Immunology. He subsequently specialised in Rheumatology, Immunology and Immunopathology. He retains a strong commitment to integrating clinical and laboratory services and to teaching and research in public medicine. His clinical practice is focused on systemic autoimmunue diseases including SLE, vasculitis, allergy, immune deficiency and he maintains an interest and practice in HIV infection. He is responsible for autoantibody testing at PathCentre including provision of the service to Royal Perth Hospital. He is committed to refining the predictive and prognostic value of autoantibodies and to research in autoimmune disease.

John Walsh is a Clinical Associate Professor at the School of Medicine and Pharmacology, University of Western Australia and consultant endocrinologist at the Department of Endocrinology and Diabetes, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, WA. His clinical and research interests include: Epidemiology and genetics of thyroid disease and patterns of care of patients with thyroid disorders and thyroid replacement therapy. He also has an active interest in the molecular genetics, pathogenesis and treatment of Paget’s disease of bone.

Dr Chaney graduated with Bachelor of Science and Master of Business Administration degrees from The University of Western Australia in 1972 and 1980 respectively. He completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School in 1992 and has also been awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from The University of Western Australia.  After obtaining his science degree, Dr Chaney worked for eight years as a petroleum geologist in Australia and the United States. He joined the Australian Industry Development Corporation in 1980 as a corporate finance executive and became Manager for Western Australia in 1981. He joined Wesfarmers in 1983 as Company Secretary and Administration Manager, became Finance Director in 1984 and was appointed Managing Director in July 1992. He retired from that position in July 2005. Dr Chaney is Chairman of the National Australia Bank Limited, Woodside Petroleum Limited and Gresham Partners Holdings Limited. He is a member of the JP Morgan International Council and a Director of the Centre for Independent Studies. Dr Chaney was appointed an Officer in the Order of Australia in 2004 for services to business and the community.

Nobel Laureate Professor Marshall has received numerous awards including the Florey Medal (1998), the Clunies Ross National Science and Technology Award (2001), the Inaugural Premier's Prize for Achievement in Science, Perth (2002) and the Japanese Keio Medical Science Prize (2002). He graduated from the University of Western Australia in 1974 and trained as a physician at Royal Perth Hospital until 1983. In 1981 he began the collaboration with Robin Warren which led to the culture of Helicobacter pylori in 1982, and recognition of the association between H.pylori, gastritis, peptic ulcer and gastric cancer in the subsequent years. In 1983 and 1984 he carried out further studies in diagnosis and treatment of H.pylori at Fremantle Hospital, and the following year was funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) to determine the effect of antibiotics on peptic ulcer relapse. Further scholarships followed at the University of Virginia in the United States, where he worked as a Research Fellow, Gastroenterologist and Professor of Medicine between 1986 and 1996. He returned to Western Australia on sabbatical in 1997, and in 1998 was funded again by the NHMRC to continue his work on H.pylori as the Burnet Fellow. Dr. Marshall is Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, and a Fellow of the British Royal Society. He currently works as a microbiologist at the University of WA, part-time Gastroenterologist at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, and has an H.pylori Research Laboratory on the QEII Medical Centre site close to the University of Western Australia.

The ideas, input, and advice of key community, government, business and scientific people not directly involved in the Institute's activities are obtained through advisory committees. Two advisory committees currently exist:

• The Scientific Research Committee includes people with special knowledge, experience and skills in population health research and training. These are generally senior university staff and senior scientists. This Committee advises the Board on matters of policy and planning in relation to its general scientific program of activities.

• The Busselton Health Study Local Advisory Committee seeks to provide voluntary assistance for the work of the Institute and stages events in the Busselton area in order to gain recognition for the Institute. New members from the community are welcome.

A copy of the BPRMI Privacy Statement is available here