2025 Australian Pain Society 45th Annual Scientific Meeting in the IASP Global Year about Pain Management, Research and Education in
Low- and Middle-income Settings13 - 16 April 2025 | Pullman Melbourne Albert Park, VIC

University of Sydney

NSW Australia

Paul Austin is an Associate Professor in the School of Medical Sciences, Neuroscience theme, at the Brain and Mind Centre, University of Sydney. His interests are in the field of neuroimmunology, and he has been researching the underlying neuro-immune mechanisms involved in neuropathic pain using pre-clinical models for 15 years. Currently, his laboratory is involved in several collaborative research programs focused on understanding and treating clinical chronic pain conditions, such as complex regional pain syndrome and spinal cord injury.

RECOVER Injury Research Centre & NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Better Health Outcomes for Compensable Injury

QLD Australia

Dr Scott Farrell is a Research Fellow and physiotherapist at The University of Queensland. His research investigates mechanisms underpinning chronic musculoskeletal pain, with a particular focus on whiplash associated disorder, using a range of methods, including statistical genetics and big data analysis, immunohistochemistry, blood markers, imaging and quantitative sensory testing. He is a Fellow of the Australian College of Physiotherapists and immediate past Chair of the Qld branch of the Australian Physiotherapy Association Pain Group, and an Honorary Research Fellow at the Royal Brisbane & Women’s Hospital.

University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

Houston, US

Dr Fiore is a Research scientist at MD Anderson Cancer Center in the Laboratories of Neuroimmunology (USA), with an interest in B cell/IgG/Fc gamma receptor axis mechanisms contributing to the development and maintenance of neuropathic pain. Completed PhD at the University of Sydney on the topic of neuroimmune interactions underlying affective behavioural disturbances comorbid with neuropathic pain. Completed initial postdoctoral training at the University of New South Wales, focused on identifying neuroimmune signatures and the potential of immunomodulatory treatments in alleviating pain following peripheral nerve injury.

University of Adelaide

SA Australia

Prof Mark Hutchinson has been recently appointed as the Director of the Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing (IPAS). As a Professor of Biomedicine and lead the Neuroimmunopharmacology laboratory at the University of Adelaide, Prof Hutchinson has a strong record of leadership of successful teams. His expertise spans diverse basic science methods for human and animal research, including biomarker identification, multiomics and complex data analytics. He has a strong record of engagement with consumers and industry and an advocacy for their involvement in research. Hutchinson has a strong record of commercial translation between basic science and knowledge utilisation.

Prof Hutchinson has diverse leadership and Ministerial appointments, including being a member of the Prime Minister’s National Science and Technology Council, past Director of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale BioPhotonics (CNBP), past President of the Science and Technology Australia (STA), past Members of the ARC Legislative Review, the ARC CEO Advisory Council, and the Australian Economic Accelerator Board. He also serves as the chair of the Safeguarding Australia through Biotechnology Response and Engagement (SABRE) Alliance and is the chair of the Australian Pain Solutions Research Alliance board.

His exceptional leadership of the program of research has been recognised with multiple awards: 2024 Eureka Prize Finalist for leadership in science, 2022 Inaugural Coppoc ONE Health Lecture, College of Veterinary Med, Kansas State Uni; 2019 Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Achievement – A Culture Of Impact, Uni Adelaide; 2015 James McWha Award of Excellence, Uni Adelaide; 2013 Psychoneuroimmunology Res Soc, Robert Ader Young Investigator Award.

School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of New South Wales

NSW Australia

Moalem-Taylor graduated with a PhD from the Weizmann Institute of Science. She was then awarded a Rothschild Postdoctoral Fellowship (The University of Cincinnati Medical Centre, USA). She then moved to the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia, where she was awarded the Vice-Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellowship (2004-2007), followed by the NSW Office of Science and Medical Research Career Development Fellowship (2010-2013). In 2014, she was appointed as a combined track (teaching & research) academic in the Department of Physiology, where she leads the Neuroimmune Pain Research (NPR) Group at the Translational Neuroscience Facility, School of Biomedical Sciences, UNSW. Since her PhD, Moalem-Taylor has worked primarily in the field of neuroimmunology. Her current research focuses on the role of immune cells and their mediators in chronic pain caused by peripheral nerve injury, autoimmune diseases of the nervous system such as multiple sclerosis, and chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy.

Western Sydney University

NSW Australia

Peter Shortland did his PhD at UCL under the tutelage of Pat Wall, Clifford Woolf and Maria Fitzgerald on the neuroplasticity of primary afferents following peripheral nerve injury. His ongoing research focuses on plasticity in somatosensory processing in dorsal root ganglion neurons and the spinal cord following spinal root injuries, chemotherapy-induced neuropathy or neurodegenerative conditions like multiple sclerosis using animal models, conditions that often result in neuropathic pain in humans. The ultimate aim is to identify the molecular mechanisms/factors that are responsible for the abnormal responses to injury, and to reduce/alleviate the associated neuropathic pain using pharmacological agents alone or in combination with surgical strategies.