Honorary Scientific Research Committee

The Foundation is privileged and grateful for the honorary professional contribution of our eminent Scientific Research Committee who give immense amounts of their valuable time and their significant expertise pro bono to the Trish MS Research Foundation.

Professor John Pollard AO MB BS BSc(Med) PhD FRACP FRCP(Lond) (Chair) was Bushell Professor of Neurology, University of Sydney until 2008 and remains a member of the Neuroinflammation Group at the Brain and Mind Centre University of Sydney. He was a member of the steering committee of the World Federation of Neurology Neuromuscular Group and past Board member of the International Peripheral Nerve Society.  Professor Pollard is the Chairman of the Foundation’s Scientific Research Committee.

Professor Peter Russell MD, FRCPA, FRANZCOG (Hon) has served terms as Secretary, Vice President and President of the International Society of Gynecological Pathologists.  Professor Russell has been awarded Honorary Fellowship in the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Honorary Membership of the International Society of Gynecological Pathologists and the Distinguished Pathologist Medal by the International Academy of Pathology.  Having recently retired from active pathology practice (July 2019), he remains a Consultant Emeritus at GynaePath (Douglass Hanly Moir Pathology) and Honorary Professor in Pathology at the University of Sydney.

Michael Barnett MBBS FRACP PhD is Professor of Neurology at the Brain and Mind Centre (BMC), University of Sydney, consultant neurologist at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Sydney, and Director of the MS Clinic and MS Clinical Trials Unit at the BMC. He trained in neurology at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and received further subspecialty training at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London. He subsequently completed a PhD in MS pathophysiology at the University of Sydney.  He has particular research interests in MS neuropathology and neuroimaging.  He co-founded the Sydney Neuroimaging Analysis Centre (SNAC) in 2012 to develop novel MRI biomarkers of MS disease progression and provide the first regulatory-compliant neuroimaging analysis / central MRI reading for MS clinical trials in the Southern hemisphere.  He is a leader in the Brain and Mind Centre’s Computational Neuroscience Team, which is spearheading the development and application of AI-derived algorithms and imaging biomarkers to further understanding of the mechanisms of neurological disease, improve diagnostic specificity and enhance treatment paradigms.  He is also Director of the MS Research Australia Brain Bank, a member of the Australian MS Clinical Trials Network Scientific Committee and Chairman of the PACTRIMS Scientific Program Committee.

Dr Jennifer Massey MBBS (Hons) FRACP PhD is a Neurologist based at St Vincent’s, Sydney. She completed her undergraduate training at UWA graduating with honours and worked in Western Australia prior to beginning Neurology Advanced Training in NSW. She completed neurology training in 2017 is currently working as a VMO at St Vincent’s Hospital. Her PhD looks at the clinical, radiological and immunological outcomes of patients undergoing AHSCT for MS. She continues to be heavily involved in this translational research project and is the recent recipient of an MSRA postdoctorate fellowship.

Professor Graeme Stewart AM FRSN BSc(Med) MBBS PhD FRACP FRCPA

Prof Stewart is a clinician scientist, trained both as a Physician and Pathologist. He was the Director of the Department of Clinical Immunology from 1980 to 2020 at Westmead Hospital, the largest teaching hospital of the University of Sydney where he holds the title of Clinical Professor of Medicine. In 2020 he also stepped down as Director of the Centre for Immunology & Allergy Research in the Westmead Institute for Medical Research (WIMR) with an international reputation in research in the field of human immunogenetics, particularly in the discovery of genetic susceptibility to multiple sclerosis.

Having retired from clinical work in 2020, he continues, in 2021, to contribute to research in the WIMR and to teaching at the University of Sydney.

Professor Stewart’s research interest in the autoimmune nature of multiple sclerosis spans more than 40 years with a principal focus on genetic factors and the insights they provide into the immunopathogenesis of the disease. He initiated the Australian & New Zealand MS Genetics Consortium (ANZgene) and is a founding member of the 6 person Governance Group for the International MS Genetics Consortium (IMSGC), through which a sizeable proportion of the MS genes have now been discovered (Nature 2011, Nature Genetics 2013, Cell 2018, Science 2019).

Prof Stewart received almost continuous research funding from the Australian government (NH&MRC, Australian Research Council) for 40 years.  He has published more than 250 papers in peer reviewed journals with more than 17,000 citations and an h-index of 58. He has supervised more than 30 graduate students, mostly for PhD. His research group is one of the four founding groups (in 1996) of the Westmead Millennium Institute, now the Westmead Institute for Medical Research.

Prof Stewart has occupied senior positions in science governance in Australia including Chair of the Fellowships’ Committee and membership of the Research Council of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NH&MRC) and Chair of the Commonwealth AIDS Research Grants Council. He was a founding board member of Multiple Sclerosis Research Australia in 2004, a position he held to 2020.

In 2005 he became a Member of the Order of Australia for service to the development of health policy and medical education about HIV and AIDS, to medicine in the field of Immunology, and to research on the genetics of multiple sclerosis. In 2014 he was awarded Fellowship of the Royal Society of NSW.

Professor Helmut Butzkueven (MBBS 1992, PhD 2002), is an academic neurologist specializing in management of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and real-world MS outcomes research. He is the van Cleef Roet professor of Neuroscience Research at the Central Clinical School, Monash University and Director of Neurology at Alfred Health, Melbourne. Helmut Butzkueven is the Managing Director of the MSBase Foundation (www.msbase.org), a global online MS cohort study which commenced in 2004, with more than 74,000 patients enrolled from 130 centres to date. His overarching research theme and clinical interest is the use of registry data, clinical MRI data, cognitive testing, genomics and patient self-monitoring devices and applications to evaluate treatment strategies and trial methodology to optimize benefit, safety and discovery of MS therapies.

Associate Professor Stephen Reddel MB BS PhD FRACP
Stephen Reddel is a staff specialist neurologist at Concord Repatriation & General Hospital Sydney, and consultant neurologist at the Brain & Mind Research Institute, University of Sydney. He trained in neurology at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, and at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, and has a PhD in the immunology of the Anti-Phospholipid Syndrome. He heads the neuroimmunology clinic at Concord Hospital, which specialises in the safe treatment of neurological conditions requiring immunotherapy, including multiple sclerosis, myasthenia gravis, chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy and a host of rarer diseases. Dr Reddel’s academic appointment is Associate Professor, Sydney University where he has been involved in the neurology course development, ensuring standards of institutional sartorial elegance, online lectures and teaching of medical students, post graduate clinical training and post graduate research student supervision.

Thank you very much also to recently retired Dr Emily Mathey and as well, the late Emeritus Professor James McLeod and Dr John Walsh who both served on our Scientific Research Committee since inception.