STEERING COMMITTEE

Transitional Nurse Practitioner, John Hunter Hospital

Susan Agland is the Transitional Nurse Practitioner - Neuroimmunology for the Hunter New England Local Health District, a specialist clinic providing care to over 1300 people with MS and other neuroimmunological disorders. This service, which started in 2006, is the only MS specialist service from the Hunter Region NSW to the Gold Coast QLD. Susan has a Master’s in Research (Nursing) from Murdoch University and is a past president of MS Nurses Australasia. As well as her clinical role, Susan is currently co-lead of a research project exploring the effect of subfertility in Australian women with MS and is the current Australian and New Zealand representative to the International Organisation of MS Nurses (IOMSN) and the MS Nurse International Certification Board (MSNICB).

Head of Viral Immunology and Respiratory Disease Group, HMRI

Dr Nathan W Bartlett is a Professor and head of the Viral Immunology and Respiratory Disease group, based at the Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI), University of Newcastle, Australia. He also retains an honorary academic appointment at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, UK. He has over 20 years of experience working in respiratory viral immunology, pathogenesis of virus induced respiratory diseases, and drug and vaccine development. After completing Post-Doctoral Research, first at the University of Oxford and then at Imperial College London, he developed a research program investigating rhinovirus infections and exacerbations of asthma and COPD.  His expertise across pre-clinical respiratory virus infection models (including primary human airway epithelial cells) has led him to collaborate on multiple projects generating several patents and numerous highly cited publications. His team is exploring a range of anti-viral and vaccine approaches for SARS-CoV-2 and respiratory viruses including a TLR2/6 agonist-based innate immune stimulating nasal spray (with ENA Respiratory) that has successfully completed phase 2 clinical trial for influenza virus infection. Dr Bartlett is a spokesperson for the National Asthma Council and is a member of the European Respiratory Society College of Experts and theme lead for the Infection Program at HMRI. In addition to research, Dr Bartlett is actively engaged in undergraduate teaching and mentoring Year 1 and 2 Medicine students, Biomedical Science students as well as supervising multiple PhD students.

Immunologist, NSW Health Pathology, John Hunter Hospital

Theo de Malmanche is Director of the NSW Health Pathology Immunology laboratory in Newcastle, NSW. In addition to being a rheumatologist, Theo also has interests in the immunological aspects of microangiopathy, trauma, encephalopathy, and infection.  As a pathologist, he works to get the best quality results to the most clinicians in a way that is of most use to them and their patients.  Clinical immunology and immunopathology are respective clinical and pathological disciplines which have amongst the highest levels of uncertainty and misunderstanding.  Navigating colleagues and patients through these uncertainties is a primary focus for all immunopathologists.  Immune disorders are relative low frequency / high impact when compared to most pathology, but the cultural change that develops in managing these patients appropriately can often be extended to high frequency / low impact management.