Invited speakers

Dr Shlomo Cohney PhD FRACP MRCP MBBS Physician and Transplant Nephrologist,
Royal Melbourne Hospital, Parkville, Australia.

Dr Cohney trained in Nephrology and completed a PhD investigating molecular approaches to xenotransplantation, followed by postdoctoral research (in America) focusing on cytokine signalling.

Shlomo oversees Australia’s busiest live donor renal transplant programme. His major interest has been overcoming barriers to renal transplantation. Through the establishment of Australia’s first programme for transplanting in the presence of antibodies to ABO blood group, or donor specific HLA, there has been a doubling in the number of transplants performed at RMH since 2005.  Shlomo was instrumental in introducing to Australia the use of IVIG for use in the treatment of antibody mediated rejection. Shlomo is on the Australian Renal Transplant Advisory Committee, chairs the Victorian IVIG user group, and is chair of the steering committee for the National TTP Register. Shlomo’s interests have led to a close and productive relationship with both tissue typing and haematology laboratory scientists.

Professor Peter Parham Stanford University School of Medicine, Professor of Structural Biology Professor of Microbiology & Immunology

Peter Parham grew up in London and studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge University. He obtained a PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology in the laboratory of Professor Jack Strominger, Harvard, in 1977. His PhD was on the purification and structural analysis of MHC class I antigens. Postdoctoral research followed developing and characterizing mouse monoclonal antibodies against human MHC class I and II molecules at Oxford University (Bodmer Laboratory) and at Harvard University. In 1980 Peter Parham joined the faculty of the Department of Structural Biology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, where he is now a Professor. Interests in the structure, function and genetics of MHC class I polymorphism and the highly variable and rapidly evolving killer-cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIR).

Peter Parham has been recipient of the Rose Payne and Ceppellini Awards, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Professor Steven Marsh is Deputy Director of Immunogenetics at the Anthony Nolan Research Institute London, where he heads the HLA Informatics Group.

He is also Professor of Immunogenetics in the Cancer Institute of University College London. He is currently President of the European Federation for Immunogenetics (EFI). Steven Chairs the HLA and KIR Nomenclature Committees, and is responsible for the IMGT/HLA and IPD Databases. His research interests include understanding the role of matching HLA, KIR and other genetic factors in unrelated haematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Steven Marsh is co-organiser (with Professor Derek Middleton, Liverpool) of the 16th International Histocompatibility Workshop and Conference to be held in the UK in 2012.

• Professor John Trowsdale, Dept of Pathology, University of Cambridge.
• Prof. Dr. Ilias I.N. Doxiadis, Eurotransplant Reference Laboratory, Dept of Immunohaematology and Blood Transfusion, Leiden University Medical Center.
• Prof Derek Middleton, Transplant Immunology, Royal Liverpool University Hospital & School of Infection and Host Defence.
• Professor Frank Christiansen, University of Western Australia.
• Professor James McCluskey, Pro Vice-Chancellor Research Partnerships, Deputy Head, Department of Microbiology & Immunology, Faulty of Medicine Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne.
• Professor Malcolm Simons, Haplomics Ltd,Melbourne.
• Dr Brian D.Tait, Senior Research Fellow, National Transplant Services, Australian Red Cross Blood Service, Melbourne.
• Dr Campbell Witt, University of Western Australia.
• Dr Ian Dittmer Transplant Physician - Auckland Renal Transplant Group Clinical Director - Dept of Renal Medicine, Auckland City Hospital.
• Dr Geoffrey K. Chambers Senior Research & Teaching Fellow, Molecular Biology and Evolution, School of Biological Sciences, Victoria University Wellington.
• Dr Lochie Teague, Clinical Director Paediatric Haematology/Oncology Starship Children's Hospital, Auckland.
• Dr Hilary Blacklock, Clinical Head, Department of Haematology, Middlemore Hospital,  Auckland, Medical Director, New Zealand Bone Marrow Donor Registry, Auckland