Professorial Inaugural Lectures
51 newly promoted and recruited Professors are taking part in the 2018 Meet the New Professor series at UNSW Sydney to mark their achievement and showcase their specialist knowledge. Please join us for the fifth lecture for the 2018 series.
Lecture 1: The endo the road…
Endometriosis is a chronic inflammatory disease that affects 10% of women – some 730,000 Australians. Chronic pain and infertility are the cardinal symptoms of this disease that has both genetic and environmental aetiological factors. Increasing awareness through medical and patient groups have lobbied government on this disease resulting in Australia’s first National Action Plan on Endometriosis announced in 2018. Both clinical and scientific research has been funded under a MRFF grant of $2.5million with UNSW a key stakeholder. The link between clinicians, researchers and patient groups has been instrumental in ensuring endometriosis is on the road, even if just the beginning.
Lecture 2: Dialogue with the oocyte: The making of a good egg
The egg cell forms the foundation of a woman’s fertility and the health of subsequent offspring. The egg is a special cell, being fragile and in finite supply. My research has focused on understanding the basic biological mechanisms contributing to egg health. This has enabled the development of novel reproductive technologies such as egg in vitro maturation, which generates embryos and pregnancies without the need for extensive hormone stimulation of women, as occurs in IVF. This has important application for fertility preservation for cancer survivors, for treating certain types of infertility and for advanced breeding technologies in farm animals.
Dr Jason Abbott is Professor of Gynaecological Surgery at the University of New South Wales having completed his PhD in surgical treatments of endometriosis. He is an associate editor for ANZJOG, Human reproduction and the Journal of Minimally Invasive Gynaecology he is a clinical researcher with more than 120 publications, has an active role in undergraduate, post-graduate and doctoral supervision and is the former Chairman of the Practice Committee of the AAGL charged with delivering evidence-based guidelines for surgical gynaecology. He has chaired the MBS review committee for benign gynaecology and helped shape the National Action Plan for Endometriosis launched by Minister Hunt in July 2018. He is the chairman of the steering committee for the Endometriosis Implementation group until 2022 and is lead researcher for the NECST network in endometriosis in Australia.
Professor Robert Gilchrist is an NHMRC Senior Research Fellow and Director of Research in the School of Women's & Children's Health. He is a translational research scientist, specialising in oocyte and reproductive biology and is an international leader in oocyte-somatic cell communication, with prominent clinical and commercial activities. Prof Gilchrist completed his D.Sc.Agr. (Magna cum laude) in 1996 on oocyte maturation at the University of Göttingen in Germany, and then returned to Australia to take up a post-doctoral position at the University of Adelaide. In 2014 he was recruited to UNSW through the Vice Chancellor’s Strategic Priority Fund (SPF01) and is currently the Director of the Oocyte Biology Research Unit.
