Steering
Committee
Professor
Kevin Pfleger
Chair Biodesign Australia
and Perth Biodesign
Kevin is Director Biomedical and Health Innovation at The University of Western Australia and WA Life Sciences Innovation Hub. He is also Deputy Director of the Australian Research Council Centre for Personalised Therapeutics Technologies, President of the Australasian Society of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacologists and Toxicologists, Chief Scientific Advisor to Dimerix and Co-Founder of RAGE Biotech. Kevin also serves on the Life Sciences WA Committee, the WA Branch Committee of AusBiotech and the Management Committee of the WA Health Translation Network. As Director Biomedical and Health Innovation, Kevin oversees the Perth Biodesign program led by The University of Western Australia on behalf of a cross-sector consortium.
Dr Matthew Oldakowski
Director Biodesign Australia and Perth Biodesign
Matt is a biomedical engineering researcher, inventor, entrepreneur and University of Western Australia Senior Lecturer. He is the co-founder and CTO of three medtech companies, Earflo, REX Ortho and Cervical ChinUp. Matt and the Earflo team are currently participating in Fogarty Innovation’s Company Accelerator Program. Matt is the Co-Director of Perth Biodesign where he educates and incubates medtech innovation teams, particularly students at The University of Western Australia enrolled in Master of Professional Engineering, Bachelor of Engineering (Honours), or an associated Combined Degree. He is also the Co-Director of Biodesign Australia that brings together Biodesign programs from around Australia to share resources and best practice.
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Intan Oldakowska
Director Biodesign Australia and Perth Biodesign
Intan is a biomedical engineer and entrepreneur focused on developing medical devices, as well as a Senior Lecturer at The University of Western Australia. She is Co-Founder and CEO of Earflo, which is currently participating in Fogarty Innovation’s Company Accelerator Program, Co-Founder and CSO of Rex Ortho, and Co-Founder and Director of ChinUp. Intan is the Co-Director of Perth Biodesign where she educates and incubates medtech innovation teams, particularly students at UWA enrolled in Master of Professional Engineering, Bachelor of Engineering (Honours), or an associated Combined Degree. She is also the Co-Director of Biodesign Australia that brings together Biodesign programs from around Australia to share resources and best practice.
Yvette Van Eenennaam
Adelaide Biodesign
Yvette van Eenennaam is the CEO of Adelaide BioMed City, the $4.2 billion Health and Biomedical Innovation District in the heart of Adelaide. The innovation hub co-locates institutions from clinical and academic with cutting edge research, R&D intensive companies, start-ups and business incubators, all to drive collaboration, innovation, translation and commercialization for social and economic impact.
Yvette is also the Chair of the South Australian Genomics Centre (SAGC) and non-executive advisory board member for the Australian-Netherlands Chamber of Commerce (DutchSA).
Prior to moving to Adelaide, Yvette worked in Europe for large corporates where she held positions in senior leadership roles and (global) management teams with responsibilities for strategy and organisational development, change management and innovation.
Professor
Mark Hutchinson
Adelaide Biodesign;
STA President
Prof Mark Hutchinson is the Director of the Centre for Nanoscale BioPhotonics. The CNBP is a $50M ARC Centre of Excellence that brings together researchers from around the world to create light based sensing technologies to create 'windows into the body'. These advances will enable scientific breakthroughs and advance the health outcomes of tomorrow.
He is President of Science and Technology Australia, the peak body in science and technology in Australia. STA represents more than 90,000 scientists and technologists as an influential voice for evidence and expertise in public policy.
Mark has responsibilities as a founding member of the Defence Science Technology Group CBRN STaR Shot OSAC, the ARC CEO Advisory Council member, Chair of the Davies Livestock Research Centre Advisory Board. He has published numerous primary research & review publications, he holds several patents & has collaboratively received over 60 million USD in research funding from NIH, Department of Defence, NHMRC and ARC.
Associate Professor Devakar Epari
Director Brisbane Biodesign
Associate Professor Devakar Epari is a biomedical engineer who specialises in the area of Orthopaedic Trauma and is the Subject Area Coordinator for Medical Engineering, one of the majors in QUT’s undergraduate Bachelor of Engineering (Hons).
Devakar's research interests include the biomechanics and mechano-biology of bone healing and the mechanics of fracture fixation. He is the co-inventor and developer of the Biphasic Plating concept that recently achieved market access approval in the European Union (CE Mark).
Devakar's interests in medical device development has led to involvement with several medical device innovation programs including the School of International Biodesign (India) and Biodesign Australia.
Professor
David Grayden
Director Biodesign Melbourne
Professor David B. Grayden is Clifford Chair of Neural Engineering in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering & Information Technology and the Graeme Clark Institute for Biomedical Engineering. Prof Grayden's main research interests are in understanding how the brain processes information, how best to present information to the brain using medical bionics, such as the bionic ear and bionic eye, and how to record information from the brain, such as for brain-machine interfaces. He is also conducting research in epileptic seizure prediction and electrical stimulation to prevent or stop epileptic seizures. Prof Grayden teaches BioDesign Innovation in collaboration with the Melbourne Business School.
Associate Professor Kwanghui Lim
Director Biodesign Melbourne
Kwanghui is an Associate Professor of Strategic Management at the Melbourne Business School. His research explores the strategies used by organizations to manage inventors, scientists and the knowledge they create.
At Melbourne Business School Kwanghui has taught the core MBA course on Business Strategy, the MBS Innovation Bootcamp and Business Tools for M.Sc students. He co-founded the Melbourne Biodesign course, and created the capstone course for the Master of Entrepreneurship program at the Wade Institute for Entrepreneurship, University of Melbourne. Kwanghui also co-teaches Innovation for Growth, an executive course for corporations wanting to be more innovative.
Professor
Paul Young
Director Biodesign Sydney
Paul heads up entrepreneur programs in the MedTech and Pharma sector and is the Director of Biodesign Sydney and SPARK Sydney. He is the CEO of Ab Initio Pharma, an R&D and GMP manufacturing company based in Sydney, Australia. Their mission is to support entrepreneurs and businesses take products from the bench through to commercialisation.
Paul is the co-Director of the Respiratory Technology Department at the Woolcock Institute and holds a P/T role as Professor of Commercialisation at Macquarie Business School. He is also Director of OzUK, a Pharmaceutical services company based in Chippenham, UK, specialising in the development of inhaled metered dose pressurised liquid inhalation dose forms for innovator and generic products.
Dr Julian Shapley
Biodesign Australia
Entrepreneur-in-Residence
A medical device innovator, entrepreneur and leader with over 20 years of research, development and operational experience, Dr Shapley was instrumental in the inception, development, formation, and financing of Cellnovo.
As a biochemist and mechanical design engineer, and following post-doctoral experience within university and commercial development, Julian developed the founding technologies within the Cellnovo system, led cross-functional teams from ideation through to regulatory approval, led the quality team and design-for-manufacture, and the setup of a prototype manufacturing line. In the role of Chief Science Officer, he then focused on the continued protection and expansion of Cellnovo’s IP portfolio, business development activities and the integration of external technologies.
More recently, Julian has founded Glucose Republic, a company combining biology and software to help people eat and live better. Glucose Republic is building a personalised intelligence system for measuring and predicting metabolic responses to the food we eat and the exercise we take.