Professor Alex Fornito
Head of the Brain Mapping and Modelling Research Program
Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, Monash University
VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA
Bench Side Story continues with a Professor and Head of the Brain Mapping and Modelling Research Program at the Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, at Monash University in Melbourne, Victoria, AUSTRALIA.
Professor Alex Fornito completed his Clinical Masters (Neuropsychology) and PhD in 2007 in the Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology at The University of Melbourne before undertaking Post-Doctoral training in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge, UK, under the auspices of an NHMRC Training Fellowship. He is currently a Sylvia and Charles Viertel Foundation Senior Research Fellow, co-Director of the Brain, Mind and Society Research Hub and Head of the Brain Mapping and Modelling Research Program at the Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health.
Professor Fornito’s research concentrates on developing new imaging techniques for mapping human brain connectivity and applying these methods to shed light on brain function in health and disease. A major emphasis of his work concerns understanding foundational principles of brain organization and their genetic basis; characterizing brain connectivity disturbances in psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia; and mapping how brain networks dynamically reconfigure in response to changing task demands.
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Systems genetics to determine risk of developing diabetes complications
Dr Mara Zeissig is a recently appointed Lab Head within the Tumour Inflammation and Immunotherapy Program at the South Australian immunoGENomics Cancer Institute (SAiGENCI).
Her research focuses on studying immune evasion mechanisms in lung and pancreatic cancers to identify novel ways to increase response to immunotherapy. Her expertise is in genetically engineered mouse models of lung cancer, CRISPR-Cas9 screening technologies and T cell based immunotherapies (e.g Checkpoint inhibitors). -
Risk factors and prevention of respiratory infections and infectious diseases in children
A/Prof Hannah Moore OAM is an infectious disease epidemiologist; Co-Head of the Infectious Disease Epidemiology team within the Wesfarmers Centre of Vaccines and Infectious Diseases at The Kids Research Institute Australia and Associate Professor at the School of Population Health, Curtin University in Western Australia.
A/Prof Moore has been awarded more than $19M in competitive research grants, co-authored more than 140 papers, was TEDxPerth 2018 speaker, recipient of a WA Young Tall Poppy Award (2013) and the WA Premiers Science Early Career Scientist Award (2015). In 2024, she was honoured with a Medal of the Order of Australia for her service to epidemiology as a researcher.
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Cancer survivorship and exercise oncology
Professor Sandra Hayes is the Director of Research at Cancer Council Queensland (CCQ), where she leads a comprehensive cancer research program encompassing cancer epidemiology, prevention, detection, treatment, and survivorship.
With a BAppSci (Hons) and a PhD in exercise oncology, Professor Hayes’s expertise lies in quantifying the impact of cancer diagnosis and treatment on physical and psychosocial wellbeing, quality of life, and survival. She also evaluates innovative supportive care strategies, particularly exercise, to improve post-cancer lives.
