RESEARCHER PROFILE (Filmed January 2024)
Laureate Professor Clare Collins AO
Nutrition and Dietetics in the School of Health Sciences,
University of Newcastle & Director, Food and Nutrition Research Program
Hunter Medical Research Institute
New South Wales, Australia
Laureate Professor Clare Collins is helping people access effective medical nutrition therapies that significantly reduce their risk of chronic disease. She and her team are developing innovative technologies, including apps and online programmes.
Prof Collins is Laureate Professor in Nutrition and Dietetics in the School of Health Sciences, College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing. She has received three prestigious NHMRC Research Fellowships, is currently Director of Hunter Medical Research Institute, Food and Nutrition Program and been a dietitian for over 40 years.
Laureate Professor Collins has made major contributions to our knowledge on the impact of improving diet quality and food patterns on health and wellbeing outcomes. Her research in precision and personalised nutrition is driving a paradigm shift in technologies that improve delivery of medical nutrition therapy to under-served groups based on life-stage, socio-economic status or geographic location, for whom the chronic disease burden is 40-50% higher. This is generating new knowledge on cost-effective models of care that are available online or can be embedded in health settings.
Her passion was fuelled growing up as one of nine children and being in the first generation of her family to have the opportunity complete year 12 and go to university. She learnt from an early age the meaning of hard work, the importance of grasping opportunities when they arose and the importance of share the fruits of those opportunities.
Laureate Professor Collins is a Fellow of four prestigious bodies, the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, the Nutrition Society of Australia, Dietitians Australia, and the Royal Society of NSW. As the most successful research dietitian globally, her team includes dietitians, nutritionists, biochemists, computer scientists, biomedical engineers and software developers.
She has been awarded over $29 million dollars in research grants, published over 450 manuscripts and supervised 35 PhD and Master candidates to completion so far. Laureate Professor Collins is a great believer in sharing her knowledge through translation of nutrition science to benefit the public.
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De-prescribing medications in older adults with dementia
Dr. Daniel Hoyle is a Senior Lecturer in Therapeutics and Pharmacy Practice at the School of Pharmacy and Pharmacology, University of Tasmania. He is also an experienced clinical pharmacist with expertise in medication management in older people. Dr. Hoyle’s research interests focus on improving medicine use in older people with dementia.
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Pathogenicity, modelling & treatment of inherited retinal Stargardt disease
Dr Di Huang is a Research Associate at the Lions Eye Institute (LEI), working with A/Professor Fred Chen and Dr Sam McLenachan. Her research focuses on developing a robust platform of retinal pigment epithelium cells and retinal organoids derived from patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells to model inherited retinal diseases, particularly Stargardt disease (STGD1).
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Paramedics in the Community
Dr Brendan Shannon is a registered paramedic and Head of Postgraduate Programs and Deputy Head of Department of Paramedicine at Monash University.
Brendan has a keen research interest in alternative care pathways, non-transport, referral services, paramedic practitioners and community paramedicine. His Doctoral research focused on investigating the experiences of health services when implementing alternative care pathways.
