CELLULAR MECHANISMS OF TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY & CONCUSSION
With
Professor Melinda (Lindy) Fitzgerald, Deputy Vice Chancellor, Research & Professor of Neurotrauma, Curtin University, Western Australia John Curtin Distinguished Professor & CEO Connectivity Traumatic Brain Injury Australia
RESEARCHER PROFILE
Filmed in Perth, Western Australia | February 2026
Professor Melinda Fitzgerald is Deputy Vice Chancellor, Research at Curtin University, John Curtin Distinguished Professor and CEO of Connectivity Traumatic Brain Injury Australia.
She has published over 135 papers; recent highlights include Lancet Neurology, J Neuroscience, Nature Nano, ACS Nano, Biomaterials. Currently held grants/Projects total $10.1 million; CIA for $5.2 million of these; $18.5 million total research and equipment funding, $9.9 million as CIA; continuous category 1 grant funding as CIA since 2009.
Prof Fitzgerald was Ministerially appointed and re-appointed as Chair and Co-Chair of the Expert Working Group of the Federal Government MRFF Mission for TBI, 2019 and 2024 ($50m over 10 years).
Prof Fitzgerald is a Member of the Executive Committee for International TBI Research (InTBIR2) and Co-Chair of the InTBIR2 Working Group on Observational and Comparative Effectiveness Studies.
She has supervised more than 35 Honours students or equivalent, 20 PhD students (14 completions), and 12 post-doctoral researchers (5 currently); of whom 3 are Group Leaders and 15 are developing independent scientific and research careers.
As CEO of Connectivity Traumatic Brain Injury Australia, Prof Fitzgerald has led dissemination of best practice knowledge to the community. Connectivity’s work on raising awareness of traumatic brain injury has been viewed more than 6.93 million times, including 255,000 individual users of the website and more than 641,000 views on YouTube, accessing research-informed, best practice evidence-based information about concussion and more severe traumatic brain injury, including 110,000 views of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prevention campaign. Provision of concussion online short courses, currently more than 20,000 completions.
Source: Supplied
Arranged by: Curtin Medical Research Institute
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4823-8179
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Liver cancer & patient-derived tumour organoids
Dr Benjamin Dwyer is a translational cancer researcher driven by a clear purpose: to ensure discoveries made in the laboratory genuinely improve outcomes for patients.
Based at Curtin University, he established and now leads the organoid platform within the Liver Cancer Collaborative and directs the WA Organoid Innovation Hub, working at the intersection of biology, medicine and biotechnology to accelerate new treatments for liver cancer.
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Leukaemia microenvironment & high risk childhood leukaemia
Associate Professor Laurence Cheung is now an Associate Professor at the Curtin Medical School as well as Curtin Medical Research Institute, and a Co-head of the Leukaemia Translational Research Laboratory at The Kids.
He has attracted over $8.7 million in research funding, including 16 awards as CIA (over $6.1 million). Assoc Prof Cheung was named the 2019 Cancer Council of WA Early Career Cancer Researcher of the Year and received the STEM Early Career Research Award at Curtin University in 2019.
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Novel silk-based biomaterials for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine
Dr Jelena Rnjak-Kovacina is a Scientia Associate Professor and ARC Future Fellow leading a multidisciplinary group at the Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, UNSW Sydney in Australia.
Her research interests are at the interface of biology and engineering, focusing on the development of biomimetic materials that direct cellular interactions for enhanced vascularisation and for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. In particular, she develops novel silk-based biomaterials and investigates how biomaterial properties translate to biological outcomes.
