BRAIN AGEING, DEMENTIA AND PSYCHIATRIC DISORDERS
Professor Perminder S. Sachdev AM, MBBS, MD, PhD, FRANZCP, FAAHMS, Scientia Professor of Neuropsychiatry, UNSW Sydney & Co-director of the Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA), UNSW Sydney & Director of the Neuropsychiatric Institute, Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney, Australia & Co-Director of the Australian Dementia Network (ADNeT) & Director of the Centre for Research Excellence in Vascular Contributions to Dementia (CRE VCD)
RESEARCHER PROFILE
Filmed in Sydney, Australia | May 2026
Professor Perminder Sachdev graduated from the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, in 1978 and completed his MD in Psychiatry there in 1983. Following time in New Zealand, he relocated to Australia, where he completed psychiatric training and a PhD at UNSW in 1991. His doctoral work examined ethnopsychological concepts in Māori culture. His early research focused on drug-induced movement disorders, including akathisia, tardive dyskinesia and neuroleptic malignant syndrome, while his later work has centred on dementia and pre-dementia syndromes, particularly neuroimaging, biomarkers and risk factors.
Professor Sachdev has held numerous leadership roles, including membership of the DSM-5 Neurocognitive Disorders Work Group, President of the International College of Geriatric Psychoneuropharmacology, and leadership positions within VASCOG, the International Neuropsychiatric Association, and the RANZCP Neuropsychiatry Section. He has also contributed extensively to Alzheimer’s Australia and Tourette syndrome advocacy.
His research interests span neuropsychiatric disorders of ageing, vascular and Alzheimer’s dementia, mild cognitive impairment, brain stimulation therapies, neuroimaging, Tourette syndrome and adult ADHD. In 2012, he co-founded CHeBA and leads major longitudinal studies, including the Sydney Memory and Ageing Study, alongside international consortia such as COSMIC, STROKOG and ICC-Dementia.
His achievements have been widely recognised, including appointment as a Member of the Order of Australia (2011), Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (2015), and recipient of the Ryman Prize (2022) for contributions to ageing research. He has also received the Lishman Oration Award (2024) and a Lifetime Achievement Award (2025).
Professor Sachdev has authored over 1,000 journal articles, multiple books, and a book of poetry.
Source: Supplied
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3421-4176
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Pancreatic and lung cancers driven by mutations in the cancer gene KRAS
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). -
Novel therapies & next-gen medical devices in cardiovascular & vascular disease management
Professor Shirley Jansen AM is a distinguished vascular and endovascular surgeon whose career spans clinical leadership, academic excellence, and pioneering research. She currently holds the Lawrence-Brown Chair of Vascular Surgery at Curtin University’s School of Population Health and serves as Head of the Department of Vascular Surgery at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, a role she has held since 2015. In addition, she is the Director of the Heart & Vascular Research Institute at the Harry Perkins Institute for Medical Research. Her early career was marked by prestigious fellowships, including a British Heart Foundation Research Fellowship (1996), and multiple international travelling fellowships from leading surgical societies and industry sponsors between 2001 and 2002.
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At the frontier of human cellular neuroscience research
Associate Professor Cedric Bardy is the Director of The Laboratory for Human Neurophysiology, Genetics & Stem Cells, located at SAHMRI. South Australia.
His current research uses preclinical, patient-derived cell models to test innovative therapeutic strategies, with a current focus on Parkinson’s disease, brain cancer and childhood dementia (Sanfilippo syndrome).
His work has established a platform to facilitate the discovery and validation of treatments for brain disorders. Their research is at the frontier of human cellular neuroscience research and translational applications that benefit global public health.
