CELLULAR INTERACTIONS RESPONSIBLE FOR DEVELOPMENT, MAINTENANCE, AND STRENGTH OF THE SKELETON
With
Prof Natalie A Sims, PhD.
Deputy Director, St. Vincent’s Institute,
Melbourne, Australia
RESEARCHER PROFILE
Filmed in Melbourne, Australia | May 2025
Professor Sims directs the Bone Cell Biology and Disease Unit at St. Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research and is a Professorial Fellow at The University of Melbourne and Australian Catholic University.
She leads a team who studies the cellular interactions responsible for development, maintenance, and strength of the skeleton. She completed her PhD at the University of Adelaide, followed by postdoctoral work at the Garvan Institute in Sydney then at Yale School of Medicine, in New Haven, Connecticut, where she studied the role of the estrogen receptor in regulating bone structure.
She returned to Australia in 2001 to set up a laboratory at St. Vincent’s Hospital and SVI. Her laboratory studies the cellular interactions responsible for development, maintenance, and strength of the skeleton, including the IL-6 family of cytokines, using genetically altered mouse models, in vitro system and human specimens. She has published more than 140 peer reviewed original research articles, 48 peer reviewed review articles and commentaries, and 20 published chapters; H index of 64 (Scopus); more than 13,500 career citations.
Her work has been recognised by awards from her colleagues internationally, including the International Bone and Mineral Society Herbert A Fleisch Award (2013) and the American Society of Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) Fuller Albright Award (2010) and Paula Stern Award (2020).
She is a Deputy Editor of the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research and serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Biological Chemistry. She has served as President of the Australia and New Zealand Bone and Mineral Society and is currently Executive Secretary of the International Federation of Musculoskeletal Research Societies.
Source: Supplied
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Stem cell therapies for enteric neuropathies
Dr Stamp is a Group Leader in the Department of Anatomy and Physiology at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Dr Stamp’s PhD research (with Prof Martin Pera, Monash University) focused on the derivation of hepatopancreatic progenitors from human embryonic stem cells. He then joined the lab of Dr Don Newgreen at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute where he began working on development of the enteric nervous system (ENS), before joining Prof Heather Young’s lab at the University of Melbourne, where he focused on developing a stem cell therapy to treat gut motility disorders such as the paediatric enteric neuropathy Hirschprung disease.
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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.
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Medically Complex Pregnancies
A/Prof Shelley Wilkinson is an Advanced Accredited Practising Dietitian, Fellow of Dietitians Australia, and a leading Australian researcher in maternal health and implementation science.
She has over 30 years of experience in the field and holds a PhD in Psychology. Her passion is in health service redesign through co-creation and combining the ‘know-what’ of nutrition with the ‘know-how’ of innovative behaviour change techniques.
