STEM CELL THERAPIES FOR ENTERIC NEUROPATHIES
Dr Lincon Stamp,
Senior Research Fellow & Group Leader,
Department of Anatomy and Physiology,
School of Biomedical Sciences,
The University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
RESEARCHER PROFILE
Filmed in Melbourne, Australia | October 2025
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.
His lab, which he runs together with Dr Marlene Hao, is now focused on the development, plasticity, and cell and gene therapies for the digestive system, with a particular focus on the enteric nervous system.
Dr Stamp has a strong national and international network of collaborators, including key clinical and consumer connections, and has published high impact studies in top tier journals including Gastroenterology, JCI and Nature Reviews Gastroenterology and Hepatology.
He has had success at securing significant government (ARC, MRFF), philanthropic (NSCFA, REACH Foundation) and industry (Takeda Pharmaceuticals) funding, has strong ties within the Australian and international stem cell communities, and is the currently the President of the Australasian Society for Stem Cell Research (ASSCR).
Source: Supplied
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8925-7894
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Therapy to prevent hepatocellular carcinoma in people with liver cirrhosis
Professor John Olynyk is a Gastroenterologist & Hepatologist with over 30 years’ experience, primarily at The Fiona Stanley & Fremantle Hospital Group. He planned the Gastroenterology and Hepatology Service for the Fiona Stanley Hospital and was Head Department from 2010 until 2020.
Professor John Olynyk was appointed as Associate Dean and Head of the Medical Discipline at Curtin University in 2023 until 2025 and is now Associate Director, Clinical Engagement, Curtin Medical Research Institute, Curtin University.
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Hormone receptor positive breast cancer and therapy resistance
Prof Elgene Lim is a medical oncologist at St Vincent’s Hospital and Head of the Connie Johnson Breast Cancer Research Lab at the Garvan Institute. Following his PhD at the Walter & Eliza Hall Institute where he identified the aberrant cells in carriers of the BRCA1 mutant gene, a hereditary breast cancer syndrome as the culprit cells giving rise to breast cancer, he furthered his research and clinical training at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School. He was awarded the National Breast Cancer Foundation Practitioner Fellowship in 2014 and returned from Boston to Australia. In 2017, he was awarded the inaugural National Breast Cancer Foundation Endowed Chair, and subsequently appointed the Principal Cancer Theme Lead at UNSW.
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Ocular disease and early onset myopia
Dr Mountford has successfully established Western Australia’s first and only ocular genetic screening platform using zebrafish and utilises this model to help elucidate some of the complex gene-environment interactions responsible for the development of myopia.
