NEW TREATMENTS FOR PATIENTS WITH MENTAL ILLNESS
Associate Professor Bernadette Fitzgibbon
Director of Psychiatry Research
Paratus Clinical, Australia &
Associate Professor,
Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
RESEARCHER PROFILE
Filmed in Melbourne, Australia | November 2025
Associate Professor Bernadette Fitzgibbon is a neuroscientist with several decades of experience in researching, developing, and translating novel therapies for mental health and chronic pain conditions. This includes the application and optimisation of brain stimulation and psychedelic therapies, overseeing large multi-site intervention trials, both within Australia and abroad. Through her work, she has developed meaningful collaborations with consumers, volunteers, policy makers, and services providers, ensuring that the outcomes of her work contribute towards real-world clinical impact.
She is currently the Director of Psychiatry Research at Paratus Clinical, where she leads the delivery of clinical trials in emerging therapies for psychiatry, collaborating with academic institutions, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. She is also an Associate Professor at the Australian National University, where she contributes to novel investigator-initiated trials within interventional psychiatry and clinical neuroscience, and a consultant at The Psychedelic Consultancy: a hub to connect and support professionals navigate the legal psychedelic assisted psychotherapy ecosystem in Australia and internationally. Together, she is dedicated to changing the landscape of mental health treatments to improve the outcomes for people living with mental illness.
Source: Supplied
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5339-5304
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Inner ear organoids for the study of human hearing and balance
Dr Jackie Ogier is an auditory neuroscientist, with a research focus on the molecular biology of hair cells, the specialised sensory receptors in the ear that detect sound and balance. She is a postdoctoral research fellow in the laboratory of A/Prof Bryony Nayagam, supported by a prestigious Passe and Williams foundation fellowship.
Dr Ogier’s experience broadly spans the genetics of hearing loss, disease modelling, micro dissection, primary cell culture, stem cell culture, organoids, and proteomics. Overall, she aims to generate knowledge of hearing and vestibular sensory biology.
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Genomics and rationally targeted therapies in Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia
Prof Deborah White’s research focus is genomics and rationally targeted therapies in Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) and Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia (CML) and she holds peer reviewed grants from: The William Lawrence and Blanche Hughes Foundation and the Leukemia Lymphoma Society (USA), the NHMRC, the Leukaemia Foundation Australia (LFA), Channel 7, Cancer Australia, Tour de Cure and the Cancer Council SA (CCSA). Professor White has presented more than 170 papers at scientific meetings, and authored more than 100 scientific publications as well as being an inventor on several international patents.
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Radiation therapy techniques and combination treatments for sarcoma
Professor Angela Hong MBBS, MMed, PhD, FRANZCR is a Professor at Sydney Medical School of the University of Sydney. She is a radiation oncologist and has been a member of the Multidisciplinary Bone and Soft Tissue Tumour Clinic at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital/Chris O’Brien Lifehouse for the past 15 years.
As a radiation oncologist located in Sydney, Australia, Professor Hong is focused on treating patients with bone and soft tissue sarcoma. And as a clinician scientist, her research focuses on developing innovative radiation therapy technique and combination treatments to improve the outcome for patients with sarcoma.
