BANNER LAC 2026

Keynote speakers

Dr Michael Cox

Founder and Principal, Martian Clinical Consulting

Dr Michael Harhay

Deputy Director of the Division of Epidemiology and Director of the Center for Clinical Trials Innovation, University of Pennsylvania

Dr Marylyn Ritchie

Chief AI Officer, and Director AI Center for Health Innovation and Informatics, Medical University of South Carolina

Dr Kim Sutherland

Executive Director, Office for Health and Medical Research, NSW Health

Professor Adam Jaffe

John Beveridge Professor and co-head of Paediatrics and Child Health at UNSW, Sydney

Tiffany Boughtwood

Australian Health Genomics Commissioner, Genomics Australia

Speakers

Professor Hilda Pickett

Head of the Telomere Length Regulation Unit at Children’s Medical Institute (CMRI), and Professor in the Faculty of Medicine and Health at The University of Sydney

Professor Robyn Jamieson

Director, Eye Genetics Research Unit, Children's Medical Research Institute

Professor Tracy Bryan

Head of the Cell Biology Unit at Children’s Medical Research Institute (CMRI) and Professor in the Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney

Natasha Eaton

Training Manager , Single Digital Patient Record Implementation Authority , NSW Health

Professor Wendy Gold

Head of School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, and group leader of the Molecular Neurobiology Research group at Kids Research, The Children’s Hospital, Westmead.

Professor Mark Cowley

Deputy Director, Enabling Platforms & Collaboration and Group Leader, Children’s Cancer Institute

A/Prof Anai Gonzalez-Cordero

Group Leader Stem Cell Medicine and Head of the Stem Cell & Organoid Facility, Children’s Medical Research Institute

Professor Tom Snelling

Director of the Health and Clinical Analytics, School of Public Health, University of Sydney, and an infectious diseases physician in the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network

Professor Louis Chesler

Professor of Childhood Cancer Biology and Therapeutics Executive Director, Children’s Cancer Institute of Australia Co-Director, The Minderoo Comprehensive Children’s Cancer Centre, Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick, Australia

Professor Maria Kavallaris AM

Professor and Head of Translational Cancer Nanomedicine NHMRC Investigator Children's Cancer Institute

Professor Matt Dun OAM

Chair in Medical Sciences and Professor of Paediatric Haematology/Oncology Research at the University of Newcastle

Dr Rebecca Poulos

Group Leader (Multi-Omics and Childhood Cancer) and Senior Research Fellow in ProCan at Children’s Medical Research Institute, and a Conjoint Senior Lecturer at the University of Sydney.

Emma Maly

Parent and patient advocate

Professor Philip Hog

Director, ACRF-Centenary Cancer Research Centre, University of Sydney

Grantly Mailes

Gecko Consulting

Professor Michelle Farrar

Child Neurologist, Sydney Children's Hospitals Network

Dr Richard Mitchell

Paediatric Haematologist/Oncologist and Co-Director of the Minderoo Comprehensive Cancer Centre at Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick

A/Prof (Elizabeth) Emma Palmer

Clinical Geneticist, Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network

Professor Natalie Taylor

Director of Implementation to Impact (i2i) and Director of Research for the School of Population Health at UNSW Sydney

Professor Andrew Wilson AO

Co-Director of the Menzies Centre for Health Policy and Economics at The University of Sydney and Professor of Public Health in the Sydney School of Public Health

Anne O’Neill FTSE PSM

Chief Commercial Officer, ANDHealth

Professor Michelle Dickson

Director of the Poche Centre for Indigenous Health, The University of Sydney; and NH&MRC Leadership Fellow

Dr Kieran Stockton

Research Fellow, Medicinal Chemistry, Monash University

Paul Curnow

Managing Director and Chief Commercial Officer, Akaysha Energy

Brett and Raelene Anslow

Parent and patient advocates

A/Professor Michelle Lorentzos

Advanced Therapeutics Medical Lead at The Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network

Lani Attwood

Acting Director Research Operations for Kids Research at Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network (SCHN)

Dr Lisa Ewans

Clinical Geneticist, Centre for Clinical Genetics

Dr Marion Mateos

Paediatric Haematologist/Oncologist, Children's Cancer Institute

Allen Stanley

Senior Project Manager Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network (SCHN) Aboriginal Health Directorate

Robert Monaghan

Manager of First Nations Health Research, Kirby Institute

Dr Boris Waldman

Specialist Anaesthetist St George Hospital, Sydney

Associate Professor Sarah Norris

Associate Professor of Practice, Health Technology Assessment, School of Public Health, the University of Sydney

Chris Alma

CEO, Platypus Bio

Dr Ah-Jung Jeon

Health Data Informatics & AI Team Lead at Children’s Cancer Institute

Professor Rebecca Guy

Head of the Surveillance Evaluation and Research Program at the Kirby Institute, UNSW Sydney.

Professor Brendon Monahan

Director of MedChem Australia at the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MIPS)

Professor Karen Zwi

Consultant Community Paediatrician at Sydney Children’s Hospital Randwick, Conjoint Professor UNSW Sydney, Clinical Services Director for Child Youth and Family, Northern Sydney Local Health District (NSLHD).

Aurelie Jacquet

Ethical AI Consulting

Gail Hilton

Head of Programs, Childhood Dementia Initiative

Panellists

Professor  Raghu Lingam

Professor in Paediatric Population and Health Services Research UNSW Sydney, Honorary Professor of Population Child Health at Kings College London and the Black Dog Institute (NSW), Consultant Community Paediatrician Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network.

Professor Tracey O'Brien AM

CEO and Chief Cancer Officer, Cancer Institute NSW

Dr Laura Collie

Associate Director of Research, NSW Ambulance

Megan Maack

Director and CEO, Child Dementia Initiative

Professor Sue Woolfenden

Director of Community Paediatrics, Sydney Local Health District, Professor of Community Paediatrics, Central Clinical School, Sydney Medical School, the Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Co-chair Sydney Institute Women, Children and their Families

Professor Ian Street

Director, THerapeutic INnovations for Kids (THINK), Children’s Cancer Institute

Trent Zimmerman

Corporate Affairs Director, Alexion, AstraZeneca’s rare disease group

Dr Kavitha Kothur

Paediatric neurologist at the Children's Hospital at Westmead (CHW) and NHMRC Senior Research Fellow

Emeritus Professor Leslie White AM

Director, Children’s Cancer Institute

Dr Kate Hetherington

Post-doctoral Research Fellow/Clinical Psychologist School of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health, UNSW, Sydney, Australia. Team Leader Ethics and Genetics, Behavioural Sciences Unit, Kids Cancer Centre, Sydney Children's Hospital Randwick

Emeritus Professor Richard Henry AM

Board Member, Luminesce Alliance; Director, Children's Cancer Institute

A/Prof Antoine de Weck

Group Leader Computational Drug Discovery Biology Group, Children’s Cancer Institute

Trent Zimmerman

Corporate Affairs Director, Alexion, AstraZeneca’s rare disease group

Lucy Jones

CEO Neuroblastoma Australia

Professor Parmjot Bains

Chief Medical Officer of the UNSW RNA Institute and Professor of Translational Medicine at UNSW Medicine & Health.

Professor Glenn Marshall AM

Group Leader, Clinical Lead of Zero Childhood Cancer Program, Children's Cancer Institute

Alunya Wilkinson

Parent Advocate and Research Advisor

Dr Janette Lee

Research Fellow, Kids Advanced Therapeutics Program, Sydney Children's Hospitals Network

Professor Kristine Barlow-Stewart AM

Senior Research Genetic Counsellor, Children’s Cancer Institute

Dr Lucinda Freeman

Head of Genetic Counselling, School of Clinical and Health Sciences, University of Technology Sydney

Dr May Aung-Htut

Senior Research Fellow, Personalised Medicine Centre, Health Futures Institute, Murdoch University

Dr Noemi Fuentes-Bolanos

Paediatric Cancer Genetics Research Fellow and Conjoint Lecturer, UNSW Sydney

Professor Alec Welsh

Maternal-Fetal Medicine (MFM), UNSW Sydney

Dr Julia Warning

Principal Policy Officer and A/Director, Advanced Therapeutics at OHMR, NSW Ministry of Health

Kathryn Greiner AO

Chair Luminesce Alliance Chair – Pennington Institute Chair – Ministerial Advisory Council on Ageing Chair – Lifestart Co-op Ltd Director – Paul Ramsay Foundation Board Director – Relationships Australia (NSW)

Professor Michelle Haber AM

Head of the Experimental Therapeutics Group, Children's Cancer Institute

Professor Roger Reddel AO

Executive Director, Children's Medical Research Institute

Professor Sandra Cooper

Co-Head and Scientific Director of Kids Neuroscience Centre at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead

Dr Radek Zzmyd

Senior Research Officer, Genome Integrity Unit, Children's Medical Research Institute and Luminesce Alliance Scientific Committee Member

Dr Fran Evesson

Senior Lecturer, School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health The University of Sydney, Luminesce Alliance Scientific Committee Member

Master of Ceremonies

Ben Apted

Senior Partner, SPP

Joe Connell

Director, Dandolo Partners

Professor Roger Reddel AO

Sir Lorimer Dods Professor, Faculty of Medicine and Health, Director, Children's Medical Research Institute, Head, Cancer Research Unit, Children’s Medical Research Institute

A/Prof Grant Logan

Children’s Medical Research Institute, Sydney Medical School Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney

Dr Michelle Lorentzos

Paediatric Neurologist, Clinical Trials Medical Lead, Head of Neurogenetics Service

Mrs Emma Maly

Parent Advocate

Dr Emily Mould

Children’s Cancer Institute

Dr Gabor Tax

Research Officer in the Translational Drug Testing and Pharmacogenomics Children's Cancer Institute, Conjoint Lecturer in the School of Medicine, UNSW.

Prof Claire Wakefield

Behavioural Sciences Unit, Kids Cancer Centre, Sydney Children’s Hospital Randwick

Dr Shafagh Waters

Scientia Senior Lecturer at UNSW Sydney, Honorary Senior Scientist Sydney Children’s Hospital Randwick

Anne O’Neill

Director, Enterprise, International Partnerships and Clinical Trials, NSW Health

Dr Katarina Ostojic

Research Fellow, The University of Sydney & Adjunct Associate Lecturer, UNSW Sydney

Dr (Elizabeth) Emma Palmer

Clinical Geneticist, Sydney Children's Hospitals Network Randwick, Clinical Senior Lecturer, School of Clinical Medicine, UNSW Medicine & Health Randwick Clinical Campus Discipline of Paediatrics

Alunya Wilkinson

Parent Research Advisor

Prof David Ziegler

Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network