A World of Hope: Free lecture by Professor David Parsons

Find out about global research discoveries offering hope for cystic fibrosis sufferers. 

Associate Professor David Parsons and members of the Adelaide Cystic Fibrosis Gene Therapy Research Group will present on global and local research findings at this special event.

Associate Professor David Parsons,
Chief Medical Scientist, Adelaide Cystic Fibrosis Gene Therapy Research Group, Women’s & Children’s Hospital.
Head, Cystic Fibrosis Group, School of Paediatrics and Reproductive Health, University of Adelaide.

Trained in computing and neurosciences at the University of Melbourne, David's interests in respiratory physiology began when he joined the then Pulmonary Medicine Department at the Adelaide Children's Hospital (now the Women's and Children's Hospital) 24 years ago.

Juggling laboratory clinical service management and the respiratory research roles, he has focused on developing a treatment or prevention for cystic fibrosis lung disease using gene therapies. He leads the team investigating airway gene transfer for CF, now based in the new Allan Scott CF Research Laboratory housed in the Gilbert Building at the WCH.

With major initial support from the USA CF Foundation and thereafter from the NH&MRC and CF Australia his group produced the first methods for long-lasting CF gene correction in CF mice, with successful translation of the gene transfer techniques he developed in laboratory mice into other animals.

David has served on the Respiratory Panel of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy, and has championed development of new synchrotron-based X-ray techniques that visualise the state of health of the airway surfaces and the lungs. Recent success in this area have allowed the effects airway dosing and of various airway treatments to be followed in the tiny airways of live mice at very high resolution, to help improve the testing and assessment of the effects of new treatments on airway surface physiology and health.

His goal is to be part of a team that develops an effective prevention or treatment for the progressing and early-fatal lung disease often suffered by children born with CF.


To register for this free event head to http://bit.ly/1n5vfJ0.