Dr. Balis received dual B.S. degrees in Computer Engineering and Biology from Duke University in 1987. He attended medical school at the University of South Florida and was awarded an M.D. in 1991. He completed residency training in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology at the University of Utah during the period 1991-1996, followed by postdoctoral fellowship training under the Whitaker Foundation B.E.R.E. Program at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard University Health Sciences and Technology Program (1996-1998), with continued research in tissue engineering at Harvard's Center for Engineering in Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital during the period 1996-2000.

Dr Stuart Blacksell joined the Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine at the University of Oxford in August 2001 and is based at the Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU) in Bangkok, Thailand. He has more than 26 years working microbiology research activities and has been actively been involved in studies in Asia (Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, China) since 1989. From 1983-2001, prior to moving to the University of Oxford he worked at the Biological Safety Level 4 (BSL 4) CSIRO Australian Animal Health Laboratory (AAHL) in Geelong, as well as the organisation’s Thai and Lao-based projects. Dr Blacksell has authored or co-authored more than 50 scientific papers in international journals and book chapters.

Dr Branford’s research focuses on molecular analysis of patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) treated with kinase inhibitor therapy. These analyses include monitoring the levels of BCR-ABL mRNA as an indication of treatment response, and resistance assessment by mutation analysis of the BCR-ABL kinase domain. She contributes significantly to the formulation of international guidelines for the performance and standardization of the molecular methods used internationally. In addition, she is participating in a project to standardize BCR-ABL values to an international reporting scale.

Professor John McBride
John has major interests in the Tropical Infectious Diseases of north Queensland and the Western Pacific. After training in Infectious Diseases and Microbiology in Adelaide he completed a PhD on dengue fever in Townsville before moving to Cairns where he now the Professor of Medicine at the James Cook University School of Medicine and Dentistry. Areas of research interest include Ricketttsial infections, Dengue and Leptospirosis. Recent projects have included an investigation into the use of Infrared thermal screening to detect fever in arriving international passengers and a description of the epidemiology of Dengue fever in PNG.

Brendan McMorran received a BSc Hons degree in 1992 and a PhD in Biochemistry in 1996, both from the University of Otago in New Zealand. He then conducted postdoctoral studies on cystic fibrosis and host responses to lung disease at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience, University of Queensland. His current position is Senior Research Fellow and Member at the Menzies Research Institute, University of Tasmania. His interests are host-pathogen biology and genetics, with specific focus on malaria infection and multiple sclerosis. He is the Tasmanian representative for the Australian Society for Parasitology, and a member of the Australian Society for Medical Research Tasmanian Branch.

Professor Howard Morris is Director of the Hanson Institute in Adelaide, South Australia as well as leading a research group investigating the pathophysiology of metabolic bone disease. He has over 20 years experience working in diagnostic clinical biochemistry in the field of immunoassay and endocrinology and continues an active professional life in laboratory medicine. Between 2002 and 2008 he was the Secretary of the Executive Committee of the Scientific Division of the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (IFCC) and a member of the IFCC Task Force on the Global Campaign on Diabetes Mellitus. He currently is a member of the IFCC Task Force on Organisation Liaisons.

Dr Rudzki is currently Head of the Department of Molecular Pathology at South Australian Pathology. The Department performs a range of genetic tests for inherited non malignant diseases, a range of familial cancers and increasingly for somatic genetic diseases.

John Glasson is a medical scientist with a Masters degree from the University of South Australia and an AIMS fellowship in microbiology. He has worked in small regional laboratories, managed a state-wide regional laboratory network and a core laboratory that handled up to 10,000 clinical samples each day.  

John has also been involved in the automation of several clinical pathology laboratories and in the development of novel technology for the automated inoculation and streaking of specimens onto agar plates.

John was a member of the AIMS SA Branch Committee for 10 years and spent 7 of those years as Chairperson and National Councillor. He has also worked on a number of NPAAC, AACB and RCPA sub-committees, mainly dealing with quality and accreditation matters.

In July 2008, John was appointed as the Scientific Director of LabTech Systems Ltd where he is involved in the development of automated solutions for microbiology laboratories.