Meet the team

Professor André Schultz

Wal-yan Centre Head

MBChB, PhD, FRACP

Professor André Schultz is the Program Head of Respiratory Health at The Kids Research Institute Australia, leader of the BREATH team at the Wal-yan Centre, and paediatric respiratory physician and Clinical Lead for Cystic Fibrosis, Bronchiectasis, and Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia at Perth Children’s Hospital.

His commitment to advancing healthcare is evident in his multifaceted approach to improving the health trajectories of children, with a particular emphasis on enhancing lung health in Indigenous children.

Professor Schultz's research interests encompass a broad spectrum, including lung health in Aboriginal children, biomarkers of lung disease, cell culture-based disease models, and mental health in cystic fibrosis.

His advocacy for children and families affected by rare lung diseases is exemplified by his leadership roles in various organisations. He is the co-founder and Chair of the multinational chILDRANZ Peer Support Team, a member of the Lung Foundation’s Young Lungs Executive Advisory Committee, and the Deputy Chair of the Steering Committee of the Australian Cystic Fibrosis Data Registry. He is also the President of the Australian Council on Smoking and Health.

Having secured research funding exceeding AU$22 million and publishing over 95 peer-reviewed articles, Professor Schultz is recognized for his contributions spanning airway surface physiology to knowledge translation science. His dedication is further emphasized by holding a prestigious NHMRC/MRFF Investigator grant aimed at preventing permanent lung disease in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children across Australia.

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Professor Stephen Stick

Head, P4 Respiratory Health for Kids

MB BChir PhD FRACP FAAHMS 

Northern Star Professor of Children’s Respiratory Health Research Professor Stick is a career clinician and clinical researcher, holds a NHMRC Practitioner Fellowship and is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Science. He graduated in Medicine from Cambridge University, completing his paediatric training in the UK before obtaining a PhD in respiratory physiology at The University of Western Australia.

Prof Stick was head of the Department of Respiratory and Sleep Medicine at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children from 1998-2016. He introduced a number of important clinical services, including the first accredited children’s sleep laboratory in Australia and specialist outreach services to the South West, Goldfields and North West of Western Australia. His contribution as Principal Investigator for the Australian Respiratory Early Surveillance Team for Cystic Fibrosis (AREST CF) is internationally recognised and in 2015 he was awarded the Richard Talamo Distinguished Clinical Achievement Award, the highest research award of the US Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Prof Stick has had continuous research funding from the NHMRC since 1997 and currently holds over $14m in competitive research funding from national and international sources. His research focus has been the earliest manifestations of chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma and cystic fibrosis and developing interventions to prevent long term lung damage.

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Dr Shannon Simpson

Co-Head, Children's Lung Health; Senior Research Fellow

BMedSci (hons), PhD

Dr Shannon Simpson was awarded her PhD in December 2010 by the University of Tasmania. Her PhD, which looked at the developing respiratory system in a pre-clinical model of preterm birth, received a number of awards including the prestigious American Physiological Society Scholander Prize for meritorious work by a young investigator.

After completing her PhD, Dr Simpson commenced a postdoctoral position in the Children’s Lung Health team at The Kids Research Institute Australia, developing skills in clinical respiratory physiology while undertaking research in infants and children with cystic fibrosis, asthma and those surviving very preterm birth. As a result, she received a number of conference awards (including best poster at Australasian CF) and a number of high impact papers. Dr Simpson commenced a NHMRC Peter Doherty Fellowship in 2014 to further her work with infants and children born very preterm and is developing a strong international reputation as a leader in the area of long-term pulmonary outcomes following preterm birth.

Dr Simpson leads a multi-faceted research program which aims to reduce the burden of lung disease in survivors of preterm birth.

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Associate Professor Anthony Kicic

Head, Airway Epithelial Research; Rothwell Family Fellow

BSc (Hons) PhD

Assoc Prof Kicic completed his undergraduate and doctorate degrees at the University of Western Australia, specializing in Molecular Biology and Cell Biology. His research interests lie in tissue engineering and reparative cell biology, particularly focusing on the ability of the cells in the body to repair, including stem cells. His research also focuses on the role of the airway epithelium in the pathogenesis of a number of respiratory diseases including childhood asthma, cystic fibrosis and lung transplant rejection. 

He is exploring the complex relationships that exists between pathogens such as bacteria and viruses with the airway and how we can develop new therapies to treat these infections.

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Associate Professor Kathryn Ramsey

Co-Head, Children’s Lung Health

BSc (Hons) PhD

Associate Professor Kathryn Ramsey is a NHMRC EL2 Investigator Fellow and Co-Head of Children’s Lung Health at The Kids Research Institute Australia.

After completing her PhD at The Kids Research Institute Australia and The University of Western Australia in 2013, she was awarded prestigious fellowships from the NHMRC and Swiss National Science Foundation to undertake postdoctoral training in airway mucus biology and paediatric respiratory physiology at leading research institutions in the USA and Switzerland.

She returned to The Kids Research Institute Australia in 2021 to co-lead the Children’s Lung Health team and lead translational research to understand disease pathophysiology and improve outcomes in children with muco-obstructive lung diseases, including cystic fibrosis, bronchiectasis, and primary ciliary dyskinesia.

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Associate Professor Deborah Strickland

Head, Experimental Immunology

PhD

Assoc Prof Strickland completed her PhD at the University of WA in the regulation of immune homeostatic processes in the respiratory tract. She received a prestigious Elizabeth Albeiz Fellowship (Multiple Sclerosis Society of Australia) for post-doctoral studies at the Centenary Institute, Sydney.

Following this, her postdoctoral work focused on establishing an independent program of research to explore the pathogenic mechanisms associated with risk for allergic asthma inception and progression, particularly during early life. In parallel, she has established a complimentary research program to explore how inflammatory responses that occur in the mother during gestation can perturb the developing foetal immune system to result in increased risk for a range of diseases (including respiratory, metabolic, and neurological systems) in later life.

Her research program is targeted towards addressing key fundamental gaps in the understanding of immune development, homeostatic mechanisms and how the immune system can be programmed to drive increased disease susceptibility, or trained to mitigate disease risk, with the overarching goal of developing potential preventive strategies. Her current positions are as Team Leader Experimental Immunology, Athena Swan Chair, Adjunct Assoc Prof UWA.

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Dr David Martino

Team Leader, Clinical Epigenetics

BSc PhD

Dr Martino is an NHMRC biomedical research fellow and Team Leader of Clinical Epigenetics at The Kids Research Institute Australia. His research explores the links between the molecular determinants of epigenetic control and childhood health and disease. He is engaged in understanding how periconceptual exposures translate into phenotypes with enduring effects on long-term health. He has published extensively on genetic and epigenetic mechanisms of immune development and allergic disease.  

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Dr Ingrid Laing

Head, Children's Respiratory Science Group; Honorary Research Fellow

BSc PhD

Dr Ingrid Laing is a research scientist with a focus on understanding the mechanisms of childhood respiratory disease, identifying risk factors and biomarkers that predict the development of persistent respiratory exacerbations as well as trialling new treatments. Dr Laing has a comprehensive track record in paediatric respiratory research particularly in the areas of respiratory virology, childhood acute wheezing and asthma, lung development and immunogenetics. 

Together with Professor Peter Le Souef, Dr Laing leads a world-class study of children having wheezing and asthma attacks and has also undertaken clinical trials of new asthma treatments.

Professor Jane Pillow

Program Head, Early Environment; Head, Neonatal Cardiorespiratory Health 

BMedSci (Dist) MBBS, PhD (Dist) FRACP

Professor Jane Pillow is an academic neonatologist with an active clinical and preclinical research program, with a longstanding focus on improving the cardiorespiratory outcome of preterm infants. She is the CIA and Co-Director of the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence to improve the immediate and long-term outcomes of preterm infants. She is the Founding Director of the UWA Preclinical Intensive Care Research Unit (PICRU) and Early Environment Research Focus Area chair at The Kids Research Institute Australia. Her clinical research program has contributed to the detailed understanding and development of sophisticated and non-invasive methods of assessing lung function at the bedside of newborn infants, and improving non-invasive treatment including nebulised surfactant.

Prof Pillow is internationally renowned for her expertise in the development and teaching of lung protective respiratory support to limit injury to fragile lungs of premature babies. In recent years, her research program has focused on systemic modifiers of lung development including interventions in relation to infection, inflammation and circadian rhythm as a means to improving not just cardiorespiratory but overall outcomes for premature and very premature infants.