Co-Presenter Prof Thomas Astell-Burt is a Founding Co-Director of the PowerLab and an NHMRC Boosting Dementia Research Leadership Fellow. Thomas will outline some recent news and findings by the PowerLab in the area of population health environmental data science.

Prof Ian Wright. Professor of Paediatrics and Child Health Research, University of Wollongong and Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute, Conjoint Professor of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of Newcastle and Hunter Medical Research Institute, Honorary Professor - University of Queensland, University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research, Senior Clinical Academic Staff Specialist Paediatrician - The Wollongong Hospital.

After training in the UK in Paediatrics and Neonatology, Professor Wright spent a year in New Zealand which led on to a permanent move to the Antipodes soon after. Over sixteen years in the clinically busiest neonatal intensive care unit in NSW, in Newcastle, accompanied with a growing research output leading to a national and international reputation for successful clinical trials participation and an ongoing research culture within that neonatal unit. At the same time, Professor Wright has pursued an interest in the physiology of the microcirculation, developing tools for study in the preterm infant and leading to new discoveries that are influencing our understanding and treatment of the sick newborn in the future. He now researches from basic bench science to large translational studies in the areas of cardiovascular physiology, newborn care, life course influences and perinatal drug exposure. He currently has collaborations from local Wollongong and Sydney researchers through several other states to New Zealand, China, Poland and the USA.

Seminar Abstract: This talk will briefly describe some of the mechanisms for biological programming within the developmental origins of adult disease paradigm but then focus on work we have done to demonstrate long term effects of environment (biological and social) on children’s outcomes; including the outcomes for premature infants, those of drug using mothers and whole of population effects. There will then be an opportunity to discuss these paradigms.