| Key bionic team researchers (from left) Professor Rob Kapsa, Professo... Key bionic team researchers (from left) Professor Rob Kapsa, Professor Graeme Clark and Professor Gordon Wallace |  | Dr Michael Higgins’s expertise will allow the bionics team to ... Dr Michael Higgins’s expertise will allow the bionics team to view living cells and how they behave in response to electrical stimulation |
Bionics team set to make its mark on the world
20 Aug 2007 | Bernie Goldie
A bionics team to rival any other in the world has now been assembled at the University of Wollongong and the team is already preparing to host the first Asia Pacific Symposium on Nanobionics in June 2008.
The team now expects to herald in much speedier advances in health areas such as spinal cord regeneration, muscle regeneration and cochlear implants.
The six leading researchers, supported by six PhD students, will move into a state-of-the-art building on UOW’s new Innovation Campus next year which will allow the scientists for the first time to do their respective cell work and materials research side by side.
“It gives us a critical mass to allow us to attract the best scientific collaborators in the world,” said Professor Gordon Wallace, Executive Research Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science and UOW’s only ARC Federation Fellow.
It is the combination of the ARC Centre and Fellowship which has provided the funding necessary to establish the current bionics team.
Among other team members are the inventor of the cochlear implant, Professor Graeme Clark, and new members Professor Rob Kapsa and Dr Michael Higgins.
Professor Kapsa holds a joint appointment with St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne. He is a molecular and (stem) cell biologist who has wide experience in the field of neuroscience research. He is Senior Scientist and Co-Head of the National Muscular Dystrophy Research Centre.
“I am thrilled to be joining such an excellent group of scientists and believe we will make tremendous inroads into the area of muscle regeneration,” Professor Kapsa said.
Dr Higgins is from Trinity College Dublin and brings extensive Atomic Force Microscopy expertise to the team.
Professor Wallace said this would enable the team to view living cells and how they behave in response to electrical stimulation.
He said the team was very keen to make the move to its new Innovation Campus headquarters where there would be space and facilities to markedly improve the combined research work.
To help celebrate the move next year, the bionics team will host the first Asia-Pacific Symposium on Nanobionics from 22-26 June. World leaders in the field of bionics and the use of nanotechnology will attend this major international symposium.
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