Australasian Viral Hepatitis Conference

2006 Conference Archive

The 5^th Viral Hepatitis Conference was held in Sydney. The conference was a huge success with over 400 delegates attending.

The Conference's scientific program committee included:

Convenor
Graeme Macdonald - University of Queensland, School of Medicine
Campbell Aitken - Burnet Institute
Sharon Caris - Haemophilia Foundation Australia
Darrell Crawford - Gastroenterological Society of Australia
Levinia Crooks - Australasian Society for HIV Medicine
Tony Cunningham - Australian Centre in HIV & Hepatitis Virology Research
Kate Dolan - National Drug & Alcohol Research Centre
Ed Gane - New Zealand Liver Transplant Unit
Eric Gowans - Burnet Institute
Paul Haber - Royal Prince Alfred Hospital
John Hornell - New Zealand Hepatitis Foundation
Annie Madden - Australian Injecting & Illicit Drug Users League
Jacqui Richmond - St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne
Leanne Totten - Fremantle Hospital
Carla Treloar - National Centre in HIV Social Research, UNSW
Helen Tyrrell - Australian Hepatitis Council
Sonja Hill - Australasian Society for HIV Medicine

Invited Speakers

Yves Benhamou is an associate professor of hepatology in the Department of Hepatology and Gastroenterology of Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris. He received his MD at Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in 1989 and his PhD in 1999 at Paris VI University. Dr Benhamou has been the principal investigator from numerous clinical trials related to the management and treatment of hepatitis C and B in people with and without HIV co-infection. Dr Benhamou has authored and published many scientific papers in outstanding journals and is currently involved in a number of clinical trials, including research into viral hepatitis. Recently, Dr Benhamou has organised and chaired the 1st European Conference Consensus on the Treatment of Chronic Hepatitis B and C in HIV-Infected Patients.

Professor of Hepatology in the Department of Hepatology and Gastroenterology
Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris

Raffaele De Francesco is Senior Director at the Research Institute in Molecular Biology (IRBM), Rome, Italy. He received his doctoral degree in biology from the University of Milan. Prior to joining IRBM in 1991, Dr De Francesco was a postdoctoral fellow at Emory University, Atlanta, USA, and at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany. Dr De Francesco has a long standing interest in the molecular virology of the hepatitis C virus (HCV). In particular, his research at IRBM has focused on the identification of molecular targets for antiviral therapy and on the development of HCV enzyme inhibitors as novel agents for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C.

Senior Director at the Research Institute in Molecular Biology (IRBM)
Rome, Italy

Holly Hagan PhD, an infectious disease epidemiologist, has devoted her career to studying the epidemiology and prevention of HIV and hepatitis B and C in drug users, and the etiology of blood-borne viral transmission in injection settings. Her research includes examining the role of public health and harm reduction programs in controlling these infections. Currently she is the Principal Investigator for a cohort study of risk factors for HCV seroconversion in drug injectors, a meta-analysis of HCV epidemiology in drug users and a behavioural surveillance study. She is the Director of the Research Methods Core within the Centre for Drug Use and HIV Research at the National Development and Research Institutes.

Director of the Research Methods Core, Centre for Drug Use and HIV Research at the National Development and Research Institutes
Washington, USA

Brian J McMahon obtained his medical degree from The University of Washington in Seattle, then completed his internship at the LA County University of Southern California Medical Centre and his residency at the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics, Iowa City. He is currently a clinical Hepatologist and the Director of the Liver Disease and Hepatitis Program at the Alaska Native Medical Centre in Anchorage. He is also a guest researcher at the Arctic Investigations Program of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in Anchorage and a clinical associate professor of medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle. Dr McMahon has been active in research in viral hepatitis A, B, and C, for over 30 years. He is currently the principal investigator for federally funded studies investigating hepatitis A to C in Alaska, particularly among Native Alaskan Indians. Dr McMahon acts as a reviewer for ‘Annals of Internal Medicine, Journal American Medical Association, Hepatology, and Gastroenterology'.

Clinical Hepatologist and the Director of the Liver Disease and Hepatitis Program at the Alaska Native Medical Centre in Anchorage
Alaska

Damon Brogan is currently the Manager of the Victorian Drug User Organisation (VIVAIDS) and may be regarded as one of the ‘elders' of the network of peer-based drug users' advocacy organisations in Australia. For nine years, before coming to VIVAIDS in 2003, Damon was the manager of the South Australian User Group (SAVIVE). He has held several executive positions within the Australian Illicit and Injecting Drug Users' League (AIVL), including President from 1998 to 2000, and was Director of the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations. In 1990, while at the ACTIV league in Canberra, Damon drafted Australia's .rst comprehensive print resource for IDUs on viral hepatitis, Alphabet Soup. He was a foundation member of the Hepatitis C Council of SA and in 1997 he wrote, produced and featured as a ‘stunt arm' in Traces of Blood, arguably the world's first dedicated hepatitis C prevention video, which was funded by the South Australian Health Commission.

Manager of the Victorian Drug User Organisation (VIVAIDS)
Australia

Graham Cooksley is Professorial Research Fellow in the Discipline of Medicine at the University of Queensland. His major research interests are in pathogenesis and treatment of chronic hepatitis. He
specialised in internal medicine and completed a research doctorate on protein metabolism in the liver. He did post doc work in the UK on regulation of hepatic protein synthesis. He was Senior Lecturer then Associate Professor in Medical Biochemistry with research interests in cobalamin metabolism, hepatic drug metabolism and auto-immune hepatitis. In 1981 he worked on the immunopathology of chronic hepatitis at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, USA. He was appointed Director of the Clinical Research Centre, Royal Brisbane Hospital Foundation from 1987-2002. He was Convenor of several International Meetings on Hepatitis C and Hepatitis D. He has more than 200 publications in the international literature and has given over 100 invited lectures at international meetings.

Professorial Research Fellow in the Discipline of Medicine
University of Queensland, Australia

Chris Cunningham is Professor of Maori Health and Director of the Research Centre for Maori Health and Development at Massey University, NZ. He is a Trustee of the NZ Hepatitis Foundation and a Senior Maori Researcher.

Professor, Maori Health, Massey University, and Director, Research Centre for Maori Health & Development, New Zealand

Geoffrey Farrell graduated from the University of Tasmania in 1970. His clinical training in gastroenterology and hepatology was at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney and the Royal Brisbane Hospital, Brisbane. He conducted postdoctoral research at the University of California in San Francisco. In 1980, Geoffrey returned to Sydney to establish the Liver Research Group at Westmead Hospital. He was Head of the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Westmead from 1982 until 1993. He was promoted to a personal chair in 1993, and shortly thereafter was invited to accept a chair in Hepatic Medicine. He is now the Director of the Storr Liver Unit, which has been incorporated as part of the Westmead Millennium Institute. Professor Farrell's research interests are in drug-induced liver disease and other aspects of hepatotoxicity, viral hepatitis, non alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), hepatic drug metabolism, cell biology of liver injury and regeneration, and liver cancer.

Director of the Storr Liver Unit, Westmead Millennium Institute
Australia

Eric Gowans is currently a Senior Principal Research Fellow at the Macfarlane Burnet Institute, Melbourne and has established a productive group. His major interests are in the replication of hepatitis C virus and closely related viruses, and in the development of a vaccine or method for immunotherapy to prevent or treat HCV infection. He has developed a number of successful collaborative projects in Melbourne and with several other senior scientists, currently holds a grant from the National Institutes of Health, USA to investigate the potential of immunotherapy in the treatment of HCV infection. He was awarded a NHMRC Research Fellowship in 2004. He was previously the Director of the Sir Albert Sakzewski Virus Research Centre in Brisbane for eight years and before that Chief Hospital Scientist in the Institute of Medical and Veterinary Science, Adelaide. Eric was instrumental in forming the Australian Centre for Hepatitis Virology, a group comprised of basic scientists who work on the hepatitis viruses.

Senior Principal Research Fellow, Macfarlane Burnet Institute
Melbourne, Australia

Daniel Tarantola is a Professor of Health and Human Rights, School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of New South Wales, working on a cross-faculty research initiative involving Medicine, Law, and Arts and Social Sciences. Early in his career, Daniel worked with the World Health Organization on large scale international health programmes and, in the late 1980s, contributed to the creation of the WHO Global programme on HIV/AIDS. From 1991 to 1998 Daniel was a Lecturer in
the Department of Population and International Health of the Harvard School of Public Health and a Senior Associate of the Harvard-based François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights. From 1998 to 2004 Daniel rejoined the World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva as a Senior Policy Adviser
to the Director General and, additionally during the latter part of this period, as Director of the World Health Organisation, Department of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals.

Professor of Health and Human Rights, School of Public Health and Community Medicine
University of New South Wales, Australia