Professor Bradley Turner
BSc (Hons), PhD (Melb)

Group Head

Location
Parkville Campus
30 Royal Parade
Parkville Victoria 3052

Research group
Motor Neurone Disease Group

Headshot_Brad Turner

Biography

Professor Bradley Turner is Head of the Motor Neuron Disease Group and Research Lead of the Brain Health and Repair Mission. His group has a broad research interest in neurodegenerative diseases affecting the voluntary motor system in the brain and spinal cord. His team focuses on motor neuron disease (MND)/amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Kennedy’s disease (KD) and spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). Main research themes within his group include: understanding the cellular and molecular basis of selective motor neuron degeneration, chemogenetic models of neurodegeneration, development and delivery of novel therapeutics, and devising precision medicine approaches for these conditions. His approach is to model these diseases using patient stem cell-derived and animal models to evaluate gene, immune and pharmacological candidate therapeutics. Brad directs the ‘ID MND Initiative’, the largest MND patient stem cell bank in Australia for disease modelling and drug screening. His research has contributed to 5 drugs in clinical trial for MND.

Brad obtained his PhD in biochemistry at the University of Melbourne in 2005, followed by 3 years postdoctoral research at the MRC Functional Genomics Unit, University of Oxford. He was recruited back to The Florey and established his independent research group in 2011. He has received numerous fellowships, including a NHMRC CJ Martin Fellowship, Stafford Fox Foundation Fellowship and NHMRC Dementia Research Leadership Fellowship. His lab is currently funded by the NHMRC, Medical Research Future Fund, Stafford Fox Medical Research Foundation, FightMND and MND Research Australia. Brad has 100+ career publications in leading journals, including Nature Communications, PNAS USA, JAMA Neurology, Autophagy and Cell Death & Differentiation. He serves as an editor for a number of journals, including Sclerosis (Editor-in-Chief) and Frontiers Cell Neuroscience (Associate Editor).

Key collaborators:

Career highlights

Current roles

  • Head, Motor Neuron Disease Group, The Florey
  • Research Lead, Protect and Repair Mission, The Florey
  • Member of MND Australia Research Committee
  • Member of FightMND Grant Review
  • Member of Scientific Advisory Board, Black Swan Pharmaceuticals
  • Principal Investigator, Phase 2 Trial of Ambroxol for ALS
  • Member of Steering Committee, Phase 2 Trial of 3K3A-APC in ALS
  • MND Collective Victorian Representative

Past roles

  • Member of the National Health and Medical Research Council Grant Review Panels
  • Member of the National Health and Medical Research Council Assigners Academy

Awards and achievements

  • 2021 – Pan-Asian Consortium for Treatment and Research in ALS (PACTALS) Excellent Research Award
  • 2020 – Charcot Prize, MND Research Australia
  • 2022 – Stafford Fox Senior Research Fellowship
  • 2018 – NHMRC Dementia Research Leadership Fellowship
  • 2015 – Stafford Fox Senior Research Fellowship
  • 2010 – Inaugural Bethlehem Griffiths Research Foundation Young Researcher of the Year Prize

Research publications

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