Meet the team
AusPIPS Inc. is overseen by a Committee of volunteers.
We also have a collective of medical and allied health professionals, who contribute in an advisory capacity to its work. As Primary Immune Deficiency (PID) impacts many areas of health, our advisory panel has contributors from various medical and allied health professions. The advisory panel provides the committee with information and expertise to continue our work which includes patient advocacy and support.
Advisory Panel members
Professor Jo Douglass - Immunology Panel Chair
Professor Jo Douglass is a specialist physician in Allergy and Clinical Immunology and Respiratory Medicine, who currently holds a joint appointment as the James Stewart Professor of Medicine in the University of Melbourne Department of Medicine and Director of Research at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. Prof Douglass undertook her undergraduate medical training and a Doctor of Medicine (by research) at Monash University and specialist medical training in Melbourne, London and Southampton.
From 2012 to 2020, she was Head of the Department of Clinical Immunology and Allergy at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, undertaking a management role in the Hospital as Divisional Director. She has active research projects in asthma, particularly Thunderstorm Asthma, and in the genomic diagnosis of primary immune deficiencies. Professor Douglass serves on numerous speciality and industry advisory boards, she chairs the National Primary Immune Deficiency strategy and is a past president of the Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy.
Prof Alex Boussioutas - Gastroenterologist and Researcher
Professor Boussioutas is a tenured academic clinician at the Central Clinical School, Monash University. He is the Professor Director of Gastroenterology at The Alfred and has been appointed as Program Director for Specialty Medicine at Alfred Health. He is the Head of GI Risk Management at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and he works as a consultant Gastroenterologist at Epworth Healthcare Richmond and has clinical rooms at Cancer Specialists.
He leads a research program in Upper Gastrointestinal Cancer at the Monash University and The Alfred. His research encompasses a number of disciplines including: population health and screening; use of novel technologies to aid early detection of cancer and; genomics in the investigation of molecular pathology of gastric cancer. He was the only Australian collaborator of The Cancer Genome Atlas Network in Upper GI Cancer which led to landmark studies in the characterisation of gastric and oesophageal cancer that were published in Nature. He has a particular interest in cancer genetics and is one of Australia’s leading experts in inherited cancer of the Upper GI and Lower GI tract.
A/Prof Theresa Cole - Paediatric Allergist and Immunologist
A/Prof Theresa Cole is a paediatric allergist and immunologist at the Royal Children’s Hospital. She is Clinical lead for Haematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant within the Children’s Cancer Centre, specialising in stem cell transplant for primary immunodeficiency. She is a past president of the Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy (ASCIA) and facilitator of the Transplantation in Primary Immunodeficiency (TAPID) group. She was instrumental in publishing national guidelines for the diagnosis and management of children with Severe Combined Immunodeficiency and contributed to the development of the ASCIA Immunodeficiency strategy for Australia and New Zealand. She sits on the National Clinical Evidence Taskforce COVID-19 drugs and therapeutics panel.
Dr David Church - General Practitioner
David is a General Practitioner who has been practicing in the Melbourne area for over 25 years. He is a Trainer for the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, and also assists in the teaching of Medical Students. His specialist interests include infectious diseases, and David has a number of Primary Immunodeficient patients under his care.
Mr Richard Hession - Physiotherapist
Richard, is a UK trained physiotherapist with over 19 years’ experience in respiratory physiotherapy. He received his initial honours physiotherapy degree from the University of Keele (UK) in 2001 and his Post Grad Cert in Advanced Cardiorespiratory Physiotherapy from University College London in 2009.
Richard has in-depth experience in a variety of patient groups including cystic fibrosis, bronchiectasis, COPD, ILD, primary and acquired immunodeficiency disorders, and cardiothoracic surgery. Focussing mainly on ICU and acute medicine, worked for 9 years in the UK in intensive care, developing an extended scope role in tracheostomy care. Richard moved to Perth with his family in 2010 where he worked at Fremantle Hospital in Intensive Care and cardiothoracic surgery before moving to Melbourne in 2013, working in Acute Specialty Medicine, Emergency Medicine and ICU at Maroondah Hospital, Eastern Health Melbourne.
Richard now treats and manages respiratory patients privately through Melbourne Chest Physiotherapy Clinic as well as in the community, focusing on improving and maintaining quality of life for respiratory patients in Melbourne.
Richard has worked with AusPIPS for the last 5 years on the advisory panel, providing advice, discussion and education about exercise and quality of life for those with PID. He is now starting research into the optimal exercise program for sufferers of PID to better inform the evidence base able to give more specific help and advice to individuals with PID.
Dr Jovanka King - Paediatric Clinical Immunologist and Immunopathologist
Dr Jovanka King is a Consultant Paediatric Immunologist and Immunopathologist and a dual fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) and Royal Australasian College of Pathologists (RCPA). She has a special interest in the diagnosis and management of paediatric and adult patients with inborn errors of immunity (primary immunodeficiency diseases), an area in which she has both clinical and research experience at a national and international level. She completed a PhD in Immunology in 2018 through the University of Adelaide and the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. Her doctoral research focused on newborn screening for inborn errors of immunity.
Dr King is currently conjointly appointed as a Consultant Paediatric Clinical Immunologist, Clinical Academic and Immunopathologist at the Women’s & Children’s Health Network, Adelaide, the University of Adelaide and SA Pathology. She has previously held consultant roles in Western Australia at the Perth Children’s Hospital and PathWest Pathology Service. In addition, she held a consultant role at the Institute of Immunity and Transplantation at the Royal Free Hospital/University College of London.
Dr Daman Langguth - Clinical Immunologist
Dr Daman Langguth is the Director of Immunology at Sullivan Nicolaides Pathology and a VMO at the Wesley Hospital. He has clinical interests in ANCA vasculitis, myositis, autoimmune blistering skin disease as well as running Brisbane’s first SCIG program for primary and secondary immune deficiency. He is the current Chair of the Board Of Professional Practice and Quality of the RCPA and is a member of the Board of the RCPA.
Dr Jeremy McComish - Clinical Immunologist, Allergist and Immunopathologist
Dr Jeremy McComish is a Clinical Immunologist, Allergist and Immunopathologist, and is the Clinical Lead for Immunology/Immunopathology at the Blood Service. His immunology training was in Melbourne and Adelaide, with a post-training fellowship position at the Institute of Child Health, University College London. He currently holds a Clinical Immunology consultant position at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and has a private practice in Clinical Immunology and Allergy based at Cabrini Hospital Malvern.
Dr Michael O'Sullivan - Clinical Immunologist, Allergist and Immunopathologist
Dr Michael O’Sullivan is a consultant immunologist at Perth Children’s and Fiona Stanley Hospital, and PathWest Laboratory Medicine. He graduated from the University of Western Australia and completed dual fellowship training with the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia in Clinical Immunology and Immunopathology in 2012.
Michael’s clinical practice includes the diagnosis and management of children and adults with allergy, autoimmune disease, and immunodeficiency. He is actively involved in research as a collaborator with expert laboratory immunologists from across Australia, co-author of publications on allergy and primary immunodeficiency, and investigator for clinical trials for the treatment of patients with allergies and hereditary angioedema. Michael is the current President Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy (ASCIA).
Dr Kirrilly Pursey - Accredited Practising Dietitian
Dr Kirrily Pursey is an Accredited Practising Dietitian, Early Career Researcher and Lecturer in Nutrition and Dietetics at the University of Newcastle and Hunter New England Health. After her son was diagnosed with an immunodeficiency, she was struck by the lack of published evidence regarding the nutritional management of people with an immunodeficiency. Kirrily's research focuses on understanding the lived experience and nutritional needs of people with PID. She is committed to improving the nutritional health of people with PID.
Dr Charlotte Slade - Clinical Immunologist and Researcher
Charlotte graduated from UNSW with a BA, BSc(Med) MBBS (Hons) in 2001. She completed specialty training in Melbourne and New Zealand and was awarded dual fellowships of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia in 2013.
She works as a Clinical Immunologist at The Royal Melbourne Hospital and medical researcher at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute. Her major research focus is the genetic basis of Primary Immunodeficiency (PID). Through her research at WEHI and her work as a consultant Clinical Immunologist for the Melbourne Genomics Health Alliance, she is investigating the use of genomics for improved diagnosis and management of PID.
She has presented her work at a number of national and international conferences and is a member of the Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy, the Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies, the Australasian Society of Immunology and the European Society for Immunodeficiencies.
Dr Ju Ann Tan - Clinical Immunologist and Rheumatologist
Dr Tan is a dual-trained consultant in Clinical Immunology and Allergy, and Rheumatology, and a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians since 2012. She completed a Master of Science (MSc) in Experimental Medicine through the University of British Columbia, Vancouver (Canada) in 2017. She has worked in Adelaide and Melbourne and is currently the Clinical Lead for Immunology at Royal Darwin Hospital, NT, providing specialist care to patients with autoimmune, atopic and immunodeficiency disorders. Her clinical interests are in vasculitis, systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases, allergy and adult immunodeficiency syndromes.
Ms Shuk-Yin (Sylvia) Tsang - SCIg Program Nurse Consultant
Sylvia has a Masters in Nursing Science from the University of Melbourne, a certificate specialising in cancer and palliative nursing and specialised in haematology nursing. She works as a Subcutaneous Immunoglobulin (SCIg) Program nurse consultant in the Department of Immunology and Allergy at The Royal Melbourne Hospital. She provides education and support to patients on SCIg therapy including immunology patients with primary and secondary immunodeficiency as well as neurology patients with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy. She is also involved in supporting hereditary angioedema patients on subcutaneous C1-esterase inhibitor therapy. She is a former board membership with International Nursing Group for Immunodeficiencies and has presented at joint conferences with European Society for Immunodeficiencies. She is also a clinical nurse consultant in dermatology looking after patients with epidermolysis bullosa.
Prof Menno van Zelm - Immunology Researcher
Prof van Zelm is an expert in the field of Primary Immunodeficiency, and is the inaugural director of the Jeffrey Modell Centre for Primary Immunodeficiencies in Melbourne. Menno performed his PhD studies at Erasmus MC in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Following post doc training in San Diego, CA, USA, he returned to Rotterdam to establish his own research group. He relocated to Australia in 2015 joining Monash University’s Department of Immunology and Pathology to establish the B cell differentiation laboratory. He is also the department’s Deputy Head of Research.
Menno’s major research focuses on unravelling the processes that underlie B cell dysfunction in patients with predominantly antibody deficiency, the most prevalent primary immunodeficiency, as well as allergy, autoinflammatory diseases and persistent viral infections. Through his research Menno described the first antibody deficient patients with CD19 and CD81 gene defects, and established the KREC assay for quantification of B-cell replication history. By studying human immunology, Menno aims to directly translate his research into the clinic for better patient care and diagnostics. He has published over 120 research papers and regularly presents his team’s research at national and international conferences worldwide.