Professor Kathryn North AM is Director of the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and the David Danks Professor of Child Health Research at the University of Melbourne.
Professor North is trained as a paediatric physician, neurologist and clinical geneticist and in 1994, was awarded a doctorate from the University of Sydney for research into Neurogenetics. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Harvard Genetics Program. Her previous positions include the Douglas Burrows Professor of Paediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Sydney (2004-2012) and Head of the Institute for Neuroscience and Muscle Research (2008-2012). Her laboratory research interests focus on the molecular basis of inherited muscle disorders – particularly the muscular dystrophies and congenital myopathies – as well as genes which influence normal skeletal muscle function and elite athletic performance. Her clinical research focuses on clinical trials of therapies for muscular dystrophy as well as the development of interventions for children with learning disabilities.
Professor North has received a number of awards for her research including the Sunderland Award from the Australian Neuroscience Society (2000). the Sutherland Lecturership by the Human Genetics Society of Australasia (2008), the GSK Australia Award for Research Excellence (2011), the Ramaciotti Medal for Excellence in Biomedical Research (2012) and the Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for service to medicine in the field of neuromuscular and neurogenetics research (2012). In 2012, Professor North was appointed Chair of the NHMRC Research Committee and Member of NHMRC Council and in 2014 was appointed Vice Chair of the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health, an international consortium of more than 200 institutions promoting the sharing of genomic and clinical data.