2017 Australian of the Year, Professor Alan Mackay-Sim is a neuroscientist and stem cell scientist. A global authority on the human sense of smell, Alan uses his knowledge of regeneration of olfactory sensory neurons to move from the lab to the clinic. In preclinical work, Alan and his team showed that transplantation of nasal cells (“olfactory ensheathing cells”) could restore motor function after spinal cord injury. He then led the world’s first Phase I clinical trial demonstrating the safety of this procedure in human paraplegia.
He spoke at our QLD LACS 2021 event.
