The Woolcock Institute of Medical Research

We’re proud that seven of our current research leaders have been listed in the world’s top two percent according to leading scientific publisher Elsevier’s recent ranking of the world’s most cited researchers*. It’s well-deserved recognition of years of work to improve the lives of people living with sleep disorders and respiratory disease.

The Woolcock Institute of Medical Research’s Executive Director, Carol Armour, has worked in the area of asthma research at a basic scientific and clinical level for more than 30 years. Her investigations span the breadth of asthma research from the cellular mechanisms to the translation of new ways to treat asthma within the health system.

Ron Grunstein leads our Sleep and Circadian Research group. He has been engaged in the field of sleep medicine since its early origins and played a major role in the academic, clinical, professional and policy aspects of the discipline.

Paul Young and Daniela Traini lead the Woolcock’s Respiratory Technology group. Paul has more than 25 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical and higher education sectors and specialises in commercialisation, entrepreneurship, pharmaceutical, MedTech and deep-tech business creation while Daniela has more than 25 years of experience in inhalation drug development, with a focus on particle engineering, drug delivery and biologically relevant cell integrated in vitro preclinical tests.

Our Respiratory and Environmental Epidemiology group has been led by Guy Marks since 1997. His work in lung health with specific focus on airways disease, air pollution and tuberculosis has been recognised in the list.

Helen Reddel has led clinical, epidemiological and qualitative research about airways disease, with a focus on mild and severe asthma. She is Director of the Australian Centre for Airways disease Monitoring (ACAM) at the Woolcock. As Chair of the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) Science Committee, she has led major evidence-based changes in asthma management that have been adopted internationally.

Finally, Greg King is the leader of the Airways Physiology and Imaging group at the Woolcock. He and his group use complex measurements from three-dimensional lung imaging, lung function testing and time-series analysis of variations in respiratory function to search for answers to airways disease in the context of ventilation distribution, airway closure, airway hyperresponsiveness and remodelling.

Our Magnificent Seven follow in the footsteps of our founder Ann Woolcock and five other distinguished alumni - Cheryl Salome, Sandy Anderson, Judy Black, Christine Jenkins and Euan Tovey.

The Woolcock has been at the leading edge of research into sleep and respiratory disease for more than 40 years. We’re proud of what we’ve achieved, and we know that the work we are doing right now will see more of our researchers join this distinguished list in the future.

* Elsevier used standardised information on citations, h-index, co-authorship adjusted hm-index, citations to papers in different authorship positions and a composite indicator (c-score) and classified researchers into 22 scientific fields and 174 sub-fields according to the standard Science-Metrix classification to create a Who’s Who of medical research. 

Find out more

• Our Research Leaders
• Our Research Groups