Investigators
The Centre of Research Excellence (CRE) in Stroke Rehabilitation and Brain Recovery aims to transform the stroke research and practice landscape in Australia.
The CRE combines the expertise of researchers at The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health in Melbourne, Newcastle’s Hunter Medical Research Institute and other leading institutions.
Our associate investigators have expertise in neuropsychology, statistics and decision support, rehabilitation policy development and knowledge translation.
Stroke research areas covered by the CRE include basic science, imaging, clinical trials, implementation research and data linkage.
Professor Julie Bernhardt from the Florey leads the CRE which is funded by a grant from the National Health and Medical Research Council.
Our Mission:
- Improve knowledge about stroke recovery
- Improve patient selection and rehabilitation research methods
- Create training opportunities for clinicians and researchers
- Provide a trials platform to help build clinical trials
- Build a translation community to help drive future activity
- Implement proven cost effective interventions
Chief Investigators – Stroke Rehabilitation & Brain Recovery
Professor Julie Bernhardt (CRE Director) heads the Stroke Division at The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Melbourne. She leads the AVERT early intervention research group, an interdisciplinary team of researchers working to develop and test new rehabilitation treatments for people affected by stroke. Julie leads the NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence in Stroke Rehabilitation and Brain Recovery.
Professor Michael Nilsson MD PhD FAFRM (RACP) is Global Innovation Chair of Rehabilitation Medicine and Director of the Centre for Rehab Innovations (CRI) at the University of Newcastle, Australia. He is a specialist in Rehabilitation Medicine, neurologist and a neuroscientist and has two decades experience from executive roles in health and medical research and health care.
Professor Geoffrey A. Donnan, MD is Director of The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health and Professor of Neurology, University of Melbourne (Department of Medicine) in Australia. He was founder of the National Stroke Research Institute, co-founder of the Australian Stroke Trials Network (ASTN) and Neurosciences Trials Australia (NTA). His major interests are in neuroimaging and clinical trials.
Professor Christopher Levi is a stroke neurologist and Director of Clinical Research and Translation for the Hunter New England Local Health District. He established acute stroke services in Hunter New England, which is now one of the leading stroke services nationally. His research portfolio covers acute stroke trials, health systems, clinical trials across pre-hospital, acute and stroke recovery, biomarkers and genetics, stroke and stroke imaging.
Prof Dominique Cadilhac is the Head of the Translational Public Health Unit at the Stroke and Ageing Research Centre (STARC), Monash University. She is also the Head of Public Health, Stroke Division at The Florey and an adjunct Associate Professor, Deakin Health Economics at Deakin University. A/Prof Cadilhac is the data custodian for the Australian Stroke Clinical Registry and is the research lead for the Victorian Stroke Telemedicine Program.
Prof Leeanne Carey is Professor of Occupational Therapy at La Trobe University and Head of the Neurorehabilitation and Recovery research laboratory at The Florey. Her stroke research program focuses on how the brain adapts and how we might harness that potential in rehabilitation. She uses tools such as MRI to investigate changes in the brain and how this knowledge may be used to better understand recovery and target rehabilitation most optimally to individual stroke survivors. Research includes the impact of depression and cognition on stroke recovery.
Professor Sandy Middleton is Director of the Nursing Research Institute a joint initiative between Australian Catholic University and St Vincent’s Health Australia, located in Sydney. She has a particular interest in stroke and implementation research with approximately $17m in awarded grant funding over her career to date. She is the currently the lead investigator on the NHMRC funded T3 Trial: Triage, Treatment and Transfer of patients with stroke in Emergency Departments.
Paulette van Vliet, Professor of Stroke Rehabilitation and ARC Future Fellow, is a researcher and a physiotherapist. Her research vision is: to 1) improve arm recovery after stroke; 2) empower patients to practice alone at home; and 3) personalise arm rehabilitation. Research methods include brain, biomechanical and functional measures in developmental and exploratory studies and randomised controlled trials.
Prof Chris Bladin is an active stroke clinical Neurologist (FRACP), previous Director of Neurosciences (Eastern Health, Monash University), and Honorary Professor at The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health. Research interests are in acute stroke therapies including new thrombolytic drugs with new brain imaging techniques.
Prof Bladin is currently Program Director for the Victorian Stroke Telemedicine program at The Florey.
Prof Bladin is currently Program Director for the Victorian Stroke Telemedicine program at The Florey.
Professor Mark Parsons is an authority and research leader in acute stroke imaging. He leads the NHMRC funded partnership grant for the INternational Stroke Perfusion Imaging Registry (INSPIRE) and is on the executive of the STIR (STroke Imaging Repository) group which is setting the international agenda for stroke imaging research. Mark will lead the NHMRC-funded phase 3 trial of Tenecteplase, a trial that could change the global landscape of acute stroke therapy.
Associate Investigators – Stroke Rehabilitation & Brain Recovery
A/Prof Frini Karayanidis’ broad research area is cognitive neuroscience, with a specific focus on the structural and functional organization of cognitive control processes. Her research uses multi-disciplinary techniques to examine the organization of cognitive control processes in healthy controls, the development of these processes across the lifespan and their disruption in clinical conditions such as schizophrenia and ADHD.
Professor Linda Worrall has been a Co-Director of the Communication Disability Centre at the University of Queensland since 1997. She has applied the WHO International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health to research a range of disabilities, but has a particular interest in aphasia rehabilitation and has led the NHMRC funded Australia-wide Centre for Clinical Research Excellence (CCRE) in Aphasia Rehabilitation since 2009.
Toni Aslett joined the Stroke Foundation in January 2015 and has more than 30 years’ experience working across the continuum of the health, disability, aged care and community sectors in Victoria and Western Australia.
Toni is passionate about helping to make a real difference to stroke survivors and their carers and supporting health professionals to provide quality care.
Toni is a qualified Occupational Therapist and holds Post Graduate qualifications in Business, Quality Auditing and has completed an International Executive Development course at Cornell University USA.
Toni is passionate about helping to make a real difference to stroke survivors and their carers and supporting health professionals to provide quality care.
Toni is a qualified Occupational Therapist and holds Post Graduate qualifications in Business, Quality Auditing and has completed an International Executive Development course at Cornell University USA.
Professor Leonid Churilov is Head of Statistics and Decision Analysis Platform, The Florey and Adjunct Professor at the School of Mathematics and Geospatial Sciences, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. He is an internationally recognized expert in using quantitative modelling in clinical and health care delivery systems, with specific focus on stroke and neurology care.
Professor Stephen Davis is the Professor of Translational Neuroscience at the University of Melbourne, Director of the Melbourne Brain Centre and Neurology at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and the President of the World Stroke Organization since 2012. His research has focussed on acute therapy for both ischemic stroke and intracerebral haemorrhage, particularly the use of advanced imaging in selection of therapy.
A/Prof Steven Faux is the Director of Sacred Heart Rehabilitation Service and St Vincent’s Pain Service Darlinghurst. He currently leads a team of stroke rehabilitation researchers focusing on patient and carer education, immersive and virtual reality technology, tele-rehabilitation for aphasia and neuropathic pain, therapies to improve upper limb function and the use of wearable robotics for community stroke rehabilitation.
Prof Richard Lindley trained in geriatric, stroke and internal medicine in Newcastle and Edinburgh (UK) and Sydney (Australia). He took up the post of Professor of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Sydney in 2003, having previously been consultant and senior lecturer in Edinburgh. His main research has been on vascular disease, particularly acute stroke and stroke rehabilitation, and randomised controlled trials for older people.
A/Prof Michael Pollack is a Rehabilitation Medicine physician (Staff Specialist with Hunter New England Health). He has a special interest in stroke, and also works as a pain specialist. He has chaired the Working Party which developed the National Stroke Foundation Stroke Rehabilitation Guidelines, and is involved with a range of stroke research projects. He has chaired Stroke Services NSW (ACI, NSW Health).
A/Prof Trevor Russell co-directs the Centre of Research in Telerehabilitation at the University of Queensland and is a chief investigator on the NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence in Telehealth. His primary research focus surrounds the use of mobile technologies and telecommunication tools for both clinical service provision and teaching and learning in the rehabilitation sciences.
