Associate Professor David Phillips

NHMRC Senior Research Fellow & Senior Scientist, Centre for Reproduction & Development

After completing a Bachelor of Agricultural Science with First Class Honours at the University of Melbourne, Assoc Prof Phillips started working in reproductive research and progressively moved into medical research

Assoc Prof Phillips spent five years as a postdoctoral fellow in New Zealand and Sweden, working in clinical chemistry. He joined the Institute in 1995. He received an NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship in 2002. He has become internationally recognised for his research into the biology of the growth factor, activin, and specifically its role in the body’s inflammatory processes. He is currently exploring the clinical uses of activin and related proteins as both diagnostics of inflammation and for potential therapeutics.

Assoc Prof Phillips holds a number of activin-related patents and has published over 80 journal articles and book chapters.