Professor Graham Jenkin

Deputy Director, The Ritchie Centre

Professor Graham Jenkin is one of three Deputy Directors of the Ritchie Centre.  Professor Jenkin’s research group is based in the Ritchie Centre’s Regenerative Medicine Group. His research is focused on fetal and neonatal wellbeing, in particular at-risk pregnancies, with Intra-Uterine Growth Restriction (IUGR), infection in pregnancy, and fetal hypoxia or premature birth.  His research has generated a new approach to the clinical monitoring of fetal health during late gestation in normal and in compromised pregnancies.

Professor Jenkin’s group researches potential safe therapies for the amelioration of chronic lung diseases in the adult and neonate, including treatment of the neurological consequences of cerebral palsy and, in collaboration with Professor Euan Wallace, he is pioneering stem cell use in the fetus and neonate for the treatment of premature infants suffering from respiratory distress and delayed neurological development.  The therapeutic use of multipotential stem cells in the treatment of intractable diseases such as cystic fibrosis, brain neurotrauma and spinal disk injury is also being investigated.  He has recently completed a successful commercial preclinical trial for treatment of spinal disk injury, which has now entered clinical trial phase.

Professor Jenkin has established important collaborations with industry. He is a Director of Maccine Pty Ltd., now operating in Singapore as a Commercial Research Organisation. He has undertaken research projects with OptiScan, global leaders in endomicroscopy, and Mesoblast, an adult stem cell technology company. The latter resulted in receipt of Monash University Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Innovation and Collaboration in Research with Industry in 2009. He also helped established the Asia Pacific Centre for Science and Wealth Creation within Monash University and the Australia – China Centre for Excellence in Stem Cell Sciences.

His publications include a total of over 130 papers, 20 invited book chapters/journal review articles, and editing of 4 Journal Symposia publications. He is Chief Investigator on three NHMRC Project Grants and one ARC Discovery Grant.