Science & Technology Advisory Committee

A/Prof Brent Reynolds

Chair and Program Director.
Director of the Adult Stem Cell Engineering and Therapeutic Core, McKnight Brain Center, University of Florida, Gainesville. 

Dr. Reynolds received his Ph.D. in 1994 from the University of Calgary during which time he and Sam Weiss discovered the existence of a stem cell in the adult central nervous system, challenging a century old dogma that the adult brain was unable to produce new neurons. He co-founded NeuroSpheres Ltd. where he was Vice-President of Research and in 1999 published the first report on the re-programming of cells derived from one germ layer into functional cells of another germ layer. Professor Reynolds holds 17 US patents related to neural stem cells and his lab is currently focused on the development of stem cell specific assays, in situ manipulation of neural stem cells and their application to disorders such as spinal cord injury, and understanding the role that solid tissue cancer stem cells play in tumour initiation and metastasis.

Dr. Reynolds is currently in the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Florida, is Director of the Adult Stem Cell Engineering Facility at the McKnight Brain Institute, an adjunct Research Professor at the Queensland Brain Institute and the Program Director for StepAhead Australia.

A/Prof Jesse Owens

Biomedical Programme University of Alaska. Anchorage.

Dr. Jesse Owens is a professor at the University of Alaska in Anchorage, Alaska where he teaches Cell Physiology to medical students and maintains a research laboratory.  His scientific training is in neuroscience with a strong emphasis on the development of synaptic function during nervous system formation and spinal cord injury repair.

He directed the American Spinal Cord Society’s research laboratory in Fort Collins, Colorado and established the foundations for the upcoming human trials that this group is currently setting up. He has been an advisor for the scientific program that is being developed by StepAhead Australia in collaboration with the National Stem Cell Center in Melbourne.  Dr. Owens had more than a passing interest in this work; he sustained a spinal cord injury over 28 years ago and has been a paraplegic since then. In addition to his scientific work, he has invented and developed a number of original devices that allow people with mobility impairments to access wilderness or travel in countries where wheelchair accommodation is lacking.

Prof. Stephen Livesey

Stephen was co-founder and formerly, Executive Vice President and Chief Science Officer of LifeCell Corporation, New Jersey USA.  Dr Livesey received his Bachelor of Medical Science in 1974, his medical degree (M.B.B.S) in 1977 and PhD (MacFarlane Burnet Fellow) in 1985 from the University of Melbourne.  In 1985, as a C.J. Martin Fellow, he became a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Endocrinology Medical School at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Texas, and subsequently, Associate Director, Cryobiology Research Center at UTHSC.  In 1986, Professor Livesey co-founded LifeCell Corporation and served as a consultant to the company.  In 1988, Professor Livesey was a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow at St. Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research, Melbourne, Australia.  In 1991 Dr Livesey became a full-time employee of LifeCell Corporation as Vice President of Scientific Development and in 1993 as Executive Vice President and Chief Science Officer.  Professor Livesey is the inventor of the company’s tissue matrix and cell preservation technology. In April 2003, he came back to Australia to join the Australian Stem Cell Centre and became the Chief Scientific Officer in June 2003.  In July 2006 to August 2008, he was the Chief Executive Officer.  Professor Livesey maintains an active research interest in matrix biology, stem cell biology and spinal cord injury at St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne.  

Here’s where you come in.

We need your help
to speed things along.

We need your support to continue to connect the world’s leading researchers and clinicians with spinal cord patients and their families to remove the barriers and find a solution today and not tomorrow.

That’s the
StepAhead Australia
challenge to you.