Biography
Professor Wayne Hawthorne leads the clinical and experimental Islet and Organ Transplant Research Group developing Preclinical Studies and Translating them to Transplantation Therapies. He was appointed laboratory director in 2001 to Australia’s First Clinical Islet Transplant program; his team at Westmead were the first in Australia to perform both allo and auto islet cell isolation and transplantation and to perform islet after kidney and combined islet/kidney transplants in patients. He was one of the founding researchers of the Centre for Transplant and Renal Research where he remains responsible for experimental surgical research projects.
His work in the field of transplantation has underpinned his national and international success. In 2003 he became the Inaugural winner of the McKenzie Fellowship for Transplantation awarded by the Transplant Society of Australia and New Zealand (TSANZ). In 2007, he was awarded A “Key Opinion Leader” in transplantation by The Transplantation Society (TTS) International. In 2010 he was awarded the prestigious XENOME Award for transplantation from the European Union, at the 16th Nantes/Actualités/Transplantation in France. In 2011 he was promoted to Associate Professor, Department of Surgery, Westmead based on his continued work developing transplantation treatments for patients with Type 1 diabetes. Since this time, he has built on the experimental research program’s achievements, resulting in his award of the 2014 Kidney Health Australia and the TSANZ “Best Research in the Field of Laboratory Research” for his work on developing novel strategies for Islet Cell Xenotransplantation in preclinical studies. He was awarded a 2015-16 Australia-Harvard-Fellowship to further develop his skills in islet auto-transplantation at Harvard University and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, USA. His ongoing work in the field of clinical Islet Cell Transplantation led to his 2018 Kidney Health Australia – TSANZ National Meeting “Best Research in the Field of Clinical Research” award. And once again in 2022 at the National meeting was awarded the Best Presentation – TSANZ National Meeting “Best Research in the Field of Laboratory Research” for his ongoing work in the field of Xenotransplantation.
Professor Hawthorne has outstanding international standing and his ongoing focus on Xenotransplantation has led to his appointment to several International Universities as a visiting Professor and he was again recently appointed – International Visiting Professor, to The Second Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, CHINA.
Along with him being voted in as President of the International Xenotransplantation Association (IXA), for his commitment to advancing xenotransplantation research. His strong international presence has been maintained as Congress Chair and Chair of several Scientific Organising Committees for the IXA including the combined IPITA/IXA/CTS 2023 congress in San Diego, USA, and now for the forthcoming 18th Congress of the International Xenotransplantation Association, taking place in Geneva – https://ixa2025.org/
He has >250 international medical journal publications, 20 books and book chapters and >650 published proceedings along with presenting numerous National and International presentations, including invited Plenary, SOTA, lectures, Podcasts and Webinars.
