The Sydney Brain Centre at UNSW promotes and conducts internationally competitive clinical trials and translational stroke and neuroscience research. Our research primarily focuses on early diagnosis, improving access to and delivery of hyper-acute and acute stroke management. We know that “time is brain’ and we are working with state and district ambulance services, acute hospitals, and consumer groups to improve services and outcomes for people experiencing stroke.
Our team is led by Professor Mark Parsons, Professor of Medicine and Neurology at UNSW, an internationally recognised leader in stroke. The Sydney Brain Centre is based at the Ingham Institute for Applied Medical Research and South West Sydney Local Health District. Working with Professor Parsons is a multidisciplinary and international team of researchers and clinicians, working with an extensive network of clinicians, academics, and consumers.
Our goals
Our research focuses on improving the quality and outcomes for stroke survivors. Professor Parsons and the team lead international trials to improve understanding of the most effective treatments for acute stroke. The team also supports studies to translate new evidence into practice and we are involved in several implementation studies, including the use of novel technologies and in partner with key health, academic and industry partners to reduce the severity of disability associated with stroke. Other patient trials include migraine, dementia and rare neurological disorders such as Chronic Demyelinating polyneuropathy.
Research strengths
- Multidisciplinary international team with expertise in stroke, neurology, neuroimaging, rehabilitation and AI
- Leading international clinical trials and implementation studies to improve stroke practice
- Well-established collaborations with national and international health systems, hospitals, universities, consumers and community groups, and industry partners
- Delivering infrastructure support to hot large imaging database and deliver high-power computers to support the imaging process and artificial intelligence capabilities.
Our people
The UNSW Sydney Brain Centre Team includes a diverse multidisciplinary team: we have well-established pathways for nurturing new research talent, including promising early career fellows (Dr Lin, Dr Dos Santos, Dr Blair, Dr Badge). Our team currently supports a combined total of 19 PhD candidates and 15 postdoctoral fellows.
Research staff
- Timmy Phan, Project Manager – Imaging
- Jordan Rogers, Senior Trials Coordinator
- Sarika Pandit, Trials Coordinator
- James Stewart, Research Assistant
- Tom Dobell-Brown, Research Assistant
PhD Candidates
UNSW students 2024
- Jessica Ly, Honours student, MD
- Nathan Lotter
- Oliver Sidgreaves
UNSW students 2023
- Pui Lok Annette Fung, Honours student
- Deena Alysha Coilpillai Chelliah Vernon, ILP student
Partnerships
Professor Parsons and the Sydney Brain Centre collaborate with over 50 sites (>4000 patients) through the ETERNAL, TACTICS, TASTE, and MOSES clinical trials in Australia, Europe, Canadian, Chinese, and Japanese hospitals and universities. Professor Mark Parsons is the CIA for both the INSPIRE and TASTE
Health system partners
- South West Sydney Local Health District (LHD)
- eHealth NSW
- Hunter New England LHD
- NSW Ambulance
- Ambulance Victoria
- Royal Melbourne Hospital
University and research partners
- University of NSW
- University of Melbourne
- University of Newcastle
- Australian Stroke Alliance
- Maridulu Budyari Gumal (Sydney Partnership for Health, Education, Research and Enterprise [SPHERE])
- University of Wollongong
Industry collaborations
- Siemens
- Canon/Toshiba
- GE
- EMVision
- Micro X
- Telstra
- Amazon Web Services (AWS)
- Apollo Medical Imaging
Our research
In the short time since the inception of the Sydney Brain Centre began in July 2020. The team has obtained significant grant funding, and key programs of research include: