Associate Professor Mark Danta
Doctor of Medicine (MD) 2006
FRACP (Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology) 2002
Masters of Public Health (MPH Hons) 2000
Diploma of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (DTM&H) 1996
Bachelor of Medicine (B. Med) 1993
Dr Mark Danta is an Associate Professor and Clinical Academic gastroenterologist at St Vincents Hospital Sydney. He is the School Postgraduate Coordinator for St Vincent’s Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine, UNSW.
- Publications
- Media
- Grants
- Awards
- Research Activities
- Engagement
- Teaching and Supervision
In total, he has obtained over $2 million in grant money, including both category 1 and category 2 funding. Almost all of these are as CIA or CIB. As outlined, many of these projects are ongoing. He currently have an NHMRC project grant (568850), which followed a UNSW FRG seeding grant. He has also received substantial and varied funding from: Cancer Institute NSW, UNSW, St Vincent’s Clinic Foundation, Curran Foundation, and the Australian Centre for HIV and Hepatitis Virology Research.
|
Title of project and names of Chief Investigators |
Role in Project |
Source and scheme |
Commencement Date |
Duration |
Total Grant Amount AUD$ |
|
|
|||||
|
Improving the clinical management of infectious diseases in a regional, resource-limited setting. |
CI |
Institute for Global Development Seed Funding Scheme, UNSW |
2018 |
1 year |
$50,000 |
|
Hepatic Encephalopthy MRI study |
CIA |
St Vincent’s Clinic Foundation |
2018 |
1 year |
$30,000 |
|
Microbiome metabolic syndrome study |
CIC |
St Vincent’s Clinic Foundation |
2018 |
1 year |
$100,000 |
|
Impact of improving hepatitis C treatment on hepatocellular carcinoma. |
CIF |
Cancer Council NSW |
2017 |
3 years |
$441,492 |
|
HCV viral resistance |
CID |
St Vincent’s Clinic Foundation |
2017 |
1 year |
$30,000 |
|
HCV cirrhosis regression study |
CIA |
St Vincent’s Clinic Foundation |
2016 |
1 year |
$30,000 |
|
CEMOR-HIV/IBD |
CIA |
UNSW ECR |
Jan 2015 |
1 year |
$50,000 |
|
F-Tounch Fibroscan support |
|
Curran Foundation |
Jan 2015 |
1 year |
$79,000 |
|
MiLC study |
CIA |
St Vincent’s Clinic Foundation |
Jan 2014 |
1 year |
$30,000 |
|
CEMOR-HIV |
CIA |
St Vincent’s Clinic Foundation |
Jan 2015 |
1 year |
$30,000 |
|
CCR9+ Th Cells |
CIB |
NHMRC |
Jan 2013 |
3 year |
$705,558 |
|
The innate immunological determinants of spontaneous clearance in HIV-positive men who have sex with men acutely infected with Hepatitis C. (Sasadeusz J, Visvanathan K, Danta M, Matthews G, Hellard M, Thompson A) |
CIC |
Australian Centre for HIV and Hepatitis Virology Research (ACH2) |
Jan 2012 |
1 year |
$116,000 |
|
Medicare usage in hepatitis C (MUCH C) study. (Danta M, Petomouros K) |
PI |
SVC Foundation |
Jan 2012 |
1 year |
$28,000 |
|
Multidisciplinary Grant (Danta M, Potgeiter, Z) |
PI |
SVC Foundation |
Jan 2012 |
1 year |
$30,000 |
|
Long-term behavioural, clinical and immunovirological outcomes in individuals previously treated for acute hepatitis C. (Matthews G, Danta M, Dore G) |
CIB |
SVC Foundation |
Jan 2012 |
1 year |
$30,000 |
|
GALT in health study. (Kolsch K, Zaunders J, Danta M, Kelleher A) |
CIC |
SVC Foundation |
Jan 2012 |
1 year |
$30,000 |
|
St Vincent’s Clinical School Grant (Danta M) |
PI |
SVCS, UNSW |
June 2011 |
1 year |
$20,000 |
|
Development of second generation confocal endomicroscope (CEM). (Danta M, Phan T, Kelleher A) |
PI |
UNSW Major Research Equipment & Infrastructure Scheme |
January 2011 |
1 year |
$100,000 |
|
MIC1 as predictor of colonic adenomas (MAPCA) study. (Brown D, Danta M) |
CIB |
St Vincent’s Clinic Foundation |
January 2011 |
1 year |
$100,000 |
|
Fibroscan in HIV monoinfection (FILM) study. (Matthews G, Danta M) |
CIB |
St Vincent’s Clinic Foundation |
January 2011 |
1 year |
$30,000 |
|
XL probe for Fibroscan transient elastography apparatus. (Danta M) |
PI |
Curran Foundation |
November 2010 |
1 year |
$50,000 |
|
Development of fluorescent probes for early diagnosis of oesophageal and colorectal cancer. (Karuso P, Danta M) |
CIB |
Cancer Institute NSW (10/RFG/2-) |
October 2010 |
1 year |
$50,000 |
|
Molecular imaging using fluorescent laser scanning confocal endomicroscopy for cancer surveillance in Barrett's esophagus and ulcerative colitis. (Phan T, Danta M, Kelleher A) |
CIB |
Cancer Institute NSW (10/REG/1-14) |
July 2010 |
1 year |
$148,200 |
|
Defining risk and mechanisms of permucosal transmission of acute HCV infection within high-risk populations (RAMPT-C). (Danta M, Matthews G, Hellard M, Sasadeusz J, Prestage G) |
PI |
National Health and Medicine Research Council (project 568869) |
January 2009 |
3 years |
$384,000 |
|
Liver elastography in cardiac disease (LECD) study. (Danta M, MacDonald P) |
PI |
St Vincent’s Clinic Foundation |
January 2009 |
1 year |
$30,000 |
|
Fibroscan for liver elastography. (Danta M) |
PI |
Curran Foundation |
June 2008 |
1 year |
$85,000 |
|
Molecular phylogenetic study of acute HCV in HIV co-infection. (Danta M, Dore G) |
PI |
St Vincent’s Clinic Foundation |
January 2008 |
1 year |
$30,000 |
|
Acute HCV in HIVco-infection – A national and international molecular and clinical epidemiological study. (Danta M, Dore G) |
PI |
UNSW Faculty Research Grant (Early Career) |
January 2008 |
1 year |
$30,000 |
He has received a number of awards including: the inaugural St Vincent’s Clinical School Research Award 2011, St Vincent’s Clinical School Publication Award 2014, Young Investigator Award, Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) 2006, University College London Peter Samuel Fellowships 2005 & 2006, Special Trustee Fellowship Royal Free and University College London 2004-5, Fellowship of Pathological Society of Great Britain 2003, British Association for the Study of Liver Travel Award 2003 and 2005, Best Oral Presentation British HIV Association 2004 and 2005.
Research and impact:
Currently, he is a Clinical Academic Gastroenterologist and Associate Professor of Medicine at St Vincent’s Hospital and Faculty of Medicine, UNSW. He completed his FRACP in Gastroenterology at Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, before continuing clinical training and research in London, UK. He completed a three-year hepatology fellowship and then a Doctor of Medicine, University of London. Through his post-graduate career he developed a broad skill set that includes: clinical medicine, laboratory based virology and immunology research, qualitative methods and epidemiology. His major focus has been HCV transmission, which has combined clinical and molecular epidemiology to characterise HCV transmission, particularly in the HIV infected population. He developed an interest in viral hepatitis during his Master of Public Health, University of Sydney 2002. This led a publication exploring fibrosis progression in HCV published in the Medical Journal of Australia (PMID:12197817). He completed his doctoral thesis through the University of London 2006 on HCV transmission. This was a multifaceted work that led to a number of important publications in the area (PMID:17457092). It culminated in an international collaboration defining the transmission of HCV in HIV populations (PMID:19422083). These cited publications provided important data which has guided clinical recommendations such as the European AIDS Network (NEAT) and the British HIV Association guidelines (BHIVA). He has consolidated this area as the principle investigator of the Defining Risk and Mechanisms of Permucosal Transmission of acute HCV infection within high-risk populations (RAMPT-C) study, an NHMRC project grant (568850) funded study, to explore HCV transmission in high-risk populations in Australia. It has led to invitations to be involved in international HIV collaborations, such as INSIGHT and NEAT.
With the dramatic changing landscape of viral hepatitis therapies, he has now expanded his collaborative research to include clinical translational study of the gastrointestinal immune system and the study of cirrhosis and non-invasive assessment of liver fibrosis. Related to HIV co-infection, he was a key member of the PINT study, exploring viral reservoirs in HIV infection in chronic and acute infection (PMID:21860347). In collaboration with other researchers he has successfully obtained significant research funding, including: Cancer Institute of NSW (CIB) and a UNSW Major Equipment grant (CIA), and ARC linkage grant (Associate Investigator). Most important of these is the development of in vivo confocal endomicroscope (CE) of the gastrointestinal tract. This ongoing project aims to develop labelling fluorescent domain antibodies to identify specific gastrointestinal mucosal cells while imaging the gastrointestinal mucosa. The CE will also form an integral part of future grants for inflammatory bowel disease.
He regularly reviews manuscripts for a range of the highest impact peer reviewed publications in my field, including: Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics 2009-, Clinical Infectious Diseases 2010-, European Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology 2009-, Gastroenterology 2009-, GUT 2004-, Hepatology 2010-, Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology 2009-. He has reviewed grants for: Faculty of Medicine, UNSW; Australian Research Council; Swiss National Science Foundation; Alberta Innovative Health Solution.
My Research Supervision
- Metabolic Monitoring of the Microbiome in Gastrointestinal Disease Study (3M-G study)
- Anal cancer microbiome
- ROTEM in liver disease