Dr Stephen Helps

Biography/ Background

Stephen's research career started in 1975 working with David "Doc" Overstreet at the Behavioural Biology Laboratory at Flinders University. Finishing his BSc in 1982 he took a position with Professor Peter Reilly at the Neurosurgery Department of the Royal Adelaide Hospital where he undertook studies of head injury and intracerebral haemorrhage. Supported by a Dawes / Currin / Hughes Research Fellowship he studied of the (then) controversial role of perivascular nerves in the regulation of cerebral blood flow. He was awarded his MSc for this work in 1987. In 1988 he was recruited by the National Safety Council of Australia (Victorian Division) to study brain blood flow and brain function after decompression illness. This work was done under a joint appointment in the new academic Department of Anaesthesia & Intensive Care at the University of Adelaide. He completed his PhD studying the pathophysiology of cerebral arterial air embolism, work that was recognised internationally as leading the field by the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine Society as well as locally when he was awarded the Australian Brain Foundation Elizabeth Penfold Simpson Prize in 1993.
In 1995 he took a position with the Australian Patient Safety Foundation studying patient safety where he developed the "Generic Occurrence Classification" with Professor Bill Runciman (patented in Australia and the USA) for classifying and codifying narrative reports on incidents and accidents from the health care sector. To facilitate his return to basic research he took a Post-doctoral position with Professor Neil Sims at the Flinders University where he was an active collaborator on a number of projects examining the metabolic neurochemistry of stroke. By July 2005 Parkinson's Disease initiated a sea change - from doing research hands on to up-skilling others to do research. He joined Professor Robert Vink's group at the Hansen Institute, Centre for Neurological Diseases, University of Adelaide in May 2007 where he acts as an instructor, designing experiments, teaching microsurgery and other research techniques to honours, PhD and Masters students. His principle achievements during this time include developing a technique for semi-quantitation of immunohistochemistry and devising a mathematical approach to predicting onset of vasogenic oedema after trauma or stroke.

Qualifications

MSc (Physiology, University of Adelaide)

PhD (Medicine, University of Adelaide)

MSc (Physiology, University of Adelaide)

PhD (Medicine, University of Adelaide)

Publications

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?dispmax=50&db=PubMed&pmfilter_EDatLimit=50+Years&cmd_current=Limits&orig_db=PubMed&cmd=Search&term=HELPS+SC&doptcmdl=DocSum

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?dispmax=50&db=PubMed&pmfilter_EDatLimit=50+Years&cmd_current=Limits&orig_db=PubMed&cmd=Search&term=HELPS+SC&doptcmdl=DocSum

Entry last updated: Wednesday, 8 Jun 2011