Investigators

Professor Peter Clifton

Professor Peter Clifton is an endocrinologist with a clinical interest in diabetes and obesity. He has extensive experience in running large clinical trials in overweight and obese people, both with and without diabetes.

Prof. Clifton is internationally recognized for his work in developing and evaluating high protein diets for people with overweight/obesity and diabetes, and this research has resulted in the publication of 4 books for the public - CSIRO Total Well Being Diet Books 1 and 2, Healthy Heart Program and the Diabetes Program book.

Professor Manny Noakes

Professor Manny Noakes is a senior CSIRO research scientist, Project Leader for Diet and Lifestyle Programs and manager of the Nutrition Behaviour and Health capability at CSIRO.

Professor Noakes is a former Chair of the National Heart Foundation's Nutrition and Metabolism Advisory Committee and has been involved in the development and oversight of several comprehensive evidence-based position papers on key nutrition issues that relate to diet and cardiovascular disease.

Professor Michael Horowitz AO

Professor Michael Horowitz was appointed to a Personal Chair at the University of Adelaide in 1995, and has been the Director of the Endocrine and Metabolic Unit at the Royal Adelaide Hospital since 1997. He leads the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence (CRE) in Translating Nutritional Science to Good Health (2012-17) and is a co-author of 731 peer-reviewed papers and 41 book chapters.

Prof. Horowitz has been the recipient of a number of awards, including the Kellion Award of the Australian Diabetes Society (2009) and a Masters Award of the American Gastroenterological Association for Sustained Achievement in Digestive Sciences (2010). He was awarded the Camillo Golgi Prize by the EASD in 2022 and in 2023 was named an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in the King's Birthday Honours List.

Professor Chris Rayner

Professor Christopher Rayner is a gastroenterologist who undertook postdoctoral training at St Mark's Hospital, London, and has been building an international profile in the field of nutrient-gut interactions, with an emphasis on the role of upper gut function in diabetes and appetite control.

A/Prof Rayner is responsible for a number of investigator-initiated trials with pharmaceutical companies involved in incretin-related therapies; some of these represent collaborations with small pharma companies to establish proof-of-concept in phase I studies.

Professor Peter Clifton

Professor Peter Clifton is an endocrinologist with a clinical interest in diabetes and obesity. He has extensive experience in running large clinical trials in overweight and obese people, both with and without diabetes.

Prof. Clifton is internationally recognized for his work in developing and evaluating high protein diets for people with overweight/obesity and diabetes, and this research has resulted in the publication of 4 books for the public - CSIRO Total Well Being Diet Books 1 and 2, Healthy Heart Program and the Diabetes Program book.

Professor Gary Wittert

Professor Gary Wittert was appointed to a Personal Chair at the University of Adelaide in 2004, and is Head of the Discipline of Medicine, University of Adelaide.

His clinical research interests relate to appetite modulation, the effect of variations in dietary macronutrients on weight and metabolism, the regulation of body composition, cellular energy utilisation, metabolic consequences of sleep disorders, and factors relating to the aetiology and management of obesity. He also has an interest in obesity and ageing, men's health and utilisation of health services by men.

Dr. Chinmay Marathe

Dr. Chinmay Marathe is an endocrinologist and a NHMRC Early Career Fellow based at the Royal Adelaide Hospital / University of Adelaide. He undertook specialist training in diabetes and endocrinology at Royal Adelaide and Queen Elizabeth Hospitals followed by postdoctoral training in the United Kingdom (King’s College London). His PhD thesis (2016, University of Adelaide) explored the relationships between gastric emptying, glycaemia and the incretin effect in health and diabetes and was awarded by a Dean’s Commendation and the Royal Australasian College of Physicians’ Trainee Research Award. Dr. Marathe is a past recipient of Australian Diabetes Society Skip-Martin Fellowship. He holds memberships of the American Diabetes Association, European Society for the Study of Diabetes, Diabetes UK and the Australian Diabetes Society.

He maintains an active interest in diabetes research, especially gastrointestinal motor function, hypoglycaemia and Aboriginal Health.

Professor Peter Clifton

Professor Peter Clifton is an endocrinologist with a clinical interest in diabetes and obesity. He has extensive experience in running large clinical trials in overweight and obese people, both with and without diabetes.

Prof. Clifton is internationally recognized for his work in developing and evaluating high protein diets for people with overweight/obesity and diabetes, and this research has resulted in the publication of 4 books for the public - CSIRO Total Well Being Diet Books 1 and 2, Healthy Heart Program and the Diabetes Program book.

Professor Alison Kitson

Professor Alison Kitson is Head of the School of Nursing, University of Adelaide and Co-Director of the Centre for Evidence Based Practice South Australia (CEPSA), a collaborating centre of the Joanna Briggs Institute.

She is internationally recognised for her research on Knowledge Translation - the mechanisms enabling new knowledge (in the form of guidelines or innovations) to be introduced into clinical practice.

Professor Manny Noakes

Professor Manny Noakes is a senior CSIRO research scientist, Project Leader for Diet and Lifestyle Programs and manager of the Nutrition Behaviour and Health capability at CSIRO.

Professor Noakes is a former Chair of the National Heart Foundation's Nutrition and Metabolism Advisory Committee and has been involved in the development and oversight of several comprehensive evidence-based position papers on key nutrition issues that relate to diet and cardiovascular disease.

Dr Zumin Shi

Dr Zumin Shi received his medical degree in Beijing Medical University before working at Jiangsu Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, China.

Dr. Shi's main research interest is the relationship between food intake, lifestyles and chronic diseases. He has over 13 years' experience in nutrition and foodborne disease prevention. In 2009, he joined SA Health and University of Adelaide.

Professor Deborah Turnbull

Professor Deborah Turnbull was appointed to the Chair in Psychology in 2005. Her background is in clinical and applied psychology.

Prof Turnbull's research examines how to get men to think about using the faecal occult blood tests to detect bowel cancer. She is also looking into ways of encouraging overweight and obese women to stay healthy in pregnancy and is focusing on the psychological and practical factors that influence women in making lifestyle changes.

Professor Amanda Page

Professor Amanda Page is a leading authority on vagal innervation of the gut, and how this relates to major disease states including obesity and gastro-oesophageal reflux disease. This has involved pioneering studies on the phenotypic specialisation of vagal sensory endings, and a substantial amount of work on how they may be modulated pharmacologically by exogenous and endogenous factors.

Her research will lead to diet regimes or targets for the pharmacological treatment of obesity that may replace current surgical options.

Associate Professor Richard Young

A/Professor Richard Young is a Senior Lecturer whose research is defining the form and function of intestinal sweet taste receptors in human health, diabetes and critical illness.

Associate Professor Young has expertise in advanced neuroanatomy, quantitative molecular assays, in vivo electrophysiology and multi-label immunohistochemistry. He also undertakes research in knockout and disease models in mice and in a wide range of patient tissues. His translational research is a distinctive strength and is unprecedented in mucosal biology.

Associate Professor Tongzhi Wu

Associate Professor Tongzhi Wu's research aims to gain an improved understanding on how ingested nutrients interact with the gut in health and disease and whether this can be translated into safe and improved treatments for type 2 diabetes. He is particularly interested in how the gut “tastes” meal contents, especially bitter tasting substances and the mechanisms by which specific anti-diabetic drugs (e.g. metformin, DPP-4 inhibitors) interact with the gut. His research has been funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), Diabetes Australia, the Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH) Research Foundation, and the University of Adelaide.

Dr Wu is currently undertaking a number of studies to:

1. define the roles of intestinal bitter taste sensing in the regulation of gastrointestinal hormone secretion, energy intake and postprandial glycaemia, and the implications for T2DM therapy; and
2. clarify the role of bile acids in the anti-diabetic action of metformin.

Professor Marianne Chapman

Professor Marianne Chapman is an intensive care physician with an established track record in clinical research in critical care, with a particular focus on nutrition in the critically ill.

She combines a busy clinical practice with a productive research career facilitated by her capacity to coordinate effective collaboration between Intensive Care and a number of specialty research areas (Gastroenterology, Endocrinology, Nuclear Medicine).

Associate Professor Mark Plummer

Associate Professor Mark Plummer is an intensive care physician and an emerging international leader in critical care research.

Associate Professor Plummer’s research relates to GLP-1 infusions to minimise hyperglycaemia, determining the relationship between stress hyperglycaemia and type 2 diabetes and high-dose ascorbic acid for the management of septic shock.

Associate Professor Lee-anne Chapple

Associate Professor Lee-anne Chapple is an Accredited Practising Dietitian with experience in clinical dietetics, tertiary-education, and research. She was awarded her PhD in July 2017, which explored nutritional intake and muscle wasting in patients admitted to intensive care with a traumatic brain injury.

Associate Professor Chapple is currently a post-doctoral fellow with the RAH ICU Research team where she is interested in developing strategies to better feed critically ill patients to prevent muscle wasting and improve their long-term functional outcomes and quality of life.

Professor Ian Chapman

Professor Ian Chapman is an endocrinologist whose major research activity has been the endocrinology of ageing, particularly relating to nutrition. He has an international reputation for his clinical research related to under-nutrition in older people and his work has contributed to an increasing awareness of this problem in Australia.

He has undertaken physiological and clinical intervention studies in this area and trained and mentored PhD students who are continuing research in this field in their roles as geriatricians, dietitians and academics.

Dr Stijn Soenen

Dr Stijn Soenen has expertise in nutritional physiology, energy metabolism and the regulation of body weight and has contributed significantly to knowledge of the effects of protein intake on appetite and body composition, particularly to establishing the metabolic benefit of protein in sparing muscle mass at the cost of fat mass during weight loss and weight maintenance in (obese) adults.

Dr Soenen has been awarded a Mary Overton Early Career Fellowship provided by the Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH).

A/Prof Renuka Visvanathan

A/Professor Renuka Visvanathan is Director of the Aged and Extended Care Services, Queen Elizabeth Hospital and an academic of the University of Adelaide.

She has an active research program in technology in health and ageing care, sarcopenia, and nutritional frailty. She is the academic lead for the Adelaide Geriatrics Teaching and Research with Aged care Center (G-TRAC), which is an innovative collaborative initiative between the University of Adelaide and Resthaven Inc and funded by Health Workforce Australia and the Department of Health and Ageing.

Professor Christine Feinle-Bisset

Professor Christine Feinle-Bisset, an NHMRC Senior Research Fellow, is a nutritional scientist with an international reputation for her research on the impact of nutrients on appetite, gastrointestinal motor and hormonal function and perception in health and obesity in humans.

Prof Feinle-Bisset has substantial expertise in the design of clinical studies, in both lean and obese individuals, relating to the measurement of gut hormone concentrations, upper gut motility, gastric emptying, appetite perception and energy intake, as well as the design of specific diets to apply dietary restriction and excess in the longer-term.

A/Prof Leonie Heilbronn

A/Professor Leonie Heilbronn is an ARC Future Fellow in the field of obesity and diabetes. Leonie has research interests in the effects of caloric restriction on healthy ageing.

Her research goal is to understand the molecular and physiological basis for insulin resistance in human obesity and to identify how modulating energy provision modifies this risk. She has expertise in insulin clamp studies and skeletal muscle and adipose tissue biopsy.

Dr Nam Nguyen

A/Professor Nguyen is an interventional gastroenterologist who has specific interest in nutrient-gut interaction and obesity. After completing his higher degree in the area of gastrointestinal function and nutritional support during critical illness, he underwent postdoctoral training at California Pacific Medical Centre (part of UCSF) in San Francisco.

Here, Dr Nguyen participated in research program that design and examine an endoscopic device for weight reduction. Dr Nguyen is also responsible for a number of investigator-initiated trials with endoscopic device companies in the area of luminal gastroenterology.

Gary Wittert

Professor Gary Wittert was appointed to a Personal Chair at the University of Adelaide in 2004, and is Head of the Discipline of Medicine, University of Adelaide.

His clinical research interests relate to appetite modulation, the effect of variations in dietary macronutrients on weight and metabolism, the regulation of body composition, cellular energy utilisation, metabolic consequences of sleep disorders, and factors relating to the aetiology and management of obesity. He also has an interest in obesity and ageing, men's health and utilisation of health services by men.

Professor Karen Jones

Professor Karen Jones is a nuclear medicine technologist with over 20 years research experience. Her research activities have capitalised on the development of state-of-the-art radioisotopic and ultrasound (2D, 3D, Doppler) techniques to evaluate gastric motor function and blood flow.

She has developed the under-recognized field of postprandial hypotension and identified it as primarily a gastrointestinal disorder. She has had an ongoing involvement with the pharmaceutical industry and she has been responsible for several investigator-initiated trials.

Professor Michael Horowitz AO

Professor Michael Horowitz was appointed to a Personal Chair at the University of Adelaide in 1995, and has been the Director of the Endocrine and Metabolic Unit at the Royal Adelaide Hospital since 1997. He led the NHMRC Centres of Research Excellence (CRE) in Translating Nutritional Science to Good Health (2007-11 and 2012-18) and is a co-author of 731 peer-reviewed papers and 41 book chapters.

Prof. Horowitz has been the recipient of a number of awards, including the Kellion Award of the Australian Diabetes Society (2009) and a Masters Award of the American Gastroenterological Association for Sustained Achievement in Digestive Sciences (2010).

Professor Paula Moynihan

Professor Paula Moynihan, an expert in nutrition and oral health, joined our group in 2020 subsequent to her appointment as Director of Food and Health in the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences; her important and extensive achievements at the global (WHO) policy level over more than 20 years reflect her philosophy that nutritional messages should not be divided into silos. A number of exciting initiatives and collaborations have been established in our group subsequent to her involvement (e.g. interaction between diet, oral health and the microbiome, and emerging collaborations with food producers).