Gastroenterology and Hepatology

Geoffrey Farrell graduated in medicine from University of Tasmania in 1970, and trained in gastroenterology and hepatology at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital (with Neil Gallagher) and Royal Brisbane Hospital (with Lawrie Powell). After completing his MD with Lawrie Powell, he was awarded an NHMRC CJ Martin Fellowship for postdoctoral research at UCSF (with Rudi Schmid and John Gollan). In 1980, he returned to Sydney to establish a Liver Research Group at Westmead Hospital which became The Storr Liver Unit in 1993; GF was Director until Jan 2006. He then accepted his current position of Professor of Hepatic Medicine within ANU Medical School. Among many leadership roles, he has been President ASMR 1987, President Gastroenterological Society of Australia (GESA) 2000-2001, and Head, Department of Medicine, University of Sydney 1996-1997.

Geoff Farrell's research interests are in non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, ischemia-reperfusion injury, hepatocellular carcinoma, viral hepatitis and drug-induced liver injury. He has published 4 books, including the first on NAFLD (and its second, 2013, version), and written more than 220 scientific papers and 130 reviews/chapters/editorials. His work is very highly cited, with an H-index >60, more than 40 articles cited >100 times (5 cited >500 times), average citation 33/paper, and 22 articles the subject of editorials or editorial comment. He has been CIA on an NHMRC Program Grant and CCRE, an NIH RO1 for study of hepatitis C pathogenesis, and has held more than 28 NHMRC project grants.

Among several honours and awards, he has received the Distinguished Research Prize of GESA 2003, the Eric Susman Prize for Medical Research 1988, RACP, and delivered the inaugural Hy Zimmerman lecture at AASLD 2002, the Georges Brohée medal lecture at WCOG, Shanghai 2013, as well as 6 other named orations at overseas meetings. He has supervised more than twenty five Doctoral Research Students (PhD or MD), eight of whom have won between them 10 highly competitive Young Investigator Awards. Until December 2012 he was Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology during which the Impact Factor rose from 1.6 to 3.3.

Lay Theng Gan MB BS (Hons) – for PhD (enrolled March 2011)

Fahrettin Haczeyni  MSc – for PhD (enrolled September 2011)

Arfianti (Evi) Arfianti MB BS, MSc – for PhD (enrolled Jan 2012)

Jill E Maddison BVSc  - PhD  (1988) "Studies of gamma-aminobutyric acid in animal models of hepatic encephalopathy."

Stephen J Williams MB BS, FRACP - MD  (1991)"Chronic hepatitis B virus infection: prevention and treatment."

* Christopher Liddle BSc (Med), MB BS, FRACP - PhD  (1992)"Hepatic regeneration: Role of sex steroids and effects on cytochrome P450"

Philip I Craig MB BS, FRACP - PhD  (1992)"Interferon and drug metabolism."

Andrew Keegan MB BS, FRACP - PhD  (1994) – co-supervisor with Dr RG Batey: "Alcohol-induced liver injury in the rat."

Robert Martini BSc - PhD  (1994) – co-supervisor with Dr M Murray"Vitamin A: microsomal biotransformation and regulation of rat hepatic cytochrome P450s."

# Jacob George MB BS, FRACP - PhD (1994) “Cirrhosis and hepatic CYP expression in man.”

Rita Lin MB BS, FRACP - PhD (1995) "Virus and host factors in the treatment of chronic hepatitis C infection."

Jiezhong Chen MB BS - PhD (1996)"Cytochromes P450 in experimental cholestasis."

** # Bao-Hong Zhang MB BS - PhD (1996)"Alcohol and liver regeneration:  Role of intracellular calcium signalling."

* Dev Samarasinghe MB BS, FRACP - PhD (1997) "The role of hepatic cell types in hypoxia reoxygenation injury of the liver."

Martin Weltman MB BS, FRACP - PhD (1999) – co-supervisor with Associate-Professor C Liddle  “The role of cytochrome P4502E1 in NASH.”

Mahbub H Khan, MB BS (Dhaka), DSM (Vienna), FAMS - PhD (1999) “Hepatitis C and alcohol.”

Liang Qiao MB BS -  PhD (2000)“Apoptosis in hepatocytes and hepatoma cells.”

Alice U Lee MB BS - PhD (2002)“Cellular mechanisms of azathioprine-induced liver disease”

* # Narci Teoh MB BS, FRACP – PhD (2003) “Cellular mechanisms of hepatic ischaemia-reperfusion injury and preconditioning"

Brett Jones BMedSc, MB BS, FRACP - PhD (2004) “Molecular mechanisms of toxic liver injury”

**Jason Hui MB BS, FRACP – PhD (submitted Dec 2004) - co-supervisor with Associate-Professor J George “Hepatic steatosis and steatohepatitis in NAFLD and chronic hepatitis C.”

**Emilia Ip BMedSci – PhD (2005) (CDP of  Usyd MP)  – co-supervisor with Dr I Leclercq “Effects of altered lipid metabolism in the pathogenesis of murine fibrosing steatohepatitis”

Aileen dela Peña BMedSci – PhD (2005) –  co-supervisor with Dr I Leclercq“Inflammatory recruitment in metabolic steatohepatitis: the role of nuclear factor-kappaB”

#Claire Larter BSc—PhD, University of Sydney  (2007)“Hepatic lipid partitioning in fatty liver disease”

Hossein Poustchi  MD (Iran)- PhD, University of Sydney (2008)“Screening for hepatocellular carcinoma”

Déborah Heydet  MSc – PhD, Australian National University (2011) “Neuronal cilia and appetite regulations in Alms1 mutant mice”

*Derrick Van Rooyen MSc – PhD (Australian National University (2012)“Cholesterol as a mediator of hepatic injury in non-alcoholic steatohepatitis” 

Sharon Pok BSc –  PhD (ANA 2013; prime supervisor, Narci Teoh )“Role of cyclin E in the pathogenesis of hepatocellular carcinoma”