After 28 years working and researching overseas, Professor Ken Smith has returned to Australia to become Director of WEHI - a key partner of the University of Melbourne.
After 28 years working and researching overseas, Professor Ken Smith has returned to Australia to become Director of WEHI - a key partner of the University of Melbourne. He brings a global perspective to the role and to the future of medical research.
“Increasingly, the medical workforce is going to have to stay flexible, because the nature of medical practice is changing and will keep changing. People benefit from having a deep understanding of science alongside medical practice,” says Professor Ken Smith (BMedSci 1985, MBBS 1987, PhD 1996), Director of WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research).
“For those who want to work between science and the clinic, an understanding of computational analysis will be increasingly important. People are already using AI to generate all sorts of useful conclusions from clinical data, but a human will still need to sense-check what AI tells us might be happening.”
Professor Smith’s career as a researcher and clinician began in Melbourne and took him to Cambridge University, where he became Head of the Department of Medicine in 2010. The Smith Lab ran an experimental medicine and translational program focused on understanding the mechanisms underlying immune-mediated diseases, informed by his clinical practice in nephrology and clinical immunology.
He has forged international scientific research links and formed alliances between industry and academia across the US, Asia and Europe. Furthering connections between WEHI, the University of Melbourne, the Royal Melbourne and other hospitals and potential national and international partners will be a focus of his new role.
I’d like to increase our connections into Melbourne Medical School and other university departments, such as maths and computing. It will be important to continue strengthening links into the clinical school and hospital system, too says Professor Smith, who is also the new Lorenzo and Pamela Galli Chair in Medical Biology at the University of Melbourne.
“Medical research has changed over the past 20 years — the technology we have now allows us to answer fundamental biological questions in studies with patients and healthy volunteers, where we once had to use animals. WEHI and its neighbours in the Parkville Precinct provide a strong base for such work, that has the potential to make Melbourne an international leader.”
Professor Smith believes science is “an international game” and international talent recruitment and collaborations with institutions aligned to WEHI’s scientific strategy is vital for growth.
He also advocates for an efficient interface between clinical care and fundamental research.
“Moving between science and clinical care is an enormous strength in medical research that is eventually translated for the benefit of healthcare — and it enables students to see science happening alongside hospital wards,” he says.
“WEHI is one of the few places where, cheek by jowl, you have high-quality hospitals, universities and research institutes. Collaboration between them has long produced breakthroughs in medical research, but working to make these links more seamless is a priority.”
Professor Smith foresees a range of challenges for researchers and clinicians, including being at the cutting edge of computational biology while supporting the ability to handle the large datasets generated by technologies, such as those underpinning spatial biology.
Spatial biology is an exciting field that allows you to study cells in their anatomical context in great detail and to discover how they influence each other, he says.
“Staying at the cutting edge of technological advancement is central to driving research excellence, and the critical mass provided by the University and its precinct makes this possible. This in turn allows our research to make a real impact on current health priorities. It also allows us to start to research those that will impact Australia and its neighbours in the future, such as the impact of increased chronic heat stress on disease patterns and healthcare risks.”