Australian gastroenterologist awarded top science gong

IBS

By Tessa Hoffman

1 Nov 2018

Laureate Professor Nicholas Talley AC is NSW Scientist of the Year for 2018.

Internationally renowned gastroenterologist Professor Nick Talley has been crowned NSW Scientist of the Year.

Laureate Professor Talley, AC, is a former RACP President and a senior staff specialist in gastroenterology at the John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle. He is credited with a number of ground-breaking contributions to the field of neurogastroenterology, a group of diseases thought to affect up to 30% of Australians.

His contributions to the field include being the first to identify a genetic link to IBS and functional dyspepsia.

His team also described a new genetic form of IBS, identifying the first known mutation and showing drug treatment could reverse the abnormal function.

Asked to name his most significant career achievement, Professor Talley nominated the research that led to the discovery of duodenal eosinophilia.

Together with his team he developed the hypothesis that low grade small intestinal inflammation may explain a major group with functional gut disorders, leading to the finding.

“This work opened up a whole new research direction in my field,” Professor Talley said.

“I am confident we now largely understand the disease mechanisms and have a robust comprehensive disease model to test, that appears to explain all of the gut and systemic disease features. I am hoping a cure is in sight, but we still have a lot of work to do.”

Professor Talley said he was “extremely humbled” to receive the award, presented at the NSW Premier’s Prizes for Science and Engineering at Government House, Sydney, on October 30.

“As a medical researcher, searching for the truth and applying new knowledge to help patients has always been my goal,” he said.

Professor Talley is editor-in-chief of the MJA and holds adjunct research appointments at the Karolinska Institutet (Sweden) and the Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minnesota, USA).

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