Previously a sport and exercise scientist for British Judo, Nick understands elite sports environments intimately.

Nick's impact extends from writing training programmes for World and Olympic medallists to coaching junior rugby and judo players. He began his career as a physical education teacher, an experience that provided a solid foundation for his research training at the Universities of London and New Mexico.

With expertise that spans qualitative and quantitative methods in exercise physiology, Nick uniquely blends practitioner and researcher perspectives. His ongoing projects include exploring rugby headgear's impact force mitigation, exercise feasibility for cancer patients and performance prediction for elite cyclists

He trained in paediatric endocrinology in Auckland, New Zealand, where he gained his PhD. He then spent several years in Perth, Western Australia, where he developed his primary research focus on using diabetes technology to improve the lives of people with diabetes, and in particular using automated insulin delivery. His international service roles include contributions to international consensus statements and diabetes management guidelines, and also serves on the diabetes committee of the Australia New Zealand Paediatric Endocrine Society. He has over 100 international peer reviewed publications, including in lead journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine.

Currently based at Lincoln University, she focuses on using sheep models to improve understanding of human neurodegenerative diseases, particularly Batten disease.

Nadia has been instrumental in advancing studies involving brain- and eye-directed gene therapies. Her research centres on two naturally-occurring Batten disease sheep models, with the ultimate goal of translating findings into potential treatments for humans.

The impact of Nadia's work extends beyond the laboratory, as evidenced by the successful submission of an Investigational New Drug application to the US Food and Drug Administration. This marks a significant step toward translating gene therapies for Batten disease from sheep models to human clinical trials.

In addition to her roles at Lincoln University, Nadia serves as an Adjunct Research Fellow at the University of Otago.

Fuelled by a passion for nutrition and unwavering curiosity, she studies maternal and infant health, specialising in preterm birth, growth, metabolism and development. Mariana’s research is predominantly centred on human milk composition and lactation

Driven by a commitment to enhance health outcomes for mothers and infants, Mariana actively contributes to the fields of perinatal nutrition, and the promotion and protection of breastfeeding. Noteworthy career milestones include the recognition of her PhD thesis on the Dean of Graduate Studies List (excellence), and a Nutrition Research Award at the 2019 Annual Conference of the Perinatal Society of Australia and New Zealand.

Mariana’s work stands as a testament to her ongoing dedication to improving the well-being of mothers and infants globally.

His team delves into the complexities of conditions such as Duchenne, Becker, limb-girdle and FSHD (facioscapulohumeral) muscular dystrophies, as well as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Angus’ research employs genetic editing and state-of-the-art tools like mass spectrometry for molecular analysis, in vivo and ex vivo contractility assessments for physiological studies, and advanced bio-imaging techniques (fMRI, PET and spectral-CT).

Angus and his team are exploring metabolic pathways related to neurological dysfunction in muscular dystrophies. Additionally, they are investigating the molecular mechanisms that drive hyper-sensitivity to eccentric contractions in dystrophic muscle.

While currently based at the University of Canterbury with an Honorary position at the University of Otago, Angus has held academic positions at Deakin University in Australia and the University of Minnesota in the USA.

She completed her PhD in 2020. Her research interest is to understand the mechanisms of preterm brain injury and hypoxia-ischaemia and inflammation and use this information to develop and refine neuroprotective strategies. Her focus at present is on clinically available treatments that would be most easily translatable.

She is from Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Porou and Tuhourangi. Dist. Professor Smith has a background of teaching and research in Māori and Indigenous education. She is world renowned for her work Decolonizing Methodologies Indigenous Peoples and Research which is now in its Third Edition and has been translated into a number of different languages. Dist. Prof Smith was the founding co-Director of Ngā Pae o Te Māramtanga the Māori Centre of Research Excellence. She has previously served on the Health Research Council and was Chair of the Māori Health Committee, the Marsden Council and Chair of the Social Sciences Committee. She chaired the 2019 Revew of the Performance Based Research Fund. Dist. Prof Smith has received many awards and accolades. In 2023 she was elected to the US National Academy of Sciences, was awarded the Rutherford Medal in the Research Honours of the Royal Society of New Zealand and a lifetime achivement award for Non Fictoion Writing by Creative New Zealand.

He holds the position of Professor at the University of Auckland, and is based in the departments of Paediatrics: Child and Youth health and Obstetrics and Gynaecology in the School of Medicine, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences.

In addition to his primary role, John is globally active with honorary professorships at the University of Bristol in England (since June 2019) and the University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia (since June 2020).

As a PhD/Doctoral accredited supervisor, John plays a vital role in nurturing the next generation of researchers by providing guidance and mentorship to emerging scholars in the fields of epidemiology, paediatrics, and biostatistics, and has supervised 19 students to completion to date.

Driven by a passion for epidemiological research with a flux on identifying modifiable risk factors to reduce morbidity and mortality and a dedication to academic excellence, John continues to make substantial contributions to the field of healthcare and child health in New Zealand.

In addition to his primary role, John is globally active with honorary professorships at the University of Bristol in England (since June 2019) and the University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia (since June 2020).

As a PhD/Doctoral accredited supervisor, John plays a vital role in nurturing the next generation of researchers by providing guidance and mentorship to emerging scholars in the fields of epidemiology, paediatrics, and biostatistics.

Driven by a passion for epidemiological research and a dedication to academic excellence, John continues to make substantial contributions to the field of healthcare and child health in New Zealand.

Her specialist expertise is in mental health, nursing, social determinants of health, and health services for young Māori. Much of her research has focused on depression, suicide, and delivery of equity in mental health for young Māori. Prof Clark also holds a range of governance and advisory roles related to young people, Māori health, and mental health. Since 1998 Prof Clark has been the Principal Investigator and Co-Lead of the Youth2000 series of national surveys on youth health and wellbeing. She is a founding member of the national Adolescent Health Research Group. In 2022, Prof Clark joined Cure Kids' Medical & Scientific Advisory Committee.

Professor Stephen Robertson has been the Cure Kids Chair of Paediatric Genetics at the University of Otago since 2002.

Prof Robertson has gained international acclaim in his field for his expertise in the field of genetic mutations, specifically those affecting the skeleton and the brain.

He completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Otago, Dunedin, where he would eventually return more than a decade later. During his absence from Otago, he held the prestigious Nuffield Scholarship at the Institute of Molecular Medicine at the world-leading Oxford University. Also specialising in paediatrics, Prof Robertson is a clinician who sees children with varying degrees of malformation on a regular basis.

Prof Robertson’s work has seen him and his team discover genes that are implicated in a number of genetic disorders. These include familial disorders where a number of members of a particular family are affected with life-affecting, even fatal, conditions. One such story involved Robertson working tirelessly with a whanau in the far North who were inexplicably losing children soon after birth. After a long journey, he identified the gene which was responsible for the babies’ deaths enabling a diagnosis to be made. This was also fundamental in giving the whanau information regarding future offspring as well as the peace of mind of knowing what happened to their loved ones.

“What we’re about is helping people understand and live with disability as best they can, and part of that’s through giving information about what causes it.”

Prof Robertson and his team continue to work to characterise and better understand rare, yet significant, diseases that affect a number of New Zealand children.

Professor Dalziel is the Cure Kids Chair of Child Health Research.

He is a Professor in the School of Medicine’s Departments of Surgery and Paediatrics, Director of Emergency Medicine Research and a Paediatric Emergency Medicine Specialist, Children’s Emergency Department, at Starship Children’s Hospital. He is also the current chair of the Paediatric Research in Emergency Departments International Collaborative (PREDICT, Australasia’s paediatric emergency medicine research network) and Vice-Chair of the Paediatric Emergency Research Network (PERN), a collaboration of the six major international paediatric emergency medicine research networks.

Originally from Hawke’s Bay, he trained at the Universities of Otago and Auckland, returning to New Zealand over a decade ago following a fellowship post at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London. Professor Dalziel’s research is strongly aligned to his everyday clinical practice as a Paediatric Emergency Medicine Specialist. It focuses on both medical emergencies, such as status epilepticus (the most common paediatric neurological emergency), and common paediatric conditions, such as asthma and bronchiolitis (the most common reason for infants to be admitted to hospital). Professor Dalziel has received numerous local and international awards for mentoring and research excellence. He is actively involved in the leadership of a number of international research networks which directly address important questions related to the acute care of children.

Professor Andrew Day holds the chair of Paediatric Research at University of Otago, Christchurch.

Professor Andrew Day undertook his medical training at University of Otago, New Zealand. After his initial paediatric training in Christchurch, he completed clinical and research fellowship training at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada. In 2000, he took up appointments at the University of New South Wales and Sydney Children’s Hospital in Sydney, Australia. Professor Day then returned to NZ in 2009 to take an academic position at University of Otago (Christchurch) and a clinical position (Paediatric Gastroenterologist) at Christchurch Hospital. In 2017, Prof Day was appointed as Cure Kids Chair of Paediatric Research in Christchurch.

The overall objectives of Prof Day’s ongoing research activities are to delineate and define aspects of gastrointestinal inflammation, especially in the context of inflammatory bowel disease, and to define how interactions occurring at the gastrointestinal epithelial border between the host and the environment affect disease pathogenesis and manifestations. This has focused especially upon epithelial responses to inflammatory stimuli, host innate immune responses and to modulation of these responses with therapeutic intervention, providing clinical relevance to laboratory activities. He has an ongoing active and productive research program, with local and international collaborations, leading to more than 220 peer-reviewed publications and numerous other presentations or publications.