Clinical Research

Associate Professor Nicholas Wood MBBS, DCH, MPH, FRACP
Associate Director, Clinical Research and Services - Executive Management Team
Senior Staff Specialist

Dr Lucy Deng MBBS, DCH, MIPH, FRACP
Staff Specialist/Clinical Lecturer 

Dr Harunor Rashid MBBS, DCH, MD
Epidemiologist

Harunor Rashid joined NCIRS in June 2011 as an epidemiologist in the clinical research team. He received paediatric training in Bangladesh, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the UK, ultimately receiving, in 2009, his Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from the University of London for his thesis on Epidemiology of respiratory infections associated with Hajj pilgrimage, under the supervision of Professor Robert Booy. He is particularly interested in the epidemiology of vaccine preventable infections among travellers.

Dr Ketaki Sharma, MBBS, MPH, FRACP
Staff Specialist/Clinical Lecturer 

Ketaki Sharma is a general paediatrician and staff specialist at NCIRS. She holds a conjoint appointment as Clinical Lecturer in the Discipline of Child and Adolescent Health at the University of Sydney. Ketaki is a member of the team at NCIRS that provides scientific technical support to the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) and is also part of the New South Wales Immunisation Specialist Service (NSWISS). She is undertaking research on optimising vaccination during pregnancy to protect newborn infants from vaccine-preventable illnesses, and also has a special interest in vaccination of people with immunocompromise.

Dr Archana Koirala MBChB, DCH, MIPH, FRACP
Staff Specialist/Clinical Associate Lecturer

Archana Koirala is a paediatric infectious disease specialist and general  paediatrician who joined NCIRS in 2018. She is part of the New South Wales Immunisation Specialist Service (NSWISS) team and reviews children who have experienced an adverse event following immunisation. She has a special interest in using genomics to understand vaccine preventable diseases.

Dr Rama Kandasamy
Staff Specialist/Lecturer

Rama Kandasamy joined NCIRS in February 2020. Rama is a paediatrician, newly awarded NHMRC Emerging Leader Fellow and lecturer at the University of New South Wales. His research interests include infectious diseases in children and the use of vaccines to prevent them, with a focus on childhood pneumonia.

Dr Emma Goeman
Staff specialist

Emma Goeman is an infectious diseases physician and clinical microbiologist who joined NCIRS in October 2021.  

Dr Ben Smith BMedSci, MBBS, DCH, FRACP
Staff specialist

Ben is an infectious diseases specialist and general paediatrician. He joined NCIRS in January 2021 and is involved in vaccine clinical trials and policy work.

Rosemary Joyce RN
Research Clinical Nurse Consultant

Rosemary Joyce is a registered nurse and midwife with postgraduate certification in immunisation, neonatal intensive care and has also worked as a Rehabilitation Consultant Case Manager. Rosemary joined NCIRS in 2006 and is working as a clinical trials nurse investigating both paediatric and adult vaccines. Rosemary is currently working on studies investigating the pertussis vaccine, and is a member of the NSWISS team.

Ajay Jadhav
Research Clinical Nurse Consultant 

Ajay is a registered nurse with a variety of experience in the public and private sector. He is currently working towards his postgraduate certificate in immunisation. Ajay has worked at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead for 7 years in the perioperative department. He has also previously worked as Research Nurse and Clinical Research Coordinator at the Save Sight Institute.

Mei Chan PhD
Research Coordinator

Mei joined NCIRS in 2022. She completed her PhD in epidemiology at the Garvan Institute in 2017 and has worked at the Clinical Excellence Commission and University of New South Wales on various researches, including dementia, osteoporosis and respiratory diseases in children. She is also a registered nurse and has many years of clinical nursing experience working at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead.

Katrina Sterling
Research Nurse

Katrina joined NCIRS in 2021 after working at Westmead Children's Hospital for the past 3 years in different areas. She has spent majority of her nursing career in the Emergency Department at the Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney. Katrina has also previously worked as a  midwife in various parts of Northern Australia. She also currently works at a private urgent care centre called WISE. Katrina has a special interest in vaccine preventable diseases and research. 

Twingle Daniel 
Research Assistant

Twingle is currently pursuing a PhD at the Westmead Institute for Medical Research with the Translational Breast Cancer Genomics Group. Her research topic is aimed at the discovery and development of novel precision medicine tools for breast cancer. Twingle completed her undergraduate degree majoring in human anatomy and physiology and did an honours year researching in the development of prognosticating tools for Estrogen receptor positive breast cancer.

Lilly Moran BSc
Research Assistant

Lilly joined NCIRS in November 2021. She completed a Bachelor of Science degree from the Australian National University, majoring in human biology and specialising in biomedical science. Lilly has a special interest in cell and molecular biology, immunology and microbiology. 

Fatima Gondalwala
Research Assistant

Fatima joined NCIRS in May 2022. She completed an Honours degree from the University of Sydney that focused on a novel communication method between cancer cells and fibroblasts.

Cecile Castellano BSc (Hons)
Research Assistant

Cecile joined NCIRS in May 2022. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science from the University of Melbourne, majoring in physiology. She has completed an Honours project researching the anatomy of the nerve circuitry in the stomach. Cecile has a special interest in public health and infectious diseases. 

Justin Lim BBus 
Administration officer

Justin Lim joined NCIRS in 2021. He holds a Bachelor of Business degree and is CPA-qualified. Justin has over 8 years of  experience in administration roles in various aspects of public health services across a number of local health districts.