Queensland Health Research Excellence Showcase 2025
About the 2025 showcase
The theme of our second annual Queensland Health Research Excellence Showcase is Fast, Fearless and Future.
This year’s showcase highlights how streamlined processes can accelerate medical breakthroughs, ensuring that research translates into real-world solutions and drives innovation in healthcare and workforce development. It will recognise research achievements across Queensland Health by our talented healthcare professionals across all disciplines including clinicians (doctors, nurses, allied health workers), scientists and administrators.
Join colleagues from across Queensland Health, as well as leaders involved in shaping and delivering healthcare including university, industry and other government agencies.
Where and when
Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, South Brisbane.
Friday 30 May 2025, 9 am to 5 pm.
This event is invitation-only. Register your interest to attend by emailing ORI-Admin@health.qld.gov.au.
Program overview
The event consists of formal presentations from Queensland and international researchers, and will be MC’d by renowned Brisbane journalist and media personality, Lexy Hamilton-Smith.
- Hear lively and topical presentations on research.
- View posters from Queensland Health researchers, and cast your vote for the most popular 'People’s Choice' poster, with researchers vying for trophies and prize money.
- Visit display booths in the MedTech Experience Room to see, touch and try out the latest MedTech products and services from leading Queensland companies. See the MedTech exhibitor list (PDF 689 kB).
- Network with colleagues and presenters from 5 pm to 6 pm.
To learn more, download the:
Queensland Health researchers conducting current and/or translation-ready research will be presenting posters at a pitching session attached to this year’s showcase. Read the poster presentation summary (PDF 539 kB).
Applications to present closed on 19 April 2025.
Four awards, including a trophy and a cash prize of $3,500 are on offer.
The poster competition is being managed by MTPConnect, Australia’s life sciences accelerator. To find out more view the Queensland Research Excellence Showcase Poster Session.
International speakers
Professor Chris Molloy
Chief Executive Officer
Medicines Discovery Catapult, UK
Professor Chris Molloy has a 30-year international board and executive career across a unique range of life sciences R&D disciplines.
Chris’ career began in pre-clinical research at Glaxo, where he was closely involved with the industrialisation of high throughput discovery. In 2004 he moved to Asia as COO of MerLion Pharmaceuticals, a Singaporean biotech that developed into an award-winning multinational anti-infectives R&D biotech.
In 2016, Chris became the Founding CEO of Medicines Discovery Catapult (MDC), the national centre for innovation in drug discovery in the UK.
During its first five years under Chris’ leadership, MDC leveraged its Innovate UK grant fourfold, worked with more than 150 UK companies and assisted the discovery of UK drug assets worth over £1bn.
During the pandemic, Chris was the founding director of the UK Lighthouse Labs Network—the largest diagnostics project in UK history—and chaired the industry-governmental consortium that increased UK lateral flow manufacturing capacity by twenty-fold.
Chris is responsible for leading an experienced executive team and a cohort of more than 130 specialists who make up MDC to achieve its vision of reshaping drug discovery for patient benefit.
Dr Jean Enno Charton
Director
Digital Ethics & Bioethics, Merck KGaA, Germany
Dr Jean Enno Charton is responsible for digital ethics and bioethics matters across all Merck divisions, reporting directly to the board. He has also held roles in the R&D department at Merck Healthcare, most recently as Chief of Staff to the Chief Medical Officer.
Jean Enno joined Merck in 2014 and holds a PhD in Immuno-oncology from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, as well as a Biochemistry degree from the University of Tübingen, Germany. He has been a Visiting Researcher at the Canadian Science Center for Human and Animal Health as well as the Harvard Medical School.
Under Jean Enno’s leadership, Merck has become a global industry thought leader in digital ethics. Together with leading global academic experts, his team has developed a Code of Digital Ethics, detailing Merck’s guiding ethical principles in all its digital endeavours.
Jean Enno's work has been published in several peer reviewed journals and books, such as 'Minds and Machines' and 'AI & Society'.
Professor Michael Toft Overgaard
Professor of Protein Science
Aalborg University, Denmark
Michael Toft Overgaard is a Professor of Protein Science in the Department of Chemistry and Bioscience at Aalborg University in Denmark. He has more than 27 years of experience in studying protein structure and function, focusing on understanding the impact of human disease mutations.
Michael has published 22 research papers dealing with mutations in the genes encoding the Calmodulin protein. Michael led the work describing the effect of the ‘Folbigg mutation’ CALM2 G114R and was co-senior author of the resulting 2021 Europace research paper.
Michael provided several expert reports and gave oral evidence for the 2022 Folbigg inquiry, together with Professor Mette Nyegaard.
Topology musical performance
Topology is an internationally renowned, award-winning arts organisation recognised for its innovation and leadership in creative collaboration. Blurring the lines between genres and art forms, Topology champions the belief that everyone has the power to be creative and supports this through their Creative Academy and Growing Creative Communities programs.
One standout initiative, The Stairwell Project, brings live music into clinical environments to create moments of connection and calm. Originally launched in the stairwells of the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital (RBWH), the program has since expanded to the hospital foyer, entrance and Cancer Care Services.
Building on the success of the The Stairwell Project, Topology introduced a songwriting program specifically for young people affected by cancer, offering a platform to share their personal stories through music. This evolved into the You Can Make Some Noise program, delivered in the You Can Centre at RBWH. Now preparing to launch its second album performed and recorded by the participants, the program continues to amplify the voices of youth navigating their cancer journeys.