The Perth Biodesign Team
Prof Kevin Pfleger
Chair Perth Biodesign
Professor Kevin Pfleger MA(Cambridge) PhD(Edinburgh) FBPhS is Director Biomedical and Health Innovation at The University of Western Australia (UWA) and the Western Australian Life Sciences Innovation Hub. He is also Immediate Past President of the Australasian Society of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacologists and Toxicologists, Head of Molecular Endocrinology and Pharmacology at the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research, Deputy Director of the Australian Research Council Industrial Transformation Training Centre for Personalised Therapeutics Technologies and Chief Scientific Advisor to Dimerix Limited.
Professor Pfleger has developed globally-recognised expertise in molecular pharmacology over the last 20 years. He also has experience in research translation, being a named inventor on a number of patent families and being a spin-out company Chief Scientific Officer for over 6 years. This company, Dimerix, of which he is now Chief Scientific Advisor, is now listed on the Australian stock exchange and is in Phase 3 clinical trials for chronic kidney disease. Professor Pfleger is also a scientific co-founder of RAGE Biotech and chairs the Advisory Board of VeinTech, in addition to advising and mentoring a number of other start-ups and entrepreneurs.
Professor Pfleger supports innovation and entrepreneurship training as Chair of both Perth Biodesign and Biodesign Australia. He was also the founding co-Director of the Australian Clinical Entrepreneur Program.
Oliver Bazzani
Co-Director
Oliver is a Director of Biodesign Australia and Perth Biodesign, where he fosters the next generation of innovators to solve important problems in healthcare through technology—a path he first walked himself as a participant in the Perth Biodesign for Digital Health 2020 program.
During that program, Oliver and his team tackled the challenge of finding the right psychologist, developing Charli, a solution that won both the 2020 Perth Biodesign program and the Freo Startup Fest. That experience ignited his passion for healthcare innovation, which continues today.
With broad experience across the Australian startup ecosystem, Oliver is recognised as a trusted advisor and investor to leading startups, accelerators, and venture funds. He serves as a member of the WA State Government Innovation Advisory Board, a judge at the INCITE Awards, and mentor to emerging founders, operators and investors.
Previously, Oliver built businesses in health and creative industries, designed the Australian Clinical Entrepreneur and Dream Venture Programs, and led the Child and Adolescent Health Service's innovation function. He also managed WA's largest angel investor network, served as an ambassador for West Tech Fest, and was Chair of Regional Arts WA.
Chloe Goodred
Co-Director
Chloe is an innovative and effective healthcare leader who is passionate about improving the way we design and deliver care to improve outcomes for patients, staff and the broader community. Chloe began her career as a physiotherapist and worked across a range of clinical settings before pivoting into clinical service design and project management. Her curiosity and passions for problem solving, diverse collaborations and systems thinking led her into the innovation and entrepreneurship space, co-founding a digital health startup and acting as a boundary spanner to bring public and private sector innovators together.
Most recently Chloe led the Kaartdijin Innovation Centre at South Metropolitan Health Service, including establishment in 2019 – the first innovation hub for WA public health services. She has engaged, connected and empowered clinicians, technicians, corporate staff and external partners to dream big and innovate to solve problems. Chloe also has a keen interest in Aboriginal health, wellbeing and justice including volunteer work for Enterprise Partnerships WA, a not-for-profit partnering with remote First Nations communities to facilitate entrepreneurship and activate community-led enterprises that foster health and well-being. In particular, Chloe is working with Oliver Bazzani to deliver the Perth Biodesign course and with Sandra Medic to deliver the Biodesign content for iPREP Biodesign.
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Dr Sandra Medic
iPREP Program
Manager
Sandra is the Biomedical and Health Innovation Program Manager at The University of Western Australia, responsible for managing the iPREP program. Sandra is an experienced biomedical scientist and researcher, obtaining her PhD at Edith Cowan University in 2011. She has spent over 15 years in the Higher Education sector, working in undergraduate and postgraduate environments as a lecturer and academic program coordinator.
Sandra was the PhD Course Coordinator at Edith Cowan University, where she was providing strategic support and operational management of key education and training programs for Higher Degrees by Research (HDR) students. She led the development and delivery of cross-disciplinary research training to meet student, industry and sector needs, implementing education delivery advances and research training innovations to improve training quality, and support learning and teaching goals and outcomes. With extensive experience in Western Australian Higher Education, Sandra joined the Perth Biodesign team in a quest to bring industry, academia and research together. Working closely with doctoral students across various disciplines, she is committed to fostering PhD researcher development and passionate about creating industry engagement opportunities for PhD students to forge their future career paths.
Dr David Morrison
Biomedical Engineering Lead
David has been fortunate to lead a small team of innovators over the past seven years, responsible for the design, manufacture and supply of patient-specific medical devices to patients throughout Western Australia. David’s greatest strength is his deep understanding of healthcare systems and medical devices. He is fortunate to have experience working for medical device start-ups and large commercial device manufacturers, as well as directly for a tertiary hospital, manufacturing devices at the Point of Care. He has experience across the entire medical device lifecycle, from research through to clinical trials to commercialisation and then sales and marketing. David is working on projects to enhance the WA health and medical innovation ecosystem and infrastructure development, particularly with respect to biomedical engineering. He aims to grow and benefit industry-university-health collaboration and capacity building, strategically supporting Biodesign and the Australian Clinical Entrepreneur Program, as well as the Springboard Medical Manufacturing Alliance to facilitate the development of the MedTech manufacturing capability in Western Australia. He has expertise in: medical device design, manufacture and regulation; biomedical engineering; engineering and healthcare leadership; innovation; clinical trials; 3D printing; tissue engineering; intellectual property in government; and industry collaboration.
Ruth Seeber
Senior Project
Officer
Ruth Seeber is a molecular pharmacologist with over 20 years of experience working at The University of Western Australia and Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research. She is an assay technology co-inventor and has extensive experience in managing projects at the academic-industry interface. Ruth therefore brings key insights into how researchers can work effectively on this boundary.
Ruth provides operational and project management support to the Chair, Directors and iPREP Program Manager, and helps co-ordinate between the various Perth Biodesign offerings.
Dr Matthew Oldakowski
Co-Founder
and Adviser
Matt is a biomedical engineering researcher, inventor, entrepreneur and University of Western Australia Senior Lecturer. He is the co-founder and CTO of three medtech companies, Earflo, REX Ortho and Cervical ChinUp. Matt and the Earflo team recently participated in Fogarty Innovation’s Company Accelerator Program. Matt is the Co-Founder of Perth Biodesign where he educates and incubates medtech innovation teams, particularly students at The University of Western Australia enrolled in Master of Professional Engineering, Bachelor of Engineering (Honours), or an associated Combined Degree. He is also the Co-Founder of Biodesign Australia that brings together Biodesign programs from around Australia to share resources and best practice. Matt was co-Chair of the highly successful Annual Meeting of the Biomedical Engineering Innovation, Design and Entrepreneurship Alliance Asia Pacific (BME IDEA APAC) 2022. He is currently a member of the Steering Committee of the BridgeTech Program representing The University of Western Australia, and is an industry mentor of the Australian Clinical Entrepreneur Program. Matt was previously a Global Fellow at Stanford Biodesign and an Endeavour Executive Fellow.
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Dr Intan Oldakowska
Co-Founder
and Adviser
Intan is a biomedical engineer and entrepreneur focused on developing medical devices, as well as a Senior Lecturer at The University of Western Australia. She is Co-Founder and CEO of Earflo, which recently participated in Fogarty Innovation’s Company Accelerator Program, Co-Founder and CSO of Rex Ortho, and Co-Founder and Director of ChinUp. In her research she collaborates with clinicians and other researchers to design and develop innovative medical devices that solve unmet clinical problems and have commercial potential. Intan is the Co-Founder of Perth Biodesign where she educates and incubates medtech innovation teams, particularly students at The University of Western Australia enrolled in Master of Professional Engineering, Bachelor of Engineering (Honours), or an associated Combined Degree. She is also the Co-Founder of Biodesign Australia that brings together Biodesign programs from around Australia to share resources and best practice. Intan was co-Chair of the highly successful Annual Meeting of the Biomedical Engineering Innovation, Design and Entrepreneurship Alliance Asia Pacific (BME IDEA APAC) 2022. She is also an industry mentor of the Australian Clinical Entrepreneur Program.