The pioneering work of Prof. Alan Mackay-Sim includes the world’s first clinical trial using stem cells, which has provided ground-breaking knowledge in the field of regenerative medicine. The research and techniques developed by Mackay-Sim and co-workers were applied by researchers in Poland with collaborators in London (2014) to successfully restore mobility in a quadraplegic man.
In his acceptance speech when he was presented his Australian of the Year award, Prof. Mackay-Sim urged the Australian community to become a part of and invest in science. He said, “As a nation, we must be part of this and we must invest in young scientists and give them great careers. Researchers need a long view, much longer than the political horizon.”
Prof. Mackay Sim focused much of his career on olfactory stem cells. He endeavored to understand the repair and regeneration mechanisms of the olfactory mucosa, as sensory nerve cells regenerate through adult life.
Prof. Alan Mackay-Sim was a regular contributor to Wiley peer-reviewed journals throughout his career and below is a snapshot of some of his work.
Variability in the Generation of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells: Importance for Disease Modeling
Concise Review: Patient-Derived Olfactory Stem Cells: New Models for Brain Diseases
Olfactory Mucosa Is a Potential Source for Autologous Stem Cell Therapy for Parkinson’s Disease
Regulation of adult olfactory neurogenesis by insulin-like growth factor-I
Book Chapter: Neurogenesis in the Adult Olfactory Epithelium
