About
Professor Wainwright is an internationally recognised geneticist and highly experienced research leader, with an outstanding career spanning biomedical discovery, translation, and research leadership.
He was a Professor at The University of Queensland (UQ), Co-Director of the Children’s Brain Cancer Centre, and leads research focused on understanding the genetic pathways underlying medulloblastoma and other cancers. His research has made significant contributions to the understanding of the genetics of human disease, including pioneering work that helped establish the role of the Hedgehog signalling pathway in cancer.
Professor Wainwright completed his undergraduate and postgraduate studies at The University of Adelaide before undertaking postdoctoral research at Imperial College London (St Mary’s Hospital). He returned to Australia in 1990 to join UQ and subsequently held several senior leadership positions, including leading UQ’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience until 2019.
Throughout his career, Professor Wainwright has contributed extensively to the broader Australian medical research sector through scientific advisory, governance and board roles, including with the Australian Genome Research Facility and several national research and scientific review committees.