Our Deputy Director

Professor Ramm researches the pathobiological basis of hepatic fibrosis (liver scarring) and chronic liver disease, particularly in inherited conditions such as hereditary haemochromatosis, cystic fibrosis-associated liver disease in children, as well as in conditions that lead to liver cancer. His research is also focused on the clinical translation of this mechanistic research including the early detection of patients at risk of serious liver disease complications, and development of new therapeutics to treat both liver inflammation and hepatic fibrosis.

Professor Ramm identified a role for liver myofibroblast precursors, hepatic stellate cells, as the cellular source for pathological collagen in a number of intractable chronic liver diseases and discovered the cellular mechanisms that cause severe liver inflammation and hepatic fibrogenesis, which leads to cirrhosis, liver cancer and liver failure if untreated. These observations have significantly advanced the field and provided the basis for the development of innovative therapeutic approaches to treat chronic liver disease.

He is a foundation Fellow of both the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and the Gastroenterological Society of Australia, in recognition of ‘significant contribution to the knowledge and/or practice of liver and biliary diseases and who are considered leaders in their field’.

Professor Ramm was awarded the Gastroenterological Society of Australia’s Distinguished Research Prize for 2020 and in 2023, he was awarded the Ralph Doherty QIMR Berghofer Prize ‘for outstanding achievement and leadership in medical research’.

A medical epidemiologist and public health physician with a focus on cancer control, he has pursued two parallel but complementary
paths, focusing on discovering how environmental and genetic factors interact to cause cancer on the one hand, and then applying this knowledge to the prevention and control of disease on the other.

Whiteman’s early research built upon emerging theories for melanoma that sought to explain how these cancers are caused. His ‘divergent pathway model’ for melanoma development spurred international research in epidemiology, genomics & pathology. The divergent pathway model underpins the current WHO Classification of Melanoma and informs melanoma control policies from WHO/IARC and 10 countries. Whiteman’s later work on the preventive effects of sunscreen at molecular and population levels was used by 18 leading stakeholder agencies in Australia & New Zealand to develop the Consensus Statement on Sunscreen (2019), which in turn was adopted by the 2020 Australian Clinical Practice Guidelines for Keratinocyte Carcinoma.

In 2010, Professor Whiteman launched the QSkin Study, the world’s largest prospective study of skin cancer with almost 44,000 participants. This cohort has been immensely productive, delivering new knowledge on the causes and burden of basal and squamous cell carcinomas (BCC and SCC) and melanoma associated with phenotypic, lifestyle, clinical, and environmental factors. More recently, data from the QSkin Study led to the development of risk calculators to estimate a person’s future risks of SCC/BCC and melanoma, which have had global uptake.

In addition to skin cancer, Whiteman has also led internationally recognised studies of oesophageal cancer, and its premalignant precursor, Barrett’s oesophagus.

In 2019, Professor Whiteman was appointed a Member (AM) of the Order of Australia in the Australia Day Honours List.

Whiteman served as Acting Director of the Institute at the
start of 2020 during the start of the coronavirus pandemic.