Our Project Team & PM Specialists

The PrecisionGO project brings together cutting-edge expertise at WIMR, with expertise in precision medicine technologies and pipelines, business administration and scaling up technologies to create impact.

PrecisionGO Project Team

  • Professor Philip O'Connell, Executive Director of WIMR, wearing a suit with glasses.

    Prof Philip O'Connel

    Professor Philip O’Connell is Executive Director of the Westmead Institute for Medical Research. He has broad experience in clinical renal transplantation and transplantation immunology, with specific expertise in the use of genomics for biomarker development in transplantation. He is a past president of The Transplantation Society and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences. He co-directs the PrecisionGO project within WIMR. 

  • Dr Maggie Wang, wearing a lab coat in a laboratory setting with scientific equipment.

    Dr Xin Maggie Wang

    Dr. Xin Maggie Wang, Director of Scientific Operations at WIMR, oversees nine platforms, including cytometry, genomics, and bioinformatics. With 14 years research experience and 17 years of experience managing critical research infrastructure and advancing scientific pipelines for precision medicine, she is a leader in global scientific societies, serving as a Councilor for the International Society for the Advancement of Cytometry (2024–28) and as President of the Australasian Cytometry Society (ACS) from 2023–2024.  

  • Roshni Sharma, a South Asian woman wearing glasses and a winter coat smiling in Antarctica.

    Roshni Sharma

    Roshni is Project Manager for the PrecisionGO project, where she is excited to bring her expertise in delivering complex, multi-stakeholder, multi-scale large technical projects to WIMR. Roshni is a thought leader, a compassionate disruptor, a connector and someone who gets things done. She is making it her life’s work to harness STEMM to create positive impact in complex systems to amplify hope for a sustainable future. She was one of 86 women leaders in STEMM who voyaged to Antarctica for the leadership program Homeward Bound in November 2023.

  • Kylie Ironside, a caucasian lady with dark blonde hair wearing a geometric-patterned blouse.

    Kylie Ironside

    Kylie Ironside is the Communications and Marketing Manager at The Westmead Institute for Medical Research (WIMR) and is responsible for all internal and external communications and brand management.

    Kylie has extensive communications and marketing experience across a range of industries. Prior to joining WIMR in 2019, Kylie worked with The Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia, Garvan Institute of Medical Research, as well as the entertainment and food and beverage industries.

  • Mark Hinze, a man sitting at a desk in an office, holding a pair of glasses, with shelves in the background containing binders. He is wearing a light blue shirt and is smiling at the camera.

    Mark Hinze

    Mark Hinze, BEc, CPA, has been the CFO for The Westmead Institute for over 10 years. Prior to this appointment Mark started his career of 30+ years in the healthcare industry (including a number of years in pathology) before moving to biotech where he spent 14 years focusing on drug development, manufacturing, grant management and fund raising.

    Mark is a member of the AICD and serves on the board of a number of external non-profit organisations. He also acts as Chair for a non-profit Audit and Risk Committee.

  • Woman with long dark hair smiling, wearing a blue floral blouse, standing in a modern office environment with glass partitions and natural light.

    Sherica Wickramasinghe

    Sherica Wickramasinghe is the Research Governance Manager at The Westmead Institute for Medical Research (WIMR). In this role, she oversees research governance, WIMR site applications and approvals, and manages relevant research contracts. 

    Sherica joined WIMR in 2017 as Research Governance Coordinator and was appointed Research Governance Manager in 2019. Prior to joining WIMR, she held a number of administrative roles in a range of industries including health, local government and aviation.

  • Man wearing a green plaid shirt smiling

    Usman Jawaid

    Usman Jawaid is the Chief Information Officer at the Westmead Institute for Medical Research, a leading translational medical research institute with 11 research centers. With over seven years of experience as a full-stack developer, he specializes in managing enterprise-scale technical projects, optimizing ICT operations, and leading scientific and non-scientific initiatives. He has a strong background in project management, enterprise data solutions, and precision medicine, driving cost-effective and innovative IT infrastructure solutions.

  • Professional woman with dark hair wearing a blazer, smiling.

    Mee Wa Wong

    With over 20 years experience in business development, product and market development for therapeutics, diagnostics, and medical devices, Mee Wa specialises in building global partnerships to accelerate the development of cutting-edge technologies. She holds a PhD in molecular biology, and has worked in U.S. biotech companies and gained valuable start-up experience. She played a pivotal role in establishing Silicon Biosystems’ U.S. subsidiary, contributing to its acquisition by Menarini in 2013. Now, as the Senior Commercialisation Manager at WIMR in Australia, she engages with commercial partners to manage strategic alliances, driving collaboration and innovation in medical research.

Our Precision Medicine Specialists

  • A person pointing at a digital screen displaying colorful data graphs in a lab environment.

    Dr Joey Lai

    Dr Joey Lai is the Genomics Facility Manager at the Westmead Institute for Medical Research and has spent over 10 years growing and supporting genomics research at the Westmead Research Hub. His interest lies in applying novel precision-based genomics technologies such as next generation sequencing, single cell and spatial transcriptomics to improve therapeutic outcomes for patients. 

  • Laboratory setting with a person in a lab coat operating a BD FACSDiSCover S8 with CellView machine, sitting at a desk with multiple monitors displaying scientific data.

    Suat Dervish

    Suat manages a team of advanced specialists and oversees the operation of the Westmead Cytometry, Imaging and Preclinical Core Facilities,driving quality data generation and technological developments to facilitate translational medical research. He has completed the ISAC SRL Emerging Leader Program, has been awarded the AMP Tomorrow Maker Grant, and is actively involved in the Australasian Cytometry Society.

  • A scientist wearing a lab coat and gloves sits at a workstation with a microscope and a computer displaying scientific data.

    Dr Hui Zhang

    Dr Hui Zhang is an Advanced Imaging Specialist at Westmead Research Hub. She holds a Master’s degree in Microscopy and Microanalysis and a Doctor of Physiology (Medicine and Health) from the University of Sydney. With 12 years of medical research experience spanning diverse fields and 4 years of hands-on microscopy facility expertise, she specializes in advanced imaging techniques to support cutting-edge biomedical research.

  • Scientist in a lab coat standing next to large laboratory equipment, including a device labeled 'Askion C-line HS200.'

    Dr Ya Wang

    With experience in biomedical research, Dr. Ya Wang is a dedicated scientist specializing in precision medicine, and translational research. Previously as a Senior Research Fellow at the Nepean Genomic Research Group, she conducted genomic and precision medicine studies in intensive care settings. Now as a Biobank Advanced Specialist at Westmead Biobank, Westmead Institute for Medical Research, Dr. Wang is committed to advancing medical research through the strategic management of biological samples and data.

  • Scientist in lab coat working with laboratory equipment in a research facility.

    Li Ma

    Li Ma is the Manager of Westmead Histology Facility at the Westmead Institute for Medical Research.  She received a Bachelor’s degree in Medical Laboratory Sciences, a Master’s degree in Clinical Immunology from Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, China, and a MD degree from the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg, Germany. She has research experience in the field of clinical immunology and cancer research.  Her current interest is in combining histology techniques with new advances in Molecular Biology and Imaging to provide better support for medical research

  • Scientist in a lab coat holding equipment, standing in front of a BD FACS machine in a laboratory.

    Dr Edwin Lau

    Edwin holds a PhD in experimental medicine and is the advanced flow cytometry specialist at Westmead Cytometry. He has over ten years’ experience in flow cytometry and have an interest in technologies that can help advancing precision medicine.

    Edwin is also an active member of the Australasian Cytometry Society (ACS) and the International Society for Advancement of Cytometry (ISAC).

  • Scientist in a laboratory standing next to laboratory equipment and holding a sample tool, wearing a lab coat and gloves.

    Dr David Zheng

    As a genomics specialist with over six years of experience, David am passionate about single-cell sequencing and spatial biology technologies. He specialises in BD Rhapsody Single Cell analysis, 10x Visium HD, and Xenium platforms. David provides professional support in experiment design, sample preparation, and data analysis. He is also proficient in other NGS workflows, including WGA, WTA, and TCR/BCR analysis. David is also an avid drummer, and loves running.

  • Man smiling at desk with laptop and two large monitors displaying data visualization and code.

    Dr Brian Gloss

    Dr. Gloss has over a decade of bioinformatics experience in epigenomics, transcriptomics and single cell technologies since he received a PhD degree from the University of NSW in 2012 . He worked as a conjoint lecturer in the Genome Informatics research lab at the Garvan Institute between 2013 and 2019 on noncoding RNA biology, single cell transcriptomics and clinical genomics. He then joined Scientific Platforms team in 2019 and provides cutting edge informatics support to researchers.