Monash Centre for Inflammatory Diseases

Professor Stephen Holdsworth – Director of Centre

Professor Stephen Holdsworth is the Director of the Centre for Inflammatory Diseases, Head of Monash University's Department of Medicine (Monash Medical Centre), Head of the Southern Clinical School and Director of Clinical and Diagnostic Immunology at Southern Health.

Professor Holdsworth is a clinician-scientist who is a nephrologist, clinical immunologist and career academic. His long-standing research interests have focussed on the mechanisms in immune glomerular injury relevant to understanding and treating human glomerulonephritis (GN). His work has substantially contributed to revelations that cell-mediated immunity and pathological coagulation induce crescentic GN. The evidence substantiating this assertion derives from key in vivo studies in animals models bracketed with human observations confirming the relevance of experimental discoveries to human disease.

In 2005, Professor Holdsworth received the Kincaid Smith Medal, the highest accolade given in Australia for excellence in contributing to Nephrology. He served as Head of the NHMRC Program Grant Committee 1997-1999 and is currently CIA on two NHMRC Project Grants.

Professor Richard Kitching – Deputy Director of Centre

Professor Richard Kitching is a Chief Investigator with the Centre for Inflammatory Disease’s Glomerulonephritis Group. He is a clinician-scientist, his Clinical Specialty being nephrology.

Professor Kitching's research helped established that the T-helper cell subsets (Th1/Th2) are applicable to glomerulonephritis. He defined the role of major elements of the fibrinolytic system in renal disease. In recent years he has set up, with collaborators, several different models of immune renal disease to explore hypotheses related to the pathogenesis of immune and autoimmune renal injury. He is a Chief Investigator in an NHMRC Program Grant and holds an NHMRC Project Grant (2009-2011) and a Genzyme Renal Innovations Program Grant (2008-2010).

Professor Kitching co-authored the definitive review article on Th1/Th2 responses in renal disease. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology and is a Section Editor on the board of Nephrology. He was awarded the Australian and New Zealand Society of Nephrology TJ Neale Award for Outstanding Contribution to Nephrological Science in 2007.

He is the chair of the Scientific Programme and Education Committee of the Australia and New Zealand Society of Nephrology. He has served on NHMRC Project Grant Review Channels as a panel member, Deputy Chair and Chair.

He has teaching and leadership roles in the Monash University Faculty of Medicine Nursing and Health Sciences in the MBBS degree and the Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences degree.