The University of Western Australia

Professor John Olynyk is a Gastroenterologist and Hepatologist based in the University of WA School of Medicine and Pharmacology at Fremantle Hospital. He has been in his current position since April 1994. He has established major research programs in the broad areas of colorectal cancer screening, pathogenesis of Hereditary Haemochromatosis and the pathogenesis of chronic liver injury, focusing on the role of hepatic progenitor cells in the carcinogenic and fibrogenic processes.
Over the last nine years John has, with various collaborators, attracted funding notably from the NH&MRC (11 grants, $5 million), the Cancer Foundation of Western Australia (10 grants, $600,000), and the NIH ($1.6 million). He has also initiated translational pharmaceutical research projects with major companies including Schering Plough, Roche, Pfizer, Novartis. He has contributed to development of patents and commercialisation of “FerriScan®” ( a TGA, FDA and CE-mark approved technology for measurement of iron status) in Australia and overseas. He was awarded an NH&MRC Practitioner Fellowship in 2008.
John has published (or had accepted for publication) over 120 papers (64 in the last 5 years) including papers in high impact journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine (2 publications both with editorials in 1999 and 2008), Annals of Internal Medicine, PNAS, Gastroenterology, Blood, Hepatology, Gut, American Journal of Gastroenterology, Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Bioessays, Journal of Hepatology, and The Medical Journal of Australia.
Johnn was the organiser, in conjunction with Professor Bruce Bacon from St Louis University USA, of the single topic conference on Haemochromatosis run by the American Association Study of Liver Diseases in September 2007. He is regularly invited to participate in major international liver, haematology and biochemistry meetings as a result of his research interests. In 2009 he is an invited speaker at the World Congress of Pathology and he has recently been invited to address the Centre for Disease Control in Atlanta, USA, on issues related to iron overload disease and assist in the establishment of US public health policy for iron overload disorders.
He is a member of the Western Australian liver transplant program and is an active transplant Hepatologist. He provides general Gastroenterological services to Fremantle Hospital and teaches medical students. He is currently Head of Gastroenterology at Fremantle Hospital. In 2005 he was appointed Deputy Director for the Western Australian Institute of Medical Research based at Fremantle Hospital. He is leader of the Digestive Diseases Health Network in Western Australia. He is treasurer of the Gastroenterological Society of Australia, President of the Australian Liver Association and contributes to NHMRC grant review processes (projects, fellowships).