A connected framework for advancing non-animal technologies

Associate Professor Adam Hill leads cardiovascular research at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, and is conjoint Senior Lecturer at St. Vincent’s Clinical School, University of New South Wales. Adam is vice president of the Australian Society for Biophysics, council member of the International Society for Heart Research, and member of Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand, The Biophysical Society (USA), and the Australian Physiological Society. His work focuses on complex multisystem organoids that replicate human physiology, enabling more predictive testing of novel therapies over traditional animal models.

Adam has pioneered 3D-engineered heart tissues and beating cardiac organoids from stem cells, accelerating discoveries in cardiovascular therapeutics while reducing animal use for preclinical studies. He drives interdisciplinary collaborations across NSW research hubs, integrating organ-on-a-chip platforms with computational modelling to bridge lab innovation and clinical translation.

As a founding NAT-Net partner, Adam champions human-relevant models to deliver faster, more reliable cardiac treatments, ensuring ethical progress that better serves patients.

Associate Professor Anai Gonzalez-Cordero is an Al & Val Rosenstrauss Fellow, Group Leader of the Stem Cell Medicine Group at Children’s Medical Research Institute, Head of the Stem Cell & Organoid Facility and holds a Senior Lecturer appointment in the Faculty of Medicine and Health at The University of Sydney.

Anai has established a multidisciplinary program to use patient-derived 3D retinal organoids that closely mimic human retinal disease, enabling precise gene-editing approaches to correct disease-causing mutations using CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats)-based strategies. She has demonstrated proof-of-concept that transplanted photoreceptor cells grown in the lab can restore visual function in preclinical models, and her facility has developed neural, cardiac, kidney and lung organoids that support researchers across Australia.

Anai brings to NAT Net deep expertise in stem cell–derived human models and a commitment to accelerating non-animal technologies so that safer, more effective treatments reach patients faster, having also served as NAT Net’s interim Chair in its formative year.

Associate Professor Shafagh Waters is a Scientia Fellow at UNSW and an Honorary Senior Scientist at Sydney Children’s Hospital, where she leads the Waters Group in regenerative and stem cell translational medicine. Her research focuses on adult stem cell biology, disease modelling and precision therapies for cystic fibrosis and other rare diseases, using patient-derived airway and gut organoids to guide individualised treatment decisions.

​Shafagh has built a national biobank of stem-cell-derived organoids and a high-throughput therapy-testing platform, enabling industry and clinical collaborators to evaluate genotype-specific therapies directly in patient cells. She has led an NHMRC-funded program supported by more than 30 grants, including 21 as Chief Investigator A, and is widely recognised for integrating organoid modelling, multi-omics and computational analysis to accelerate translation to the clinic.

As a founding member of NAT‑Net, Shafagh champions human-relevant organoid platforms as cornerstone tools to replace animal testing and deliver faster, more accurate solutions for people living with rare and chronic disease.

Professor Majid E. Warkiani is currently a Professor at the American University of Sharjah (AUS), UAE, and Director of the Advanced Biosciences and Bioengineering Research Center (ABSBERC), where he leads research in biomedical engineering, microfluidics, and translational bioengineering. He was formerly a Professor in the School of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Australia, and remains affiliated with the Institute for Biomedical Materials & Devices (IBMD) at UTS.

He received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, under the prestigious SINGA scholarship from A*STAR, and undertook postdoctoral training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology through the SMART Centre. His research focuses on three key areas: microfluidics for the design and development of novel systems for particle and cell sorting, including circulating tumour cells, fetal cells, and stem cells, for diagnostic and therapeutic applications; organ-on-a-chip technologies to model physiological functions of tissues and organs; and liquid biopsy for precision medicine.

As a NAT-Net contributor, Professor Warkiani advances non-animal technologies through development of novel 3D microfluidic and organ-on-chip platforms, enabling faster, more ethical pathways from laboratory discovery to patient therapies.