Associate Director - laboratory research

Professor Andrew Sinclair is Associate Director of Murdoch Childrens, a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Senior Principal Research Fellow and an honorary fellow at the Department of Pediatrics, University of Melbourne.

His research focuses on understanding the molecular genetics of gonad development and how this impacts on human disorders of sex development. His contributions have been fundamental to the advancement of the field, including the identification and characterization of the human testis determining gene (SRY) and other genes critical for gonad development. Professor Sinclair has an extensive publication record, including seven Nature papers, with one listed as an ISI citation classic. Altogether his publications have been cited over 5,755 times.

Professor Sinclair leads an NHMRC Program Grant on Human Disorders of Sex Development and is part of a team awarded an ARC National Centre of Excellence focusing on the regulation of male germ cell differentiation and its impact on infertility and testicular cancer. While President of the Australian Society for Medical Research in 2004 he led national advocacy efforts seeking increased Federal Government funding for health and medical research. He is an editorial board member of several international journals.

Professor Sinclair has received numerous national and international awards including the Outstanding Research Award from the Royal Society UK, the 2009 Sutherland Award for contributions to Human Genetics, and the 2010 Emil Steinberger Memorial Award from the American Society of Andrology.

In 2005 he was appointed to the Australian Biotechnology Advisory Council and chaired an NHMRC Genetics Grant Review Panel in 2007-2008. In 2009, he was appointed by the Federal Minister for Health to the NHMRC Human Genetics Advisory Committee.