Professor Colin Robertson

Biography:

Professor Colin Robertson graduated from the University of NSW in 1974 and completed basic paediatric training at Adelaide Children's Hospital. He undertook further training in Paediatric Respiratory and Sleep Medicine over three years at Kings College Hospital, London and two years at The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto. Professor Robertson completed an MSc in Epidemiology at Harvard in 1991 and an MD at UNSW in 1999. He joined the Royal Children's Hospital (RCH) in 1984 as a respiratory physician and in 2010 was appointed Chief of Medicine.

Other Affiliations:

Chief of Medicine, Royal Children's Hospital
Professorial Fellow, Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne
Senior Physician, Respiratory Medicine, Royal Children's Hospital

Research:

Professor Robertson has a keen interest in clinical research and has been a founding Principal Investigator in the ArestCF program, which explores techniques for early detection of disease in cystic fibrosis and implementation of new therapies. Other major projects have included ISAAC, the International Study of Asthma and Allergy in Children, which surveyed more than 1.2 million subjects worldwide and MESCA, the Melbourne Epidemiological Study of Childhood Asthma which has followed the natural history of asthma in a cohort of children from age six through to 50. His broader research interests range from respiratory epidemiology, through respiratory physiology to trials improving the clinical management of paediatric respiratory disorders.

Projects:

Centre for research in early childhood respiratory disease. Australian centre for translational research in early cystic fibrosis lung disease
A randomised controlled trail of effects of early life exposure to general anaesthesia on neurobehavioral outcomes in children with cystic fibrosis
Clinical and psychological changes over late childhood and adolescence and early life determinants of long term clinical outcomes in cystic fibrosis.

Odhiambo JA, Hywel C Williams HC, Clayton TO, Colin F Robertson CF, Asher MI and the ISAAC Phase Three Study Group5Eczema symptoms in children from the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) Phase Three. J Allergy Clin Immunol 2009;125:1251-1258

Vuillermin PJ, Robertson CF, Carlin JB, Brennan SL, Biscan MI, South M. Parent initiated prednisolone for acute asthma in children of school age: a randomised controlled crossover trial. BMJ 2010 ;340:c843

Lowe AJ, Carlin JB, Bennett CM, Hosking CS, Allen KJ, Robertson CF, Axelrad C, Abramson MJ, Hill DJ, Dharmage SC. Paracetamol use in early life and asthma: prospective birth cohort study. BMJ. 2010 Sep 15;341:c4616. doi: 10.1136/bmj.c4616

Triasih R, Duke T, Robertson CF. Outcomes following admission to intensive care for asthma. Arch Dis Child. 2011 May 3. [Epub ahead of print]

Ferreira MAR, Melanie Matheson C, Duffy DL, Marks GB, Hui J, Le Souëf P, Danoy P, Baltic S, Nyholt DR, Mészáros D, Hayden C, Willemsen G, Ang W, Kuokkanen M, Beilby J, Cheah F,. de Geus EJC, Ramasamy A, Vedantam S, Salomaa V, Madden PA, Heath AC, Hopper JL, Visscher PM, Musk B, Leeder SR, Jarvelin M, Pennell C, Boomsma DI, Hirschhorn J, Walters H, Martin NG, James A, Jones G, Abramson M, Robertson CF, Dharmage SC, Brown MA, Montgomery GTW and Thompson PJ for the Australian Asthma Genetics Consortium. Identification of IL6R and chromosome 11q13.5 as risk loci for asthma. Lancet. 2011;378(9795):1006-14

Wainwright CE, Vidmar S, B.Sc. Armstrong DS, Byrnes CA, Carlin JB, Cheney J, Cooper PJ, Grimwood K, Moodie M, Robertson CF, Tiddens H, for the ACFBAL Study Investigators. Effect of bronchoalveolar lavage-directed therapy for pulmonary exacerbations on pseudomonas aeruginosa infection and structural lung injury in children diagnosed with cystic fibrosis by newborn screening: a randomized trial. JAMA 2011;306:163-171

Chang AB, Robertson CF, Van Asperen PP, Glasgow N, Mellis CM, Masters IB, Teoh L, Tjhung I, Morris PS, Petsky HL, Willis C, Landau LI. A multi-centre study on chronic cough in children: burden and etiologies based on a standardized management pathway. Chest. 2012;142:943-50

Ellwood P, Asher IM, García-Marcos L, Williams H, Keil U, Robertson C, Nagel G; the ISAAC Phase III Study Group. Do fast foods cause asthma, rhinoconjunctivitis and eczema? Global findings from the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) Phase Three. Thorax. 2013;68:351-60

Bønnelykke K, Matheson MC, Pers TH, Granell R, Strachan DP, Alves AC, Linneberg A, Curtin JA, Warrington NM, Standl M, Kerkhof M, Jonsdottir I, Bukvic BK, Kaakinen M, Sleimann P, Thorleifsson G, Thorsteinsdottir U, Schramm K, Baltic S, Kreiner-Møller E, Simpson A, Pourcain BS, Coin L, Hui J, Walters EH, Tiesler CM, Duffy DL, Jones G; Australian Asthma Genetics Consortium (AAGC), Ring SM, McArdle WL, Price L, Robertson CF, Pekkanen J, Tang CS, Thiering E, Montgomery GW, Hartikainen AL, Dharmage SC, Husemoen LL, Herder C, Kemp JP, Elliot P, James A, Waldenberger M, Abramson MJ, Fairfax BP, Knight JC, Gupta R, Thompson PJ, Holt P, Sly P, Hirschhorn JN, Blekic M, Weidinger S, Hakonarsson H, Stefansson K, Heinrich J, Postma DS, Custovic A, Pennell CE, Jarvelin MR, Koppelman GH, Timpson N, Ferreira MA, Bisgaard H; Early Genetics and Lifecourse Epidemiology (EAGLE) Consortium, Henderson AJ. Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies identifies ten loci influencing allergic sensitization. Nat Genet. 2013;45(8):902-6

Tai A, Tran H, Roberts M, Clarke N, Gibson A-M, Vidmar S, Wilson J, Robertson CF. Outcome of childhood asthma to the age of 50 years. J Allergy Clin Immunol 2014, 133:1564-71

Funding: