Professor Tony Penington
Role:
Group Leader
Email:
Available for Student Supervision
Professor Tony Penington
Biography:
Professor Tony Penington graduated in medicine from the University of Melbourne in 1985 and obtained his fellowship in plastic surgery from the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 1996. Following 18 months in Oxford as a clinical and research fellow he was appointed consultant Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon at St Vincent's Hospital and the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne.
He obtained a Graduate Certificate in Health Statistics from Swinburne University of Technology in 2003 and MD from the University of Melbourne in 2008. From 1999 to 2012 he was Deputy Director of the O'Brien Institute and from 2009 to 2012 head of Plastic Surgery at St Vincent's Hospital.
In June 2012 Professor Penington was appointed Jigsaw Professor of Paediatric Plastic and Maxillofacial Surgery at the Royal Children's Hospital, the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute and the University of Melbourne, funded by the Jigsaw Foundation. He is the plastic surgeon to the vascular anomalies service at The Royal Children's Hospital.
Other Affiliations:
- Jigsaw Professor of Paediatric Plastic and Maxillofacial Surgery
Awards:
- April 2014: Convenor of the 20th Workshop of the International Society for the Study of Vascular Anomalies held in Melbourne.
- Grant review panel member for the NHMRC
- Member of research committee of the Australasian Foundation for Plastic Surgery
Research:
In keeping with his leading role in the Vascular Anomalies multidisciplinary team, a major research focus for Professor Penington and the laboratory team is understanding the pathogenesis of vascular malformations and haemangiomas – birth marks. Most vascular malformations appear to be caused by somatic mutations in endothelial cells, and understanding how these mutations cause the abnormal growth will create the opportunity to develop new drug treatments which will improve and refine treatment for these children.
More recently the group is working to understand how these malformations affect children's and parents' quality of life. He also has a strong interest in cleft lip and palate, and in particular Pierre-Robin Sequence, a condition in which cleft palate combined with a small jaw results in difficulty with breathing which in turn can affect growth and development.
Projects:
- Biology of lymphatic and venous malformations
- Role of shear stress in pathogenesis of AVM
- Outcomes in Pierre Robin Sequence
- A database of normal head and face shape in children
- Long term outcome of limb arterial occlusion in infancy
Lokmic, Z., Mitchell GM, Koh, N, Bastiaanse J, Gerrand Y-W, Williams, E.D. Penington A.J. Isolation of human lymphatic malformation endothelial cells, their in vitro characterization and in vivo survival in a mouse xenograft model. 2014. Angiogenesis, 17(1) 1-15.
Phillips, R; Penington AJ; Bekhor P & Crock, C. (2012) Use of propranolol for the treatment of haemangiomas in an outpatient setting. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health 48(10): 902-6.
Simcock J, Penington AJ & Mitchell G (2009) Endothelial precursor cells home to a vascularized tissue engineering chamber by application of the angiogenic chemokine CXCL12. Tissue Engineering Part A 15(3) 655-64
Wouters, Vinciane; Limaye, Nisha; Uebelhoer, Melanie; Irrthum, Alexandre; Boon, Laurence M; Mulliken, John B; Enjolras, Odile; Baselga, Eulalia; Berg, Jonathan; Dompmartin, Anne; Ivarsson, Sten A; Kangesu, Loshan; Lacassie, Yves; Murphy, Jill; Teebi, Ahmad S; Penington, Anthony; Rieu, Paul; Vikkula, Miikka (2010) Hereditary cutaneomucosal venous malformations are caused by TIE2 mutations with widely variable hyper-phosphorylating effects. Eur J Hum Genet 18 (4) : 414-20
Penington A.J. (2010) Ulceration and antihypertensive use are risk factors for infection after skin lesion excision. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Surgery 80(9): 642-5.
Tilkorn DJ, Davies EM, Keramidaris E, Dingle AM, Gerrand Y-W, Taylor CJ, Han XL, Palmer JA, Penington AJ, Mitchell CA, Morrison WA, Dusting GJ and Mitchell GM (2012) In vitro myoblast preconditioning enhances subsequent survival post in vivo implantation into a tissue engineering chamber. Biomaterials 33: 3868 – 79.
Djan R, Penington A. (2013) A systematic review of questionnaires to measure the impact of appearance on quality of life for head and neck cancer patients. JPRAS Accepted for publication 9 Jan 2013.
Bastiaanse J, Lokmic Z, Williams R & Penington AJ Sympathetic innervation of glomus tumors (2013) Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery 132 (6) 1088e-91e.
Worner M, Poore S, Tilkorn D, Lokmic Z, Penington AJ . A low-cost, small volume circuit for autologous blood normothermic perfusion of rabbit organs. Artificial Organs, ePub 27 Aug 2013.
Phillips R et al Infantile haemangiomas that failed treatment with propranolol: clinical and histopathological features. Accepted Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health 6 Jan 2014