Dr Mina John, FRACP | Chair

Mina obtained her medical degree from the University of Western Australia (UWA) and has been a consultant clinical immunologist and immunopathologist at Royal Perth Hospital and PathWest for the past 15 years. She supervises the immunopathology service at Clinipath Pathology and holds adjunct academic appointments at Murdoch University and UWA, where she is actively involved in teaching and research.

Dr Peter Bourke, FRACP | Deputy Chair

Peter is a consultant physician, clinical immunologist, and allergist. He is also the Clinical Dean at Cairns Hospital. Peter’s first profession was school teaching at Katherine High School in NT (1988). After completing his PhD in Molecular Immunology at ANU, he worked as a research scientist at Menzies School of Health Research in Darwin before studying medicine at Flinders University in SA.

Peter has trained in major hospitals in Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth, and Melbourne but has spent his entire specialist medical career in regional Australia, often combining inpatient General Medicine with his subspecialty service. He worked in the Northern Territory for a cumulative 16 years in various research, medical, educational, and leadership roles, including 7 years as a consultant physician. He has been working at Cairns Hospital for the past 8 years.

Peter has trained GP allergists and maintains a keen interest in models of clinical care and access to expertise suited to remote and regional Australia. He has been a facilitator for RACP SPDP workshops for the past 5 years. His interests beyond his specialist area include clinical and ethical reasoning (he's Chair of the Cairns Clinical Ethics Forum) and redefining leadership in medicine.

Dr Elizabeth Benson, FRACP

Elizabeth trained in the USA at Massachusetts General Hospital (Harvard University) and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland. On her return to Australia, she established the Department of Immunology at the Alfred Hospital before moving to Westmead Hospital as the Director of Immunopathology. There, she founded the Westmead Immunopathology Workshop, an annual 3-day program for immunology trainees that has been running for over 30 years, now under the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia.

Elizabeth has trained immunology registrars from both Australia and the UK. Alongside her commitment to medical education, she ran an active research laboratory and established the Institute for Immunology and Allergy Research, now part of the Westmead Research Institutes. She has also held numerous advisory board positions for state and federal governments and governance roles within the research and nonprofit sectors.

Dr Chaitanya Bodapati, FRACP

Chaitanya is a dual-trained paediatric allergy/immunology specialist and general paediatrician. She is particularly interested in food allergy, actively involving herself in food allergy research. She has been an investigator for large international studies investigating food allergy immunotherapy/desensitisation.

As a fully qualified general paediatrician, Chaitanya understands how allergies can impact children's growth and development, and she employs a nurturing, child-focused approach informed by the latest research and international best practices.

Chaitanya grew up in Brisbane and studied medicine at The University of Adelaide. She began her paediatric training at The Royal Children's Hospital (now Queensland Children's Hospital) in Brisbane before moving to Sydney, where she now resides. She completed her general paediatrics and paediatric immunology and allergy training at both Sydney Children's Hospital and The Children's Hospital at Westmead.

Dr Miriam Hurst, FRACP, FRCPA

Miriam is the service lead clinician for the adult immunology and allergy service at Te Whatu Ora Te Toka Tumai Auckland. She also works as an immunopathologist at Awanui Labtests and Middlemore Hospital. Her interests include medical education, secondary immunodeficiency, vaccines, and anaphylaxis.

Dr Aimee Huynh, FRACP

Aimee is a paediatric immunologist and allergist currently completing her training in general paediatrics. She completed her medical degree in Queensland in 2014 and has undertaken paediatric training at various hospitals, including the Royal Children's Hospital (VIC), Sydney Children's Hospital (NSW), and Queensland Children's Hospital (QLD). In 2023, she was admitted to the Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP).

Aimee has a broad interest in immunological diseases, with a particular focus on food allergy and genetics in inborn errors of immunity. She is actively involved in research and teaching and holds an academic appointment as an associate lecturer at the University of Queensland. She is also the trainee representative for the Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy (ASCIA) and part of the Editorial group for the RACP College Learning Series. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her husband and family.

Dr Jocelyn Jiang, FRACP

After completing her medical degrees with first class honours at Monash University, Jocelyn undertook postgraduate training in immunopathology and clinical immunology at Canberra and Westmead Hospitals. She's also a staff specialist at Blacktown Hospital and an immunopathologist with Douglass Hanly Moir Pathology.

Dr Karuna Keat, FRACP

Karuna is a clinical immunologist with interest in medical education.

Dr Phillippa Pucar, FRACP, FRCPA

Phillippa is a clinical immunologist and immunopathologist at SA Pathology and the Royal Adelaide Hospital. Originally from Perth, she completed her MBBS with honours at the University of Western Australia, followed by her internship and RACP basic physician training at Royal Perth Hospital. She then moved to Canberra Hospital and ACT Pathology for her immunology advanced training in 2015.

Phillippa relocated to Adelaide in 2017, where she completed dual fellowships with the RACP and RCPA and took up her current position in 2019. She is currently on an 18 month sabbatical at the University of California, Los Angeles, focusing on genomics and functional validation in rare inborn errors of immunity.

In the field of immunology, Phillippa's primary interest is inborn errors of immunity. She is an active member of the ClinGen SCID gene curation expert panel and, alongside a paediatric colleague, runs an adolescent transition program between the Women’s and Children’s Hospital and Royal Adelaide Hospital. Phillippa is also passionate about education and training and has been the Training Coordinator in South Australia since 2022.

Dr Claire Reynolds

Claire is a final year immunology and immunopathology advanced trainee with an interest in education. She has experience in international and Australian specialty training schemes and was a clinical lecturer in undergraduate medical education.

Dr Rohit Saldanha, FRACP

Rohit is a general paediatrician and a clinical immunologist & allergist. He is a staff specialist paediatrician at Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital and has VMO appointments at the Sydney Children’s Hospital Network and Mater Misericordiae Hospital.

Rohit completed his specialist training at the Sydney Children’s Hospital Network and is actively involved in teaching and clinical research.

He has held postdoctoral positions in several leading research laboratories, including the Australian Proteome Analysis Facility and the Children’s Cancer Institute Australia at UNSW, to advance research in paediatrics. Rohit is also actively engaged in basic and advanced training, teaching at both basic sciences and clinical levels, and finds advancing education to be a very rewarding experience.

Dr Carlo Santino Yuson, FRACP

Carlo is a staff specialist in the clinical immunology and allergy department at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. He is also a senior clinical lecturer at The University of Adelaide. Dr Yuson sits on the Venom Allergy Advisory Board with the National Allergy Centre of Excellence.