Sydney Outreach Conference 2012

Dr Elizabeth Mumper, M.D., FAAP

Dr. Mumper is President and CEO of Advocates for Children and Advocates for Families and founder of The RIMLAND Center (for mentoring clinicians interested in learning an integrative medicine approach to helping children with neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism, attention problems and learning differences). She graduated magna cum laude from Bridgewater College, where her mother worked, and her father taught history. She attended the Medical College of Virginia, did residency training at the University of Massachusetts and University of Virginia, and was invited to serve as Chief Resident of Paediatrics at UVA.

Dr. Mumper spent five years in practice at Hopkins Paediatrics. She spent over a decade as Director of Pediatric Education at the Lynchburg Family Practice Residency Program. She has just finished five years as the Medical Director of the Autism Research Institute.

Dr. Mumper has been honoured to receive many awards over the years, including being named a Miracle Maker in Central Virginia in 1996 by the Children’s Miracle Network and Woman of the Year in Health and Sciences in 1998 by the YWCA. She was privileged to accept a national award for corporate public service at the National Press Club in Washington on behalf of the Bike Helmet Safety Campaign she co-chaired for many years.

Dr. Mumper has written book chapters about allergy, immunology and behavioural and developmental paediatrics published in the book “Paediatrics”, a board review series book for medical students. She has published several research papers related to autism in the peer reviewed medical literature.

Dr. Mumper struggles to balance her roles as paediatrician, medical educator and writer with her joys and responsibilities as a wife and mother of two children. She loves to travel and teach.

Visit The Rimland Center's Website

Dr Mary N Megson, MD

Dr. Megson is a Developmental Paediatrician who has worked in the field of Paediatrics for more than twenty years.

As a developmental specialist in paediatrics, she devotes her career to children with developmental issues including ADHD, ADD, Autistic Spectrum Disorder, Asperger's Syndrome, Developmental Delays, etc.

Dr. Megson's areas of professional interest include Behavioural Paediatrics and Child Development. She is board certified by the American Board of Paediatrics and a member of the Society of Developmental Paediatrics.

Dr. Megson's research area is use of Vitamin A and Bethanecol in treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorders. She believes that autism is caused by a sequence of environmental events in genetically vulnerable children.

Dr. Megson is currently investigating the hypothesis that G-alpha protein defects are a high-risk factor for developing autism after vaccination. Her clinical trial of 60 children suggests that inserting a G-alpha protein defect - the pertussis toxin found in DTaP vaccine - into genetically at-risk children may be a cause of autism. Recently she has studied how changes in cell signalling may lead to autism, by looking at the gene profiles in over 1000 affected children. She discovered “snps” involving protein signaling in over half of these children.

Dr. Megson has also been speaking on the care of children as they grow up with autism into teens and adults as many of her patients are now graduating, working and/or going to college. These children are doing quite well with the right support.

Dr. Megson is credited with the largest number of recovered autistic patients in the USA DAN® Conference. Her work with autistic children is featured in the documentary film Beautiful Son.

Visit Dr. Megson's website at www.megson.com

Dr William J Walsh, PhD

Dr. Walsh is a scientist with over 40 years of research experience. He holds a doctorate in Chemical Engineering from Iowa State University. Dr. Walsh’s prison volunteer work during his career at Argonne National Laboratory led to studies of biochemical predisposition to behaviour disorders and crime, and collaboration with the renowned Dr. Carl Pfeiffer of Princeton, New Jersey. Dr. Walsh founded the Health Research Institute in 1982 and the Pfeiffer Treatment Centre (HRI-PTC) in Illinois in 1989.

He is Founder and President of the Walsh Research Institute, a public charity in Naperville, Illinois. His present activities include an International Physician Training Program and research in the areas of schizophrenia, autism, and behaviour disorders. He has trained more than 65 physicians in Australia and Norway and has the goal of training more than 1,000 doctors throughout the world. Dr. Walsh is preparing a major book on biochemical therapy that will include his new theory for the underlying cause of schizophrenia and an advanced approach for treatment of autism spectrum disorders. Other chapters will describe chemical imbalances associated with depression, behaviour disorders, ADHD, and Alzheimer’s Disease, and advanced nutrient therapies aimed at normalizing brain chemistry. Dr. Walsh’s book is expected to be published in 2011.

“Dr. Walsh is preparing a major book on biochemical therapy that will include his new theory for the underlying cause of schizophrenia and an advanced approach for treatment of autism spectrum disorders.”

Dr. Walsh has studied more than 25,000 patients with mental, behavioural and autistic disorders and developed a database of more than 3 million chemical assays of blood, urine and tissues that has been a valuable research tool. His recent research accomplishments include (a) the 1999 discovery of undermethylation and copper/zinc imbalances in autism; (b) the 2000 finding of metallothionein protein depletion in autism; (c) a 2004 published study linking copper overload and post-partum depression; (d) 2003 identification of oxidative stress as the primary autism trigger; and (e) a forensic study of Beethoven’s relics that revealed that the composer suffered from severe lead poisoning.

Dr. Walsh has authored more than 200 research reports and journal articles, has received 6 U.S. Patents and has been a speaker at 30 international conferences. He has received many awards including the 2002 Lighthouse Award from the Safe Harbor organization and a national “Volunteer of the Year” award from Notre Dame University. In 2006 the International Society of Orthomolecular Medicine named him “Doctor Of The Year”.

Dr Richard Stuckey, MB. BS. DRCROG

Dr. Richard Stuckey is a General Practitioner residing and practising at Coolangatta Queensland. He graduated from Melbourne University in 1973. His interests include autism and mental illness, neck and back pain amongst others.

He has had papers published in The Journal of Neurological and Orthopaedic Medicine and Surgery and in the ACNEM Journal on a 12 month follow up of 567 cases of various mental illnesses. Dr. Stuckey was the first doctor trained by Dr. William Walsh in Australia in 2004.

Visit Dr Richard Stuckey's Website

Associate Professor Robert Cherny

Associate Professor Robert Cherny is co-director of the Oxidation Biology Laboratory (Translational Medicine Unit) at the Mental Health Research Unit (MHRI), The University of Melbourne. He is also Head of Research for Prana Biotech-nology Ltd, a Melbourne based pharmaceutical comp-any specialising in the development of novel drugs for neurodegenerative diseases.

For most of the last 20 years since completing his PhD at Monash University, he has worked in the area of Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders, publishing over 100 papers on the role of biometals in neurobiology and neurodegenerative disease that have collectively been cited over 5,000 times.

In the last decade, Assoc Prof. Cherny has devoted increasing effort to “translational medicine”, that is, converting lessons learned from advances in basic science to the discovery and development of drugs for treating Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Hunting-ton’s diseases. In keeping with his commitment to translational science, he established a drug screening and biometal analysis facility in his laboratory that serves local and international research and biotech-nology communities.

As Head of Research for Prana, he is responsible for incorporating the most current developments in neuroscience into the screening and testing of new compounds for neurological disorders as well as identifying promising new medical applications for the company’s platform technology.

Metals and Alzheimer’s Disease

The nutrient metals copper, zinc and iron have numerous critical roles in living systems: as catalysts of biochemical processes, preserving the three-dimensional structure of proteins and DNA, as signals for regulating biochemical pathways, protecting against free radical damage and in the maintenance of physiological pH. However, the potent reactivity of these metals, which is exploited to the advantage of biological systems, is also responsible for many potentially damaging reactions resulting from the free radicals they generate.

The brain is particularly abundant in copper, zinc and iron, which it requires for all the functions described above but also for the specialised demands of neuro-transmission. The neurons that are most responsible for memory release copper and zinc with each impulse as part of the exquisitely delicate balance of inhibition and excitation demanded for healthy brain function. In the brains of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s patients we see dramatic changes in the anatomical distribution of these metals and to the biochemical pathways responsible for regulating their uptake and release from brain cells. We have shown through examination of human brain tissue and animal models how the particular pattern of neurological and neurochemical changes associated with these conditions closely correlates with and responds to changes in the way the brain manages metals.

Ageing is the single most important factor for Alzheimer’s disease and our studies into the ageing brain have led to an understanding of how under certain circumstances a subtly reduced ability of the brain to import and export metals due to ageing related factors can quickly lead to brain damage and functional impairment.

Finally, our understanding of the role of metals in health and disease has enabled us to rationally design drugs that prevent undesirable interactions between copper, zinc and iron and other cellular components and at the same time restore those metals to the correct cellular compartments to fulfil their crucial metabolic functions.

Visit Associate Professor Cherny's Website