Brief biography:

Jozef Gécz is a NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow and Professor of Human Genetics at the Adelaide Medical School, the University of Adelaide. He joined the SAHMRI Women and Kids Theme in April 2016 as the Inaugural Channel 7 Children’s Research Foundation Chair for the Prevention of Childhood Disability.

In 2000 Jozef established and currently heads the Neurogenetics Research Program which focuses on genetics and biology of neurodevelopmental disabilities. In his 35 years of competitive research, he has discovered or contributed to the discovery of numerous (>250) genes for various forms of neurodevelopmental disabilities (e.g. FMR2, ARX, CDKL5, PHF6, PCDH19, UPF3B, IQSEC2, TBC1D24, USP9X, HCFC1, ZSWIM6, YY1 or RLIM to name a few).

Jozef has published in excess of 348 peer-reviewed publications. The main research interest of the Neurogenetics Research Program is gene identification and functional, cellular and molecular modelling of intellectual disabilities, epilepsies, autisms and cerebral palsies for better management and eventually treatment of these disorders.

Awards/Honours:

2020    Excellence in Research (The Australian Collaborative Cerebral Palsy Research Team), The University of Adelaide Award for Outstanding Achievement