Associate Professor Steve Mutsaers is the Chief Investigator on the NCARD grant examining transforming growth factor beta signalling in malignant mesothelioma growth and collagen production.

After completing his PhD in 1993 in the Department of Pathology at the University of Western Australia, he began postdoctoral training at the Heart and Lung Institute, UK and University College of London (UCL) to study the role of the extracellular matrix in Malignant Mesothelioma growth. On the basis of this work he was awarded several research grants from the Medical Research Council and British Lung Foundation, looking at ways of inhibiting mesothelioma growth.

In 1997, he was promoted to Lecturer, Senior Research Fellow and Research Group Leader in the Department of Medicine, UCL and in 1998 was awarded a UCL Medical School Prize Lectureship. He returned to Perth in 2001 after receiving a Raine Medical Research Foundation grant and subsequently received grants from the Heart Foundation, Clive and Vera Ramaciotti Foundation, and the NH&MRC, to work on various aspects of mesothelial repair, post-operative adhesion formation, mesothelioma growth and pulmonary fibrosis.

A/Prof Mutsaers has successfully supervised clinical and science undergraduate and postgraduate students studying for PhD, MSc and Honours degrees. He is also a member of several national and international societies and is currently the Secretary of the International Mesothelioma Interest Group (IMIG), the WA Representative for the Australian & New Zealand Society for Cell and Developmental Biology and the WA convenor of the Australian Society for Medical Research Week.

Steve has developed an international reputation in tissue repair, particularly of the lung and mesothelium. Manuscripts arising from his research have been consistently published in leading international scientific journals and he has received an increased number of personal invitations to contribute review articles for high impact factor journals such as Pharmacology and Therapeutics. He has had regular invitations to present his work at National and International meetings including scientific meetings in the USA, France, Sweden, Mexico, Australia and the UK.