Director, ARC Centre of Excellence in Biotechnology
and Development,
Professor of Biological Sciences,
School of Environmental and Life Sciences,
University of Newcastle
Callaghan
NSW 2308.
E mail: jaitken@mail.newcastle.edu.au
Tel: (+61 2) 4921 6143
Mobile: 0414 667 878
Fax: (+61 2) 4921 6308
John
Aitken is currently Director of ARC Centre of Excellence in Biotechnology and
Development and Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of
Newcastle, NSW. His research
interests focus on the cell biology of male germ cells, particularly the cell
biology of human spermatozoa and the mechanisms regulating the formation and
recruitment of primordial follicles within the ovary.
Qualifications:
BSc
(Special Hons) University of London
MSc
University of Wales
PhD
University of Cambridge
ScD
University of Cambridge
Fellow
of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Positions:
1982-1987 Senior Scientist, Medical Research
Council Reproductive Biology Unit, University of Edinburgh.
1987-1998 Special
Appointment, Professorial Grade, Medical Research Council Reproductive
Biology Unit, University of Edinburgh
1992- Honorary Professorship, Department of
Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Edinburgh
1998- Professor of Biological Sciences,
Faculty of Science and IT, University of Newcastle, NSW.
1998
Director
of the Centre for Life Sciences, University of Newcastle,
NSW.
Honours:
1984 Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of
Medicine,University of Edinburgh.
1985 Ayerst Lecturer, Pacific Coast
Fertility Society,Caesar's Palace, Las Vegas.
1985 Ortho-McMaster Lecturer, McMaster
University Medical Centre, Hamilton, Canada.
1985 Convener, Chairman and Editor, WHO
symposium on The Zona-free Hamster Oocyte Penetration test in the Diagnosis of Male
Infertility, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
1986 The Walpole Prize, Society for the
Study of Fertility, United Kingdom
1987 The Walpole Prize, Society for the
Study of Fertility, United Kingdom
1989 1989 University of Catania Prize,
Scientific Committee, Faculty of Medicine.
University
of Catania, Italy.
1990 The Puvan Memorial Lecture. Opening Address of the 27th Malaysian
Congress of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
1990 The Jennifer Hallum Memorial Lecture.
Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists,
1992 Honorary Professorship, Department of
Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Edinburgh.
1994 Opening Address Thaddeus Mann Symposium. Seventh International Congress
of Spermatology, Cairns, Australia.
1994 American Fertility Society
State-of-the-Art Lecture.
Annual Meeting, San Antonio, Texas,
1995 Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
1997 Plenary Lecture European Society of
Human Reproduction and Embryology Congress 1997. Edinburgh Conference Centre.
1997 The
Bruce Stewart Memorial Lecture 1997 American Urology Society Lecture,
American Society for Reproductive Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, USA.
1998 The 1998 Amoroso Lecture. The
human spermatozoon-a cell in crisis? Society for the Study of Fertility, Annual Meeting,
University of Glasgow, UK
1998 Society for Male Reproduction/Urology Prize
Paper. 16th World Congress on
Fertility and Sterility/54th Annual Meeting of the American Society for
Reproductive Medicine, San Francisco
1999 M.J.
Edwards Lecture. Australian Birth Defects Society. University of Sydney.
2000 Best Poster Award.
Combined meeting of the Society
for Free Radical Research on Oxidants, Antioxidants and Nutrition and ComBio
2000. Wellington, New Zealand.
2002
Plenary
Lecture, World Congress on Human Reproduction, Montreal,
Canada
2003
Lloyd
Cox memorial Lecture, University of Adelaide.
2004 The
Founders Lecture, Society for the Study of Reproduction, Annual Meeting,
Sydney.
Relevant Employment History:
1987-98 Special Appointment -Professorial Level
MRC Reproductive
Biology Unit, University of Edinburgh,
1992-present Honorary Professorship, Faculty of
Medicine, University of Edinburgh.
1982-1987 Senior Scientist
MRC Reproductive
Biology Unit, University of Edinburgh.
1977-1982 Research Scientist Grade 1
MRC Reproductive
Biology Unit, University of Edinburgh.
1976-1977 Chargé de Recherche
Faculte de
Medicine, Universitie de Bordeaux.
1975-1976
Consultant
Scientist
Human
Reproduction Programme, World Health
Organisation, Geneva.
1973-1975 MRC Post-Doctoral Fellowship
Department
of Genetics, University of
Edinburgh.
More than 350 peer review publications and more than
300 presentations at national and international meetings. Examples:
Angell,
R.R., Aitken, R.J., Van Look,
P.F.A., Lumsden, M.A. & Templeton, A.A. (1983) Chromosome abnormalities in
human embryos after in vitro fertilization. Nature,
303, 336-338.
Aitken,
R.J. & Clarkson, J.S. (1987) Cellular basis of
defective sperm function and its association with the genesis of reactive
oxygen species by human spermatozoa. Journal
of Reproduction and Fertility, 83, 459-469.
This
article was awarded the Walpole Memorial
Prize and Lecture by the Society for the Study of Fertility
Henderson, C.J., Hulme, M.J. &
Aitken, R.J. (1988) Contraceptive
potential of antibodies to the zona pellucida. Journal of
Reproduction and Fertility, 8,
325-343.
This
article was awarded the Walpole Memorial
Prize and Lecture by the Society for the Study of Fertility
Nasr-Esfahani,
M, Aitken, R.J. & Johnson, M.H.
(1990) The measurement of H2O2
levels in preimplantation embryos from blocking and non-blocking strains of
mice. Development, 109, 501-507.
Aitken, R. J., M. Paterson, H. Fisher, D.W. Buckingham & Van Duin, M.
(1995) Redox regulation of
tyrosine phosphorylation in human spermatozoa is involved in the control of
human sperm function. Journal of Cell
Science, 108, 2017-2025.
Aitken, R. J.,
Buckingham, D.W. & Irvine, D.S. (1996) The extragenomic action of
progesterone on human spermatozoa: evidence for a ubiquitous response that is
rapidly down-regulated. Endocrinology 137,
3999-4009.
Twigg,
J., Fulton, N., Gomez, E, Irvine D. S. & Aitken, R. J. (1998) Analysis of the impact of intracellular reactive oxygen
species generation on the structural and functional integrity of human
spermatozoa: lipid peroxidation, DNA fragmentation and effectiveness of
antioxidants. Human Reproduction 13, 1429-1437. Featured as an ‘Outstanding
Article’ by the journal
Aitken, R. J., Harkiss,
D., Knox, W., Paterson, M. and Irvine, D. S. (1998) A novel signal transduction
cascade in capacitating human spermatozoa characterized by a redox-regulated,
cAMP-mediated induction of tyrosine phosphorylation. Journal of Cell
Science 111, 645-656.
Aitken, R. J.
(1999) The human spermatozoon: a cell in crisis? The Amoroso Lecture. Journal of Reproduction and Fertility
115,
1-7.
Aitken, R.J.
& Marshall Graves, J. A. (2002) The Y chromosome, oxidative stress and the
future of sex. Nature 415, 963.
Ecroyd, H., Asquith, K.,
Jones, R.C. & Aitken
R.J. (2004) The development of
signal transduction pathways during epididymal maturation is calcium
dependent. Developmental Biology 268,
53-63.
Baker, M.A., Hetherington, L., Ecroyd,
H. & Aitken, R.J. (2004) Analysis of the mechanism by which calcium
negatively regulates the tyrosine phosphorylation cascade associated with sperm
capacitation. Journal of Cell Science 117, 211-222.
Asquith,
K. L., Baleato, R. M. McLaughlin, E. A., Nixon B. & Aitken R.J. (2004)
Analysis of the mechanisms by which tyrosine phosphorylation regulates
sperm-zona recognition in the mouse, a chaperone-mediated event? Journal
of Cell Science 117,
3645-3657.
Aitken,
R.J., Koopman, P. & Lewis S. E. (2004). Seeds of concern. Nature.
432, 48-52.