Researcher

Associate Professor Mark Danta

Keywords

Fields of Research (FoR)

Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Infectious Diseases, Clinical Sciences, Public Health and Health Services

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Biography

Dr Mark Danta is an Associate Professor and Clinical Academic gastroenterologist at St Vincents Hospital Sydney. He is the School Postgraduate Coordinator for St Vincent’s Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine, UNSW.


My Grants

In total, he has obtained over $2 million in grant money, including both category 1 and category 2 funding. Almost all of these are as CIA or CIB. As outlined, many of these projects are ongoing. He...view more

Dr Mark Danta is an Associate Professor and Clinical Academic gastroenterologist at St Vincents Hospital Sydney. He is the School Postgraduate Coordinator for St Vincent’s Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine, UNSW.


My Grants

In total, he has obtained over $2 million in grant money, including both category 1 and category 2 funding. Almost all of these are as CIA or CIB. As outlined, many of these projects are ongoing. He currently have an NHMRC project grant (568850), which followed a UNSW FRG seeding grant. He has also received substantial and varied funding from: Cancer Institute NSW, UNSW, St Vincent’s Clinic Foundation, Curran Foundation, and the Australian Centre for HIV and Hepatitis Virology Research.

 

Title of project and names of Chief Investigators

Role in Project

Source and scheme

Commencement Date

Duration

Total Grant Amount AUD$

 

Improving the clinical management of infectious diseases in a regional, resource-limited setting.

CI

Institute for Global Development Seed Funding Scheme, UNSW

2018

1 year

$50,000

Hepatic Encephalopthy MRI study

CIA

St Vincent’s Clinic Foundation

2018

1 year

$30,000

Microbiome metabolic syndrome study

CIC

St Vincent’s Clinic Foundation

2018

1 year

$100,000

Impact of improving hepatitis C treatment on hepatocellular carcinoma.

CIF

Cancer Council NSW

2017

3 years

$441,492

HCV viral resistance

CID

St Vincent’s Clinic Foundation

2017

1 year

$30,000

HCV cirrhosis regression study

CIA

St Vincent’s Clinic Foundation

2016

1 year

$30,000

CEMOR-HIV/IBD

CIA

UNSW ECR

Jan 2015

1 year

$50,000

F-Tounch Fibroscan support

 

Curran Foundation

Jan 2015

1 year

$79,000

MiLC study

CIA

St Vincent’s Clinic Foundation

Jan 2014

1 year

$30,000

CEMOR-HIV

CIA

St Vincent’s Clinic Foundation

Jan 2015

1 year

$30,000

CCR9+ Th Cells

CIB

NHMRC

Jan 2013

3 year

$705,558

The innate immunological determinants of spontaneous clearance in HIV-positive men who have sex with men acutely infected with Hepatitis C. (Sasadeusz J, Visvanathan K, Danta M, Matthews G, Hellard M, Thompson A)

CIC

Australian Centre for HIV and Hepatitis Virology Research (ACH2)

Jan 2012

1 year

$116,000

Medicare usage in hepatitis C (MUCH C) study. (Danta M, Petomouros K)

PI

SVC Foundation

Jan 2012

1 year

$28,000

Multidisciplinary Grant (Danta M, Potgeiter, Z)

PI

SVC Foundation

Jan 2012

1 year

$30,000

Long-term behavioural, clinical and immunovirological outcomes in individuals previously treated for acute hepatitis C. (Matthews G, Danta M, Dore G)

CIB

SVC Foundation

Jan 2012

1 year

$30,000

GALT in health study. (Kolsch K, Zaunders J, Danta M, Kelleher A)

CIC

SVC Foundation

Jan 2012

1 year

$30,000

St Vincent’s Clinical School Grant (Danta M)

PI

SVCS, UNSW

June 2011 

1 year

$20,000

Development of second generation confocal endomicroscope (CEM). (Danta M, Phan T, Kelleher A)

PI

UNSW Major Research Equipment & Infrastructure Scheme

January 2011

1 year

$100,000

MIC1 as predictor of colonic adenomas (MAPCA) study. (Brown D, Danta M)

CIB

St Vincent’s Clinic Foundation

January 2011

1 year

$100,000

Fibroscan in HIV monoinfection (FILM) study. (Matthews G, Danta M)

CIB

St Vincent’s Clinic Foundation

January 2011

1 year

$30,000

XL probe for Fibroscan  transient elastography apparatus. (Danta M)

PI

Curran Foundation

November 2010

1 year

$50,000

Development of fluorescent probes for early diagnosis of oesophageal and colorectal cancer. (Karuso P, Danta M)

CIB

Cancer Institute NSW

(10/RFG/2-)

October 2010

1 year

$50,000

Molecular imaging using fluorescent laser scanning confocal endomicroscopy for cancer surveillance in Barrett's esophagus and ulcerative colitis.  (Phan T, Danta M, Kelleher A)

CIB

Cancer Institute NSW

(10/REG/1-14)

July 2010

1 year

$148,200

Defining risk and mechanisms of permucosal transmission of acute HCV infection within high-risk populations (RAMPT-C). (Danta M, Matthews G, Hellard M, Sasadeusz J, Prestage G)

PI

National Health and Medicine Research Council (project 568869) 

January 2009

3 years

$384,000

Liver elastography in cardiac disease (LECD) study. (Danta M, MacDonald P)

PI

St Vincent’s Clinic Foundation

January 2009

1 year

$30,000

Fibroscan for liver elastography. (Danta M)

PI

Curran Foundation

June 2008

1 year

$85,000

Molecular phylogenetic study of acute HCV in HIV co-infection. (Danta M, Dore G)

PI

St Vincent’s Clinic Foundation

January 2008

1 year

$30,000

Acute HCV in HIVco-infection – A national and international molecular and clinical epidemiological study. (Danta M, Dore G)

PI

UNSW Faculty Research Grant (Early Career)

January 2008

1 year

$30,000


My Qualifications

Doctor of Medicine (MD) 2006

FRACP (Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology) 2002

Masters of Public Health (MPH Hons) 2000

Diploma of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (DTM&H) 1996

Bachelor of Medicine (B. Med) 1993


My Awards

He has received a number of awards including: the inaugural St Vincent’s Clinical School Research Award 2011, St Vincent’s Clinical School Publication Award 2014, Young Investigator Award, Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) 2006, University College London Peter Samuel Fellowships 2005 & 2006, Special Trustee Fellowship Royal Free and University College London 2004-5, Fellowship of Pathological Society of Great Britain 2003, British Association for the Study of Liver Travel Award 2003 and 2005, Best Oral Presentation British HIV Association 2004 and 2005.


My Research Activities

Research and impact:

Currently, he is a Clinical Academic Gastroenterologist and Associate Professor of Medicine at St Vincent’s Hospital and Faculty of Medicine, UNSW. He completed his FRACP in Gastroenterology at Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, before continuing clinical training and research in London, UK. He completed a three-year hepatology fellowship and then a Doctor of Medicine, University of London. Through his post-graduate career he developed a broad skill set that includes: clinical medicine, laboratory based virology and immunology research, qualitative methods and epidemiology. His major focus has been HCV transmission, which has combined clinical and molecular epidemiology to characterise HCV transmission, particularly in the HIV infected population. He developed an interest in viral hepatitis during his Master of Public Health, University of Sydney 2002. This led a publication exploring fibrosis progression in HCV published in the Medical Journal of Australia (PMID:12197817). He completed his doctoral thesis through the University of London 2006 on HCV transmission. This was a multifaceted work that led to a number of important publications in the area (PMID:17457092). It culminated in an international collaboration defining the transmission of HCV in HIV populations (PMID:19422083). These cited publications provided important data which has guided clinical recommendations such as the European AIDS Network (NEAT) and the British HIV Association guidelines (BHIVA). He has consolidated this area as the principle investigator of the Defining Risk and Mechanisms of Permucosal Transmission of acute HCV infection within high-risk populations (RAMPT-C) study, an NHMRC project grant (568850) funded study, to explore HCV transmission in high-risk populations in Australia. It has led to invitations to be involved in international HIV collaborations, such as INSIGHT and NEAT.

With the dramatic changing landscape of viral hepatitis therapies, he has now expanded his collaborative research to include clinical translational study of the gastrointestinal immune system and the study of cirrhosis and non-invasive assessment of liver fibrosis. Related to HIV co-infection, he was a key member of the PINT study, exploring viral reservoirs in HIV infection in chronic and acute infection (PMID:21860347). In collaboration with other researchers he has successfully obtained significant research funding, including: Cancer Institute of NSW (CIB) and a UNSW Major Equipment grant (CIA), and ARC linkage grant (Associate Investigator). Most important of these is the development of in vivo confocal endomicroscope (CE) of the gastrointestinal tract. This ongoing project aims to develop labelling fluorescent domain antibodies to identify specific gastrointestinal mucosal cells while imaging the gastrointestinal mucosa. The CE will also form an integral part of future grants for inflammatory bowel disease.

He regularly reviews manuscripts for a range of the highest impact peer reviewed publications in my field, including: Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics 2009-, Clinical Infectious Diseases 2010-, European Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology 2009-, Gastroenterology 2009-, GUT 2004-, Hepatology 2010-, Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology 2009-. He has reviewed grants for: Faculty of Medicine, UNSW; Australian Research Council; Swiss National Science Foundation; Alberta Innovative Health Solution.


My Research Supervision


Supervision keywords


Areas of supervision

ILP, Honours, MSc, PhD

Teaching, mentoring and responsibilities

He is the Phase 3 undergraduate medicine co-ordinator and implemented Phase 3 medicine undergraduate teaching on the St Vincent’s campus in 2008. As Postgraduate Co-ordinator for St Vincent’s Clinical School and a member of the Higher Degree Committee since 2007, he has been integrally involved in the evolution of the higher degree management on St Vincent’s Campus. Currently, he has two PhD students and two honours students. He has introduced the Advanced Liver Service within St Vincent’s Hospital with a specific orientation to teaching and research. Finally, he has been a Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) examiner for the last five years.


Currently supervising

  • Metabolic Monitoring of the Microbiome in Gastrointestinal Disease Study (3M-G study)
  • Anal cancer microbiome
  • ROTEM in liver disease
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Location

St Vincent's Clinical School, Level 5, deLacy Building, St Vincent's Hospital, Victoria Street, Darlinghurst

Map reference (Google map)

Contact

+612 8382 2302