David Harris is Professor of Medicine and Associate Dean and Head of Western Clinical School. He is Director of the Renal Failure Laboratory in the Centre for Transplantation and Renal Research, Westmead Millennium Institute, and a nephrologist at Westmead and Blacktown Hospitals.

He is Past-President of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Nephrology (ANZSN). He is President-elect of the Asian Pacific Society of Nephrology, Chair of the Fellowship Program and of the Oceania & South East Asia Committee of the International Society of Nephrology and Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Australasian Kidney Trials Network. He is Editor-in-Chief of the journal Nephrology, the official journal of the Asian Pacific Society of Nephrology.

His major clinical interests are the prevention and management of chronic renal disease, as well as the management of patients with endstage kidney failure by peritoneal and haemodialysis.

In 1988 he was awarded the TJ Neale Award for outstanding contributions to Nephrological Science (ANZSN), he delivered the Ross Bailey Lecture at the 11th Asian Pacific Congress of Nephrology in 2008 and was the 2008 ANZSN Established Investigator.

Research
Publications

David is Chief Investigator of the IDEAL Trial, a multi-national NHMRC- and AHMAC-funded trial examining the correct time to initiate dialysis for endstage kidney failure.

His laboratory interests are focused on the progression of chronic kidney disease, and his group has played a major role in demonstrating the importance of renal cell metabolism, proteinuria, renal cell pro-inflammatory change, oxidant injury, NFkB, epithelial mesenchymal transition, matrix metalloproteinases and interstitial inflammation to disease progression.

His group is investigating novel therapies, including DNA vaccination and regulatory lymphocytes, macrophages and dendritic cells to slow progressive disease.