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Prof Neil Hunter

Associate Dean, Research and Acting Director, Institute of Dental Research
Westmead Millennium Institute,

Phone: +61 2 9845 8762
Fax: +61 2 9845 7599
Email: nhunter@dental.wsahs.nsw.gov.au (homepage)

C24 - Westmead Hospital
The University of Sydney
NSW 2006 Australia


About Neil

Professor Neil Hunter is the Head of the Institute of Dental Research, Associate Director, Research, for the Westmead Oral Health Stream and an adjunct professor of the Cooperative Research Centre for Eye Research and Technology, University of NSW. He is a member of the Oral Health Executive and a founding Fellow of the Faculty of Oral Pathology, The Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia.

Neil's early work laid the basis for a model of relapsing arthritis. More recently, he has contributed to understanding of the characteristic morphological changes of the destructive inflammation of the supporting tissues of the teeth. Investigations of chronic infection have been enhanced by the development of quantitative molecular probe analysis of bacterial populations. This approach has enabled the dissection of the microflora causally related to the major oral infections and provided novel approaches to the diagnosis of infection.


Faculty Titles and Offices

  • Acting Director, Institute of Dental Research


Projects Undertaken and Underway

  • National Institutes of Health USA - NA Jacques, PE March, HM Dalton, DWS Harty, N Hunter ‘Bacterial gene expression in model oral biofilms’ 2000-2003 Total allocation $1,332,000.
  • N Hunter, NA Jacques, DWS Harty, FE Martin, MA Nadkarni ‘Molecular analysis of infection in advanced caries’. 2005-2009. $1,200,000-funding pending.
  • NHMRC - H Smith-Vaughan, MA Nadkarni, A Leach, NA Jacques, N Hunter ‘Implications of bacterial load for vaccine efficiency and antibiotic treatment outcomes in high risk populations’. 2003-2005 Total $330,000.
  • N Hunter, NA Jacques, MA Nadkarni, CC Chapple, M Willcox ‘Molecular epidemiology of infection in Aboriginal communities’. 2003-2004. Total $149,103.
  • Australian Research Council - M. J. Crossley, C. A. Collyer, N. Hunter ‘Synthesis and evaluation of anti-microbial porphyrin adducts for the targeted inhibition of Porphyromonas gingivalis’. 2005-2007. Total $285,000.


Selected Publications

  • Nadkarni MA, Martin FE, Jacques NA, Hunter N. 2002 Determination of bacterial load by real-time PCR using a broad-range (universal) probe and primes set. Microbiology 148: 257-266.
  • Martin FE, Nadkarni MA, Jacques NA, Hunter N. 2002 Quantitative microbiological study of human carious dentine by culture and real-time PCR: association of anaerobes with histopathological changes in chronic pulpitis. Journal of Clinical Microbiology 40: 1698-1704.
  • Zoellner H, Chapple CC, Hunter N. 2002 Microvasculature in gingivitis and chronic periodontitis: disruption of vascular networks with protracted inflammation. Microscopy Research and Technique 56: 15-31.
  • Yun PLW, Collyer CA, DeCarlo AA, Hunter N. 2002 Modulation of an interleukin-12 and interferon gamma synergistic feedback regulatory cycle of T-cell/monocyte co-cultures by Porphyromonas gingivalis lipopolysaccharide in the absence or presence of cysteine proteinases. Infection and Immunity 70:5695-5705.
  • Ye P, Harty DWS, Chapple CC, Nadkarni MA, DeCarlo AA, Hunter N. 2003 Streptococci and Actinomyces induce antibodies which cross-react with epithelial antigens in periodontitis. Clinical and Experimental Immunology 131: 468-476.