Professor Alexander Brown

A visit to his older sister studying medicine at the University of Newcastle inspired a young Alex to follow in her footsteps.

After graduating, he started practising in acute and critical care medicine before moving overseas to study a Master of Public Health. This experience would ultimately shift Alex's focus from treating individuals to improving the lives of entire communities.

"I had to consider whether I could make the greatest contribution in clinical medicine, or whether I felt there was more to be done in making a difference for bigger groups, bigger populations, and change the way in which health inequalities were framed and constructed in contemporary society," he says.

"That was the tipping point for me. I had to answer that call."

Today, as Professor of Indigenous Genomics and Director of the National Centre of Indigenous Genomics, alongside his role at the helm of the Australian Alliance for Indigenous Genomics, Alex provides nationwide leadership in ensuring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are at the forefront of genomic research and, importantly, its applications.

He has led major initiatives in cardiometabolic disease, epidemiology and health systems research, while championing Indigenous data sovereignty and ethical leadership in genomics. His reputation and influence in the field saw him become the first Indigenous scientist appointed to the CSIRO Board in 2023.

"We live in an unequal society. We still see inequity in the drivers of disease and ill health amongst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and we still see inequality in the outcomes that are experienced, whether that be from chronic conditions or infectious diseases, or our ability to access the care that we need most."

Alex sees enormous potential for genomic medicine to help address health inequities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

"It is becoming a much larger part of modern medicine, but there are enormous challenges facing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities about what work gets done, how it is interpreted, how we can deploy it at scale in healthcare environments, and how we can use it as another tool in our kit to make a difference in the lives of our communities."

He sees an opportunity to understand the biology of conditions that affect Indigenous Australians more than other population groups.

“It will help us explore a broader and more diverse set of human biology. At the moment, genomics is locked into understanding European populations. There’s now a strong push for more diverse inclusion in genomic medicine and genomic science.”

For Alex, inclusion must exist beyond just data. His work seeks to bring together genomics and Indigenous knowledge systems, while ensuring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities dictate the way research involving them is conducted and used.

"Modern day science has a lot to learn about the way in which Indigenous people understand the connection of people across time, and my feeling is genomics needs to learn those lessons from Indigenous knowledge systems," he says.

“If we were lucky enough to be able to tie together these two worlds, there's two ways of knowing. It will better equip us to understand the way in which inheritance shapes the health and well-being of successive generations, not just across parent to child, but across ancestors back tens of thousands of years.”

Alex continues to shape a future where scientific advancements translate into real-world outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

"Our job is to make sure that we leave behind something of benefit to people, to communities, to health systems and health services."