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 | Biography |  |
Our group researches the underlying molecular mechanisms and novel treatments for children’s burn wounds. James McMillan started his scientific career at St. John’s Institute of Dermatology, Kings College at St. Thomas’s Hospital, in central London in 1990 after graduating from the University of York where he studied Human & Applied Biology and was awarded an MRC grant to study Experimental Pathology and Toxicology at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, The University of London. After starting his scientific career as a research associate he studied part time for a Ph.D. in the Department of Cell and Molecular Pathology at St. Johns’ Institute of Dermatology working on human skin development and the blistering skin disease epidermolysis bullosa (EB) with other related congenital skin disorders. He later became a Welcome-funded Postdoctoral Research Fellow, studying the role of keratin intermediate filament associated proteins including plectin in disease and identified the first human genetic disease affecting desmosomal cell junctions whereby mutations in the gene encoding plakophilin-1 lead to skin fragility and hair loss. In February 2000 Dr. McMillan completed further postdoctoral training in Japan, working on skin and muscle cell-basement membrane interactions at Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine, Department of Dermatology in Sapporo. In 2004, Dr. McMillan was promoted to Professor of Skin Tissue Engineering within the Faculty of Science at Hokkaido University, devising skin grafting treatments for EB patients. More recently Dr. McMillan has been appointed as Head of Burns Laboratory Research at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Herston, Brisbane. Dr. McMillan and the team research burn wound healing and applied approaches to skin graft and cytokine (growth factor) therapies with emphasis on using basic scientific research findings for applied human applications. Dr. McMillan has an impact factor of over 360 and has published over 55 original articles in peer-reviewed journals including Nature Genetics, Genes and Development and recently Nature Medicine.
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