Reaching for the stars

Child reaching for the sky
“Wherever the expertise lays that’s where we need to go in order to build these constellations of researchers who can look to answer questions that one group can’t answer alone.”    

Like astronomers connected and grouped stars in the sky, Professor Craig Munns, Director of the Child Health Research Centre and Head of Mayne Academy of Paediatrics and Child Health, is linking and arranging an interdisciplinary team of stars into surprising constellations to undertake paediatric research.

“We need to grow connections and have more of an outward focus,” Professor Munns explains.

“By bringing on board experts from across the University, external researchers, the health system, Government and the wider community, we’ll build a collaboration of the willing and answer some of the big research questions in paediatrics.

“I’d like people to envisage the UQ Child Health Research Centre as the hub and support centre for paediatric research in Queensland.

“What we’re doing in the area of research at the Child Health Research Centre is highly translatable, and because we have such close ties to Children’s Health Queensland, it allows us to immediately start to get our research into clinical practice, and that’s very important.”

hands of a child in the hands of a doctor wearing surgical gloves
hands of a child in the hands of a doctor wearing surgical gloves

While Professor Munns has a laser-like focus on the future of paediatric research, there was a time when this former Logan City boy had a very different career in mind – a career that you could say failed to take off.

“I wanted to be a helicopter pilot in the Air Force,” he reflects with a grin.

“In year 12 at high school, I went through all the processes to become a helicopter pilot, but at the end of the day, they said I should be an engineer.

“I was pretty upset but I was lucky enough to get the TE Score (Tertiary Entrance Score) to get me into medicine.”

After graduating from UQ, Professor Munns took a position at the Gladstone Hospital in Central Queensland where he found his niche in medicine and clear passion – paediatrics.

“You see the opportunity to help,” he explains.

“I could be in a bad mood and go to clinic and I'd come back inspired. The strength that children show, the strength that their families show, is amazing.

“Your ability to make a difference, a real lifelong difference, to a child and their family is incredibly rewarding.”

After a time at the former Royal Children’s Hospital in Brisbane under the mentorship of Professor Jenny Batch, it was his PhD that sparked his interest in bone disease and launched his research career.

This accomplished paediatric specialist and clinical researcher’s CV is notable with roles including Senior Staff Specialist, Genetic and Metabolic Bone Disorders and Endocrinology at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead, and Professor of Paediatric Bone and Mineral Medicine, Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney.

Professor Craig Munns

Professor Craig Munns

Professor Craig Munns

In February this year, Professor Munns returned to Brisbane and UQ to continue his world-leading research to improve the physical and psychosocial function of children with bone and mineral disorders, as well as tackle new major projects and explore emerging medical research.  

“I want to work out how to prevent children developing musculoskeletal problems, he says.

“This ties into the Medical Research Future Fund grant we received this year to look at musculoskeletal complications for children with cerebral palsy. To do this, we have built an interdisciplinary network of musculoskeletal researchers and clinicians from around Australia.  

“And on the horizon is gene and cell therapy for children with genetic disorders – there is a lot of work going on in this area that could, for the first time, cure children of their genetic bone disorder.”

There is no looking back for this once aspiring helicopter pilot, whose deviation many years ago has helped him reach the altitudes of impactful research.

“I was once asked in an interview what was my most cited publication and by inference, my most important publication,” he recalls.

“I answered that if I published a case report that described a new way of treating a child, and that case report was read by only one other clinician who then went on to successfully treat their patient that way, then that’s my most important publication.

“So, from a personal perspective, my most impactful articles are those that in some way help others improve the health and wellbeing of children and adolescents.”

child lying on their back at dust with hands in the air reaching for the sky

This story is featured in the Summer 2022 edition of UQmedicine Magazine. View the latest edition here. Or to listen, watch, or read more stories from UQ’s Faculty of Medicine, visit our blog, MayneStream.