Patrick Tam is the Deputy Director and Head of the Embryology Research Unit at the Children’s Medical Research Institute, a NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow and Professor in the School of Medical Sciences, Sydney Medical School of the University of Sydney. He also holds the Mok Hing-Yiu Distinguished Visiting Professorship at the School of Biomedical Sciences of the University of Hong Kong.

Patrick Tam’s research focuses on the systems-based investigation of the functional attributes of gene regulatory network in body patterning during mouse development and the differentiation of stem cells. The embryological analysis of cell fates, together with the developmental spatial transcriptome analysis of the gastrulating embryo, revealed the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underpin the organization of the basic body plan of the early embryo. The in-depth knowledge of lineage differentiation during early embryogenesis guides the development of protocols for directing the first steps of differentiation of stem cells into clinically useful cell types for cellular therapy.

Patrick Tam is an Editor of the journal Development, the chair of the scientific advisory committee of Stem Cell Australia and serves on the Board of Directors of the International Society of Differentiation.  In recognition of his professional accomplishments, he was awarded the President’s Medal of the Australian and New Zealand Society for Cell and Developmental Biology and elected Fellow of Australian Academy of Sciences, Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, Royal Society of Biology and Royal Society of London.