Rate My Professor Martin Donnelley

Associate Professor Martin Donnelley is an Externally-Funded Research Fellow in the School of Medicine, College of Health, at Adelaide University. He leads the Respiratory X-ray Imaging Laboratory (ReXIL) and directs the Cystic Fibrosis Airway Research Group (CFARG) at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Adelaide. He also serves as Research Leadership Co-Lead for Developmental Disorders at the Robinson Research Institute. Donnelley obtained his PhD in Medical Image Processing from Flinders University (2002-2007), BSc from Flinders University (1997-2000), and BEng (Biomedical) with First Class Honours from Flinders University (1997-2001). His career history at the University of Adelaide and Adelaide University encompasses Associate Professor (2023–ongoing), Research Leader at the Robinson Research Institute (2019–ongoing), Senior Research Fellow (2018–2022), Career Development Fellow (2018), and Affiliate Senior Lecturer (2016–2017). Earlier, he held the position of Senior Medical Scientist in Respiratory and Sleep Medicine at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital (2007–2017).

Donnelley’s research interests include biomedical engineering, gene and molecular therapy, radiology and organ imaging, respiratory diseases, cardiac, respiratory and vascular health, child and adolescent health, and innovative therapeutics. He develops X-ray velocimetry and directional dark-field imaging for non-invasive evaluation of airway surface health and lung function in cystic fibrosis models, and progresses lentiviral gene therapy for cystic fibrosis lung disease using rat and mouse models. He has obtained significant funding, such as the NHMRC Ideas Grant GNT2046960 “Improving Paediatric Respiratory Outcomes Using X-ray Velocimetry Functional Imaging” ($1,949,781, 2027–2030), MRFF Chronic Respiratory Conditions Grant MRF2045660 ($1,836,698, 2026–2029), and MRFF Frontier Health and Medical Research Program Grant ($5,285,074, 2021–2024). Key publications comprise “In vivo 4D x-ray dark-field lung imaging in mice” (IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, 2026), “Lentiviral vector gene therapy and CFTR modulators show comparable effectiveness in cystic fibrosis rat airway models” (Gene Therapy, 2024), “Repeat or single-dose lentiviral vector administration to mouse lungs? It’s all about the timing” (Gene Therapy, 2023), and “High-energy X-ray phase-contrast CT of an adult human chest phantom” (Scientific Reports, 2025). Awards include the Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Interdisciplinary Scientific Research (2023), Robinson Research Institute Career Development Fellowship (2018), Translational Research Award (2017), MS McLeod Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (2013), and semi-finalist for Young Investigator Award (2009). He chairs the Micro-Computed Tomography beamline Program Access Committee and Imaging and Medical Beamline Program Access Committee at the Australian Synchrotron, sits on the University of Adelaide Animal Ethics Committee (Medical), and serves as Editor for Scientific Reports and Board Member for Gene Therapy, Respiratory Research, and Human Gene Therapy. Donnelley is eligible to supervise Masters and PhD students.