Professor Natasha Lannin – Research Director

Professor Natasha Lannin joined The Department of Neuroscience at Monash University in 2018 from La Trobe University, where she had been the inaugural Chair in Occupational Therapy in a joint position with Alfred Health since 2011. She was awarded as a Fellow of the American Occupational Therapy Foundation Academy of Research (2017) and the Occupational Therapy Australia Research Academy (2017) acknowledging her exemplary and distinguished contributions toward the science of occupational therapy. She is a Heart Foundation Senior Future Leader Fellow and as such, has been recognised as one of the nation’s most outstanding leaders of clinical and allied health research in stroke.

After completing her PhD investigating the physiological mechanisms and clinical effectiveness of stretch for addressing post-stroke motor impairment, she undertook post-doctoral work at Faculty of Medicine, University of Sydney, advancing her experience in clinical trials before establishing her own rehabilitation research group here in Melbourne. She has published over 300 papers and received >$30M in research funding (>$10M as CIA). She was awarded a NHMRC Translating Research into Practice Fellowship (2016), NHMRC Career Development Fellowship (2018) and is currently supported by successive Heart Foundation (Australia) fellowships (2019-2022 – L2; 2023-2026 – L3).

Professor Lannin specialises in scientifically rigorous clinical trials that inform the evidence-base of neurorehabilitation, and is best known for her whole-of-pipeline approach to improving clinical care, from phase 2 (pilot, feasibility trials) to phase 4 (implementation) trials.  She holds a post-graduate certificate in Implementation Science from University of California San Francisco, and works alongside other trialists to plan for rapid translation of their trial findings into everyday clinical care in broader neurological populations (such as epilepsy) and rehabilitation groups (such as chronic respiratory conditions).

Professor Lannin leads the Brain Recovery and Rehabilitation Research Group in the Department of Neuroscience (Central Clinical School, Monash University). And together, the Group works with people to improve long-term outcomes for adults after neurological damage, in particular from stroke and traumatic brain injury. Prof Lannin’s current NHMRC- and MRFF-supported work seeks to test the clinical effectiveness of common rehabilitation interventions in phase 3 and 4 trials, including pre-discharge occupational therapy home visits (The HOME Trial, NHMRC #141561), vocational rehabilitation to support working after stroke (VocRehab Trial, MRFF #2008141), implementation of upper limb intervention clinical practice guidelines in rehabilitation (the PROMOTE Trial, MRFF #MRFF000076), falls prevention and rehabilitation after stroke (the FAST Trial, NHMRC #1157739), use of mHealth to support early resumption of meaningful activities after stroke (the ReCAPS Trial, NHMRC #1162596), and the implementation of high-dose aphasia treatment (the CHAT Trial, NHMRC #1191820).