A/Prof Sheryl Van Nunen

Dr Sheryl van Nunen is a Clinical Associate Professor, Northern Clinical School, Sydney Medical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney; a consultant physician in allergic diseases in Chatswood and a Visiting Medical Officer at Northern Beaches and North Shore Private Hospitals. She was Head of the Department of Allergy at Royal North Shore Hospital for over 26 years (1985-2011) and a Senior Staff Specialist at Royal North Shore Hospital from 1988-30 June 2020.

Sheryl is a clinician and medical educator who, in 2007, first described the association between mammalian meat anaphylaxis and prior tick bites. She has over 175 publications to her credit (68% as first author, with 14 of these published in 2018-2020), and an award-winning teacher at The University of Sydney, she has been the Principal Investigator in clinical trials of over 70% of all new therapies introduced to Australia for allergic diseases during her career in allergy (38 years in 2020).

Key achievements include working with the Australian Government of Health to develop worldleading advice in tick bite prevention and management; working with pharma to develop tick-specific therapy (in Australia and internationally); funding and fostering research underpinning tick bite prevention and management advice. For over a decade, she has also contributed her time in a number of capacities to the National Asthma Council and has filled several roles in the Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy since its inception.

Her research interests comprise mammalian meat allergy/ anaphylaxis following previous tick bite and its myriad implications, including the increased risk of atheroma and more severe atheroma with its attendant risks, tick-induced anaphylaxis and pharmacogenetic risk factors in severe cutaneous drug reactions in the Vietnamese people.