Rate My Professor Michael Fay

Professor Michael Fay serves as the Foundation Chair and Director of the Mark Hughes Foundation Centre for Brain Cancer Research at the University of Newcastle's School of Medicine and Public Health, College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing. With over 25 years of experience in clinical oncology and cancer research leadership, he is a dual-trained Medical and Radiation Oncologist specializing in brain tumours, neuro-oncology, and the development of advanced imaging and treatment techniques such as theranostics and PET. He earned his PhD from the University of Queensland in the development and clinical translation of theranostics for precision radiation treatment, and his Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB) from the University of Otago, New Zealand. Professor Fay is a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (FRACP, 2003) and the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists (FRANZCR, 2003). He practices as a Radiation Oncologist at GenesisCare in Newcastle and Maitland, and has previously held appointments as Conjoint Senior Lecturer at the University of Newcastle (since 2015), Senior Lecturer at the University of Queensland, Staff Specialist in Radiation Oncology at Calvary Mater Newcastle, and Honorary Senior Staff Specialist at Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital.

The inaugural recipient of the HMRI Mid-Career Research Fellowship dedicated to brain cancer, funded by the Mark Hughes Foundation, Professor Fay leads the Patient Experience stream at the Centre. He serves as principal investigator in numerous international cancer and theranostics clinical trials, including the phase III TROG 08.02 trial on elderly glioblastoma patients, and maintains collaborations with researchers in Canada, the UK, and Germany. He has worked clinically across New Zealand, Australia, the UK, the US, and conducted research at Universität Tübingen in Germany. His key publications include books such as Imaging of Brain Tumours (2015) and Acute and Late Radiation Therapy Effects (2009), as well as recent articles like "Vasculogenic Mimicry Occurs in Primary and Recurrent Glioblastoma and Is Not Associated with PSMA Expression" (2023), "Evaluation of [68Ga]Ga-PSMA-617 PET as a Diagnostic Agent in Recurrent Glioblastoma Patients" (2023), "Patient-Derived Glioblastoma Cells Are Capable of Forming Tube-Like Structures In Vitro Suggestive of Vasculogenic Mimicry" (2024), and contributions to major trials published in the New England Journal of Medicine (2017). Professor Fay's work emphasizes patient-centered approaches to advancing brain cancer treatments globally.