Stuart Hodgetts

Associate Professor Stuart Hodgetts serves as Senior Lecturer in the School of Human Sciences at the University of Western Australia (UWA) and Director of the Spinal Cord Repair Laboratory. He holds a BSc and PhD from the University of Essex. His career includes 2.5 years of postdoctoral research at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation on immunological gene transcription and seven years in UWA's School of Anatomy and Human Biology Muscle Research Team developing cell transplantation therapies for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Since 2003, Hodgetts has specialized in spinal cord repair, utilizing clinical-grade adult human mesenchymal stem cells combined with gene therapy to induce plasticity, in vivo reprogramming, tissue engineering with scaffolds and self-assembling peptides, neuroprotective strategies, immunomodulation of host immune responses, and non-invasive therapies including red/near-infrared photobiomodulation and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation. Additionally, he is Senior Research Fellow at the Perron Institute for Neurological and Translational Science since 2015, where his laboratory supports collaborations for preclinical regenerative therapies.

Hodgetts has obtained over $5,231,680 in research funding as Chief Investigator since 2001 from NHMRC, ARC, Victorian Neurotrauma Initiative, Perron Institute, and Western Australia's Neurotrauma Research Program. His key publications encompass 'Neurotrophic factors for spinal cord repair: which, where, how and when to apply' (Harvey et al., 2015), 'The State of Play with iPSCs and Spinal Cord Injury Models' (Hodgetts and Edel, 2015), 'Optimization of photobiomodulation therapy for spinal cord injury: A review' (Drew et al., 2025), and 'Controversies and insights into PTBP1-related astrocyte-neuron transdifferentiation: neuronal regeneration strategies for Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease' (McDowall et al., 2024). He coordinates and lectures in advanced neuroscience units such as NEUR3301, NEUR3302, and ANHB3323, and has supervised 17 PhD, 8 Masters, and 31 Honours students. Professional roles include Chair of UWA's Animal Users Committee since 2007, UWA representative on the WA Animal Resources Authority since 2019, Secretary of UWA Research Staff Association since 2018, and WA Representative for the Australian Spinal Cord Injury Collaboration since 2020.

Professional Email: stuart.hodgetts@uwa.edu.au