Breathing, Exercise and Sleep Therapies in Neuromuscular Disease (BEST)

At BEST, we are internationally recognised leaders in breathing, exercise and sleep research in neuromuscular disease.

Led by Professor David Berlowitz, our team includes clinicians, researchers and graduate students across physiotherapy, speech pathology, data science, occupational therapy, exercise science, sleep science and nursing.

We are committed to building clinical research capacity and fostering collaborations with local and international research groups. Our clinical research capacity has grown from our foundational partnership with the Victorian Respiratory Support Service at Austin Health led by Professor Mark Howard.

We provide formal and informal mentorship, research supervision and career development across clinical and academic settings. Our research group has delivered 24 clinical intervention trials in five countries and secured over AU$42 million in competitive funding. Read more about  Our Impact.

Our research program

BEST is co-located at the University of Melbourne and Austin Health, enabling better collaboration between clinicians, researchers and people with neuromuscular diseases. People with lived experience of neuromuscular diseases inform all aspects of the research program.

_{Image Caption: BEST research group current international trial sites for interventional studies and locations of collaborators.}