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Dr Giacomotto, NHMRC Emerging Leader, is a young group leader focusing on translational research, genes and diseases, imaging/automatic systems, drug discovery, chemical biology, and medical applications. His work focuses on translating little discoveries made in a single cell or in a model organism to applications or treatments for humans. He has already made discoveries that benefit human health, such as treatment for muscular dystrophies. He is working with a wide diversity of models, including cell lines and mouse models, but he recently spent a lot of time working with the zebrafish model. He believes that this small fish will have an important impact on the seek of treatments for neuromuscular and neurological disorders. Those diseases are very difficult to reproduce in a single cell, making the search for chemical treatments difficult. This fish opens a new avenue for the screening of bioactive compounds and for understanding the progression of these terrible disorders. He believes in translational research, the zebrafish is for him a fantastic complementary model to cell lines in order to recapitulate human diseases and run large-scale experiments. He is working on developing future therapeutical strategies to alleviate the suffering of human patients.

Dr Giacomotto recently established his group at Griffith Research Institute for Drug Discovery (Discovery Biology, Griffith University) and remain an active honorary fellow of the Queensland Brain Institute (The University of Queensland). Dr Giacomotto is currently recruiting. Don't hesitate to contact him for further information.

Dr Giacomotto Laboratory Website

Professor Mike Gidley is Director of the Centre for Nutrition and Food Sciences (CNAFS) at the University of Queensland, Australia. The Centre is part of the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) in conjunction with the Queensland Government. Prof Gidley’s research is focussed on structure – function relationships in biopolymer assemblies such as starch granules and plant cell walls. This has led to the detailed characterisation of starch and dietary fibre digestion/fermentation in vitro and in vivo, with the understanding generated leading to opportunities for optimising nutritional value of foods and feeds. He is also a Chief Investigator in the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Plant Cell Walls.

Professor Gidley was trained in chemistry at the Universities of London (BSc) and Cambridge (PhD), and worked on food-related research for more than twenty years in Unilever’s R+D laboratory at Colworth House in the UK, beginning as a research scientist and culminating as the Group Leader for Plant-based Foods and Ingredients, before joining UQ in 2003.

Professor Gidley’s major research interest is the linking of plant molecular structures to macroscopic properties with relevance to plant-based food properties. In particular, he is interested in investigating polysaccharide assemblies such as plant cell walls and starch granules, particularly the way these structures are assembled in nature and then disassembled during manufacturing and later during digestion. His field of research involves the use of spectroscopic, microscopic and materials analyses of natural materials and model systems. Insights into structure-property relationships are obtained, that can then be used to provide targets for raw materials and processes with enhanced food and nutritional properties.

The molecular evolution of cytochrome P450 Enzymes: biological catalysts of unprecedented versatility.

Cytochrome P450 enzymes (CYPs, P450s) especially those responsible for drug metabolism in humans, are the unifying theme of the research in our lab. These fascinating enzymes are catalysts of exceptional versatility, and functional diversity. In humans they are principally responsible for the clearance of a practically unlimited variety of chemicals from the body, but are also critical in many important physiological processes. In other organisms (plants, animals, bacteria, fungi, almost everything!) they carry out an unprecedented range of functions, such as defense, chemical communication, neural development and even pigmentation. P450s are involved in the biosynthesis of an unequalled range of potent, biologically active natural products in microbes, plants and animals, including many antibiotics, plant and animal hormones, signalling molecules, toxins, flavours and fragrances. We are studying how P450s have evolved to deal with novel substrates by reconstructing ancestral precursors and evolutionary pathways, to answer such questions as how did the koala evolve to live on eucalyptus leaves, a toxic diet for most mammals.

The capabilities of P450s are only just coming to be fully recognized and structural studies on P450s should yield critical insights into how enzyme structure determines function. For example, recently we discovered that P450s are present within cells in the Fe(II) form, a finding that has led to a radical revision of the dogma concerning the P450 catalytic cycle, and has implications for the control of uncoupling of P450 activity in cells. Importantly, the biotechnological potential of P450s remains yet to be exploited. All of the specific research themes detailed below take advantage of our recognized expertise in the expression of recombinant human cytochrome P450 enzymes in bacteria. Our group is interested in finding out how P450s work and how they can be made to work better.

Artificial evolution of P450s for drug development and bioremediation: a way of exploring the sequence space and catalytic potential of P450s. The demonstrated catalytic diversity of P450 enzymes makes them the ideal starting material for engineering sophisticated chemical reagents to catalyse difficult chemical transformations. We are using artificial (or directed) evolution to engineer enzymes that are more efficient, robust and specialized than naturally occurring enzymes with the aim of selecting for properties that are commercially useful in the areas of drug discovery and development and bioremediation of pollutants in the environment. The approach we are using also allows us to explore the essential sequence and structural features that underpin all ~12000 known P450s so as to determine how they work.

Synthetic biology of enzymes for clean, green, solar-powered chemistry in drug development, bioremediation and biosensors. We have identified ancestral enzymes that are extremely thermostable compared to their modern counterparts, making them potentially very useful in industry, since they can withstand long incubations at elevated temperatures. They can be used as ‘off the shelf’ reagents to catalyse useful chemistry, such as in in drug discovery and development, fine chemicals synthesis, and cleaning up the environment. Working with drug companies, we are exploring how they can be best deployed in chemical processes and what structural features make them efficient, robust and specialized. We are also immobilizing P450s in virus-like-particles as ‘designer’ reagents that can be recovered from reactions and reused. To make such processes cheaper and more sustainable, we are using photosynthesis to power P450 reactions for clean, green biocatalysis in microalgae.

Biosketch:

After graduating from UQ with first class Honours in Biochemistry, Elizabeth took up a Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 Overseas Scholarship to pursue doctoral work at Oxford University then undertook postdoctoral work at the Center in Molecular Toxicology and Department of Biochemistry at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine with Prof. F.P. Guengerich. She returned to UQ in 1993 to take up a position in Pharmacology and joined the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences in 2009 as a Professor of Biochemistry.

After completing his BSc and MSc (Hons) at the University of Canterbury (NZ), Dylan worked for five years as a Research Scientist at Antisoma Research Limited (London, UK), developing antibody-enzyme fusion proteins for cancer therapy. He returned to New Zealand to carry out his PhD research into antidepressant pharmacogenomics at the University of Otago. Afterwards, he continued working at the University of Otago as a Research Fellow, studying the biological function of genes involved with inflammatory bowel disease. Dylan moved to the United States in 2009 to perform postdoctoral training, researching the functional genetics of the VEGF-pathway and its relationship with cancer at the University of Chicago and, subsequently, the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

In 2013, Dylan began working at QIMR Berghofer and has undertaken the functional follow-up of large-scale genetic studies of breast, endometrial and ovarian cancer to identify the likely causal variants and genes that mediate associations with cancer risk and survival. He has been awarded both internal and NHMRC grant funding to support these studies. Since 2019, Dylan has held an Honorary Associate Professorship at UQ

As of early 2021, Dylan has authored one conference report, two editorials, two book chapters, six reviews and 31 original research articles. He is first or last author on 20 of these publications and 27 of his publications have been cited at least 10 times. According to CiteScore, since 2010, 53% of his articles have been published in journals ranked in the top 10% and 19% of hispublications are in the 10% most cited publications worldwide.

Associate Professor Sjaan Gomersall is Associate Director and Principal Research Fellow at the Health and Wellbeing Centre for Research Innovation at School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences and a Teaching and Research academic in Physiotherapy at the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at The University of Queensland. Established in 2022, the Health and Wellbeing Centre for Research Innovation (HWCRI) is a collaborative, co-funded research centre by The University of Queensland and Health and Wellbeing Queensland. The HWCRI combines world class research expertise in physical activity, nutrition and health at The University of Queensland, with the reach and capacity of Health and Wellbeing Queensland to integrate, deliver and evaluate evidence-based programs that provide scalable, equitable access to improve the health and wellbeing of all Queenslanders (and beyond).

Associate Professor Gomersall is an expert in physical activity, sedentary behaviour and health. Her research has focused on understanding, measuring and influencing physical activity and sedentary behaviour using a variety of methods and with a range of populations, with a focus on adults, the prevention and management of chronic disease and physical activity promotion in healthcare settings. Sjaan has a strong track record for multi-disciplinary collaborations and industry partnerships, with specific expertise in partnering with healthcare organisations to build capacity in research and physical activity behaviour change, to evaluate the impact of healthcare services and to co-design and test innovative solutions to gaps in service delivery. Dr Gomersall is a nationally and internally recognised leader in physical activity and health. She is the President of the International Society for Physical Activity and Health, Co-Lead and co-founder of the Physical Activity in Healthcare Special Interest Group for the Asia-Pacific Society for Physical Activity, a Consultant for Physical Activity for the World Health Organisation and an Associate Editor for the Journal of Activity, Sedentary and Sleep Behaviours.

Dr Ana Goode is an implementation scientist, with expertise in designing, implementing and evaluating broad-reach (e.g. telephone, SMS, digital) health behaviour change interventions in applied 'real-world' settings. Her program of research brings together training and research experience in health psychology, health promotion and public health.

Her work focusses on the adaptation and translation of evidence-based health behaviour change (e.g. physical activity, dietary change and weight loss) programs into practice at a local, state and national level. She has a particular interest in end-user and stakeholder engagement and design thinking.

She is currently the lead implementation scientist of the BeUpstanding program; an evidence-based online program to reduce sitting time in the workplace.

Within her role she leads the Healthy Lifestyle Consultancy group, where she provides knowledge leadership in health promotion, including consultancy and training services to workplaces, health providers and practitioners.

Wendy Goodwin is a registered veterinarian in Queensland and has worked for the University of Queensland as a clinical anesthetist since 2010. She received her veterinary degree from the University of Queensland in 2004 and in 2013 was awarded a Doctorate of Philosophy by the University of Queensland for her research thesis ‘Studies of Alfaxalone in Horses’. In 2008 she was awarded Membership of the Australian & New Zealand College of Veterinary Scientists in Equine Medicine and in 2013 was awarded Membership in Veterinary Anaesthesia and Critical Care. In 2016 Wendy sucessfully became a Fellowship of the Australian & New Zealand College of Veterinary Scientists in Veterinary Anaesthesia and Critical Care.

Wendy is passionate about veterinary anaesthesia and analgesia and has dedicated the majority of her professional career to pursuing excellence in this field. Her clinical anaesthetic experience has covered a wide range of species including horses, small animal companion animals, farm animals, avian and exotic animals and animals used in scientific research. Wendy has a strong research interest and is keen to further explore research and development opportunities in the veterinary and medical sectors. She has papers published in peer reviewed scientific journals and presented her research findings at international conferences relating to veterinary anaesthesia and pain management.

Dr Gordon’s research is focused on the formation and maintenance of the blood and lymphatic vascular systems. Vessels form complex branched networks that supply oxygen and nutrients to all body tissues. The signals controlling blood vessel expansion, identity and migration are all downstream of a single, common complex at the cell surface, yet exactly how this diverse range of functions is differentially regulated, depending on the physiological need, remains unknown.

The specific focus of Dr Gordon’s research is to determine the precise molecular signals that control cell adhesion within the vessel wall the surrounding environment. If the signals controlling cell adhesion become deregulated, normal vessel growth and function is lost. This contributes to the progression of a wide range of human diseases, including cancer growth and metastasis, diabetic eye disease and stroke. Dr Gordon aims to use novel biological models, biochemical assays and imaging techniques to better understand vessel biology, which will enable improved treatment of disease and aid in the development of vascularised, bioengineered organs.

Dr Gordon received her Bachelor of Science (2005) and PhD (2011) from The University of Adelaide, after which she undertook six years of postdoctoral studies at Yale University in the USA and Uppsala University in Sweden. With the support of an ARC DECRA Fellowship, Dr Gordon relocated to IMB in 2017 to establish her independent research career as an IMB Fellow. In 2019, she was appointed as Group Leader of the Vessel Dynamics Laboratory.

Dr. Richard Gordon leads a multi-disciplinary, industry-partnered research program in Translational Neuroscience which integrates immunology, drug development, pharmacology, metabolomics and microbial metagenomics. His group aims to understand and therapeutically target key pathological mechanisms which drive the onset and progression of neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Their work combines target validation studies in human patients with mechanistic insights from disease models to develop and test novel therapeutic strategies that can be translated towards clinical trials.

Key research themes within this program include:

• Understanding how chronic immune and inflammasome activation contribute to neurodegeneration in the CNS
• The role of gut dysbiosis and gastrointestinal dysfunction in Parkinson’s disease pathophysiology
• Therapeutic targeting of the gut-brain axis for neuroprotection
• Drug discovery, development and repositioning for novel therapeutic targets
• Discovery and validation of clinical biomarkers for PD and ALS
• Clinical trials for disease-modifying therapeutic strategies

Professor Jürgen Götz (PhD, Dr. habil, FAHMS, GAICD) is Foundation Chair of Dementia Research, Director of the Clem Jones Centre for Ageing Dementia Research at the Queensland Brain Institute (University of Queensland), NHMRC Leadership Fellow and Ultrasound Team Leader. In 2023 he became the Lesleigh Green - Bill and Nancy Green Endowed Chair in Dementia Research. Jürgen Götz performed undergraduate studies at the Biocenter of the University of Basel, before joining the laboratory of Nobel Laureate Georges Köhler to obtain his PhD degree in immunology. Subsequently, he took up postdoctoral positions at UCSF (San Francisco) and Sandoz Ltd (now Novartis, Basel), and worked as Research Group Leader (venia legendi, Dr. habil.) at the University of Zurich (Switzerland). Before taking up his current position, Jürgen Götz was a Professor and Chair of Molecular Biology at the University of Sydney.

Jürgen Götz is a highly cited researcher (Clarivate) and an expert in basic and translational research in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), focusing on the cellular and molecular mechanisms of how Tau and Aβ cause neurodegeneration, using transgenic and cellular models, and exploring low-intensity ultrasound as a novel treatment modality for AD and other brain diseases (>220 publications, including in leading journals such as Science, Cell, Lancet and Neuron; h-index = 86, 27,800+ citations, Google Scholar). Jürgen Götz and his team have built a clinical trial-ready therapeutic ultrasound device and started a first-in-human safety trial in 12 Alzheimer patients (April 2023).

Hebe Gouda is an epidemiologist with research experience in Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and Egypt. She has a Masters of Public Health and a PhD from the University of Cambridge. She currently focuses on three related streams of research including: 1) Measuring mortality and disease burden with a particular focus on the epidemiological transition in low and middle income countries; 2) Evaluating health systems approaches and responses to population health burdens and 3) Measurement, data and information: the ethics and epistemology of population health research methods.

Frederick Graham (BNurs, PhD) is a Clinical Nurse Consultant and a Senior Research Fellow with the Centre for Health Services Research at the University of Queensland. As an academic-nurse, Fred is clinical lead of a hospital-wide Dementia and Delirium Nursing Service at Princess Alexandra Hospital where he has worked as clinical expert in the care of people with dementia and delirium for more than 15 years. As a senior research fellow under the mentorship of Professor Ruth Hubbard, his research focuses on reorganising care environments and building workforce capacity to provide therapeutic care to this vulnerable cohort with a specific focus on accelerating knowledge translation in managing symptoms of agitation through innovative experiential learning, models of care, environmental design, leisure activity, and recognition of pain-related symptomology.

Fred qualified as registered nurse from The Queensland University of Technology and has worked in acute-care wards at Princess Alexandra Hospital. He has clinically led multiple quality initiatives focussed on improving acute-care for patients with cognitive impairment including education and change champion initiatives, models of specialised care, resource development to facilitate person-centred care and development of a chart for evaluating analgesic trials through monitoring pain-related behaviour. These initiatives led Fred to undertake his PhD with Professor Elizabeth Beattie at QUT, titled “Do hospital nurses recognise pain in older agitated patients with cognitive impairment. A descriptive correlational study using virtual simulation.”, which was awarded QUT Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award 2021. He has subsequently published his PhD results in the top gerontological and nursing journals in the world. Fred currently holds a Queensland Health Early Career Nursing Fellowship under the mentorship Professor Amanda Henderson, Nursing practice Development Unit PAH. He also has three Metro South Research Support Grant schemes including the Metro South Health Future Research Leader Fellowship under the mentorship of Professor Ruth Hubbard which will investigate pain-related phenotypes through a longitudinal response to treatment study.

As an emerging research leader and early career researcher, Fred is passionate teacher and encourages nurses to consider higher degree by research pathways in the clinical careers. He is currently supervising two higher research nursing students and a mentoring nurse practitioner student at UQ.

Dr Gratten completed his undergraduate studies and PhD at The University of Queensland, before undertaking postdoctoral training in evolutionary and quantitative genetics at the University of Sheffield. He then returned to Australia and shifted research focus to psychiatric and neurological genetics, taking up a position as research fellow at the Queensland Brain Institute. In 2013, he was recruited to UQ's Centre for Neurogenetics and Statistical Genomics, and in 2017 was awarded an NHMRC Career Development Fellowship (Level 2). He established the Cognitive Health Genomics group at Mater Research Institute in 2018, with the goal to improve understanding of the etiology of psychiatric and neurological disorders through analysis and integration of whole genome datasets. He has received >$5M in research funding from the NHMRC, Autism Cooperative Research Centre and both Australian (BICARE) and international (Brain & Behavior Research Foundation) philanthropic funders.

Professor Peter Gray is a pioneer of biotechnology research and development in Australia. In 2003 he was appointed AIBN’s inaugural Director and has since overseen the institute’s growth to 450 people and an annual turnover of $40million. Before joining AIBN, he was Professor and Head of Biotechnology at UNSW.

Professor Gray has held academic positions at University College London and the University of California, Berkeley. He has had commercial experience in the US, working for Eli Lilly and Co and the Cetus Corporation. His research collaborations include groups at Stanford University; the University of California, Berkeley; and the University of British Columbia, Vancouver.

He serves on several boards and government committees. He is on the board of Engineering Conferences International, New York, a group that runs global, multi-disciplinary engineering conferences, many of which have played key roles in developing emerging industry sectors. The conferences include cell culture engineering; vaccine technology; and scale-up and manufacturing of cell-based therapies. Professor Gray also serves on the board of Biopharmaceuticals Australia Pty Ltd, the company established to build a GMP grade biopharmaceuticals manufacturing facility in Brisbane, and has been heavily involved in negotiations that led to DSM Biologics becoming the facility’s operator.

Professor Gray is a Fellow and Vice-President of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. He has chaired, served on organising committees for, and given plenary and keynote addresses at many key international conferences. In 2006 he attracted to Sydney and chaired the International Biotechnology Symposium – the first time a conference in the four-yearly series was held in the southern hemisphere. Professor Gray is a founder and past president of the Australian Biotechnology Association (Ausbiotech).

Professor Gray has graduated more than 60 PhD students from his research group, in fields including secondary metabolite bioprocesses; bioconversion of cellulosic substrates; mammalian cell expression of complex proteins; nanoparticles for drug delivery; and the development of stem-cell based bioprocesses. He has twice been listed by Engineers Australia among the top 100 most influential engineers in Australia, and in 2001 was awarded the Australian Government’s Centenary Medal.

Professor Gray is a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Health Services Research within the Faculty of Medicine.

He has formal training in medicine as a specialist geriatrician and in health administration. Previously he held senior management positions in the public health system in Victoria, in general management and aged care services. He joined academia full time at UQ in 2002. He directed the Centre for Health Services Research in its foundational period 2017-22. He now leads a vibrant research program that focuses on system level improvements within aged care.

His research interests focus on aged care policy, models of aged care service delivery, assessment and care planning systems, and in recent years, health informatics and telemedicine strategies.

He leads international development of hospital systems, and is a Board member and the Australian coordinator for interRAI, a multinational research collaborative.

Dr Christian Gray joined the Academy of Medical Education as a Senior Lecturer in 2019 and is a course coordinator and module lead. Prior to this, Dr Gray was a Lecturer in Infection and Immunity and was Immunology discipline lead at Peninsula Medical School at the University of Plymouth, Devon, UK.

Dr Gray has previously undertaken Postdoctoral research in a variety of areas in immunological research including therapies for rheumatoid arthritis, pneumococcal vaccines, mastitis resistance in dairy cattle, and vaccines for R. microplus. He obtained his PhD from the University of Newcastle, Australia in 2002. He was the first to identify a link between activation of regulatory T cells and the suppression of the immune system in patients with melanoma.

Within his current role he have transferred his skills from biomedical research into pedagogy of teaching and learning. He is actively developing a research portfolio within medical research focusing on the support of student learning.

Ristan is an Honorary Associate Professor School of Medicine Southern Clinical School and MRI-UQ. Previously she has been Senior Biostatistician at Mater Research and Senior Lecturer in Epidemiology and Biosecurity with the School of Veterinary Science UQ. She is an epidemiologist, medical researcher and veterinarian who has been involved in medical and veterinary clinical research, academic teaching and veterinary practice for over 25 years. She completed her Bachelor of Arts majoring in Pure Mathematics in 1972, Bachelor of Veterinary Science in 1979, Master of Veterinary Science in 1995, PhD in the School of Medicine, The University of Queensland in 2004, and membership of the Epidemiology Chapter of the Australia and New Zealand College of Veterinary Scientists in 2005. Her areas of research interest include Congenital Hyperinsulinism of Infancy, bone metabolism in Cystic Fibrosis, Vitamin D in Type 1 Diabetes, as well as study design and data analysis. These latter interests have led to collaborations with clinicians and scientists in a wide variety of fields of research, for example human viral respiratory infection, paediatric liver disease, Pseudomonas spp infection in humans and horses, and many others. Since 1990, Dr Greer has been variously a lecturer and researcher with The University of Queensland School of Medicine, Queensland Children’s Medical Research Institute and affiliated institutions, and taught epidemiology in the School of Veterinary Science where she inaugurated the first course in research methodology for postgraduate students.

Judith Greer is an immunologist with a strong interest in the nervous system and autoimmune diseases affecting the nervous system.

She is a graduate of the University of Queensland, having completed her PhD on cancer immunology. She then undertook postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School in the USA, during which time her interests shifted towards immune responses and interactions within the nervous system (neuroimmunology), an area in which she has worked ever since. She isa Principal Research Fellow at the UQ Centre for Clinical Research, located at the Royal Brisbane & Women's Hospital.

Her research is directly particularly towards trying to identify brain components that are targetted by the immune system in people with a variety of disorders, particularly multiple sclerosis (MS), which is traditionally thought to be an autoimmune disease, but also in psychosis, where we are now starting to understand that autoimmune targetting of the brain can play a role in some patients. She is interested in how the specificity of autoimmune responses within the nervous system relates to the symptoms experienced by patients, and in developing new ways to specifically turn off the damaging immune responses in the brain. Another focus of her research is to improve on pre-clinical models of MS, so as to enhance the translation of new therapeutic approaches for MS to the clinic.

Judith is also interested in research training, and held leadership positions in this area in the School of Medicine and the Faculty of Medicine at UQ from 2000 - 2023. She is also committed to improving the field of neuroimmunology, and has been a member of the International Advisory Board of the International Society for Neuroimmunology and is the Asia-Pacific representative for the Global Schools of Neuroimmunology. Judith co-founded a society, Neuroimmunology Australia, to better support those working in this field, and was Convenor and Chair of the 14th International Congress of Neuroimmunology, which was held in Brisbane in 2018 (the only time this congress has been held outside of the Northern Hemisphere).