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My research interests are in cell structure, intra-cellular pathways and in protein structure. During my honors I characterised two mouse models of Multiple Sclerosis, looking at T-cell permeability through the blood-brain barrier and the CXCR4/ CXCL12 chemokine axis. During my PhD I found critical roles for the tyrosine kinase receptor, Tyro3, in myelination and retinal ganglion cell function while assessing the neuronal functional outcomes of Tyro3 driven myelin structural deficits. Following my PhD, I moved to the university of Queensland to begin a post doctoral research fellowship under the supervision of Prof. Ben Hankamer, where I focussed on cryogenic electron microscopy and single particle analysis of the photosystem II supercomplex. During this time I also helped establish a virtual desktop which runs from the Bunya supercomputer, making research software accessible and easier to use across UQ.

As of 2024 I have begun as a post doctoral research fellow under the supervision of Dr. Rosemary Cater, I will be assessing the structure and function of membrane transporter proteins such as FLVCR2 and MFSD2A in the context of the blood-brain and blood-retinal barrier. Our goal is twofold: first, to comprehend the fundamental biology of these transporters; second, to discover a mechanism that enables drug access across the blood-brain and blood-retinal barriers. This advancement will facilitate therapeutic treatments for an array of central nervous system diseases.

Tamara is a trained respiratory scientist and has 7 years' experience in measuring the lung function of children aged 3-18 years. She has recently completed her PhD whereby she validated the use of normal healthy reference values for two lung function tests (spirometry and fractional exhaled nitric oxide) for children who identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander. She has a particular interest in childhood respiratory illnesses such as cystic fibrosis and asthma, emerging clinical measurement techniques, as well as Australian First Nations respiratory health. Her current research aims to better understand the mechanisms of early CF lung disease and to improve current clinical outcome measures to aid in appropriate CF management.

​Associate Professor Blakey is a group leader at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology and the Centre for Advanced Imaging. During his appointment at UQ he has been a recipient of a Vice Chancellor’s Research and Teaching Fellowship, an ARC Future Fellowship, a Linkage Projects International Fellowship, and a Queensland Government Smart State Fellowship. Prior to joining UQ he worked at Polymerat, a materials biotechnology startup company now listed on the ASX as AnteoTech.

Natural Products from Traditional Medicines and drug development.

My group focuses on isolating bioactive natural products from plants and organisms used in traditional and herbal medicines in cultures across the globe. We screen extracts and purified compounds for biological activity and for bioavailability using cell techniques. We are also involved in synthesising analogues of natural compounds and components of subunit vaccines. We also work with first responders to develop methods for detection and decompostion of dangerous chemicals.

Dr. Bland is a cognitive neuroscientist with expertise in brain stimulation, neural oscillations, and neuroplasticity. His research explores how patterns of rhythmic brain activity underpin neural communication and computation, and how non-invasive brain stimulation can be used to effectively manipulate brain oscillations that shape human consciousness and cognition.

Dr. Bland completed his PhD at the Queensland Brain Institute, where he investigated oscillatory neural networks and their dynamic role in brain communication. Together with his research students and collaborators, he combines advanced neuroimaging, neuromodulation, and research methodologies to study brain function.

As a researcher and academic advisor at The University of Queensland, Dr. Bland is dedicated to advancing knowledge at the intersection of psychology, neuroscience, and statistics, with applications ranging from cognitive enhancement to rehabilitation.

Rosie Blannin is a geologist and resource engineer with a strong basis in fieldwork, sampling, characterisation, geometallurgy and geostatistical modelling of mine waste deposits. Rosie graduated with a BSc in Geology from the Imperial College London (2016) and an MSc from the EMerald Erasmus Mundus Masters (2018), a program focused on characterisation, processing and modelling in georesources engineering and undertaken at research institutions across Belgium, France, Sweden and Germany. After completing her MSc, Rosie undertook her PhD at Helmholtz Institute Freiberg as part of the SULTAN European Training Network for the Remediation and Reprocessing of Sulfidic Mining Waste Sites. In particular, Rosie has developed a method to assess the optimum sampling density and configuration for resource assessment of tailings deposits. Additionally, she has implemented geostatistical modelling methods to improve the quality of grade-tonnage estimates for tailings deposits and has performed geometallurgical modelling to evaluate recoverable metal contents as well as the potential for acid mine drainage.

Currently, Rosie is working as a Research Officer at the W.H. Bryan Mining and Geology Research Centre, SMI. She is involved in projects focused on sampling, characterisation and modelling of mine waste deposits across Australia.

Professor Mark Blaskovich is an antibiotic hunter and Director of Translation at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience at The University of Queensland. He is co-founder and former Director of the Centre for Superbug Solutions at IMB.

A medicinal chemist with 15 years of industrial drug development experience prior to his academic career, Mark has been developing new antibiotics to treat drug resistant pathogens and using modified antibiotics to detect bacterial infections. He is a co-founder of the Community for Open Antimicrobial Drug Discovery, a global antibiotic discovery initiative, and has led a number of UQ-industry collaborations focused on antibiotic development. An inventor on eleven patent families, Mark has developed drugs in clinical trials, published more than eighty research articles, and received over $10m in grant funding.

Roland is Professor of International Relations and Coordinator of the Visual Politics Research Program. His research explores how images and emotions shape political phenomena, including humanitarianism, security, peacebuilding, protest movements and the conflict in Korea. Books include Visual Global Politics (Routledge, 2018); Aesthetics and World Politics (Palgrave, 2009/2012); Divided Korea: Toward a Culture of Reconciliation (University of Minnesota Press, 2005/2008) and Popular Dissent, Human Agency and Global Politics (CUP, 2000).

Roland’s main current research project is an interdisciplinary ARC Linkage collaboration (2022-2026) on The Politics and Ethics of Visualising Humanitarian Crises. The project involves eight researchers and the World Press Photo Foundation, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Australian Red Cross and Médecins Sans Frontières.

Roland grew up in Zürich, Switzerland, where he was educated and worked as a lawyer. He studied international relations in Paris, Seoul, Toronto, Vancouver and Canberra. Roland also worked for two years in a Swiss diplomatic mission in the Korean DMZ and held visiting affiliations at Harvard, Cambridge, Humboldt, Tampere, Yonsei and Pusan National University as well as the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague. He is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.

Further informatin can be found on Roland''s personal website:

For an in-person or zoom appointment book here: https://calendly.com/bleiker

Selection of Recent Publications

“Decolonising Affect" Cooperation and Conflict (2024)

“Un-Disciplining the International” Alternatives: Local, Global, Political (2023)

"Visualizing International Relations” Journal of Visual Political Communication, 10,(2023

"Visual Violence" Interview with Brad Evans, Los Angeles Review of Books, 3 Jan 2022.

Lecturer in Strategic and Political Communication at The University of Queensland’s School of Communication and Arts. PhD in Political Communication from The University of Queensland, and MSc from the London School of Economic and Political Science (LSE). Elena is currently involved in two strands of research focusing on populist communication and the the rise of disruptive, uncivil, and divisive discourses that appear to be undermining political dialogue and changing modern democracy from within. Elena is also interested in the impact of virtual and human influencers on audiences vis-à-vis traditional strategic communication, government PR, and propaganda.

Long trajectory as a journalist, media relations and public affairs executive. Main areas of interest: political communication; strategic communication; populist communication; civility/incivility in today's society; the mediatisation of politics and society; CGI/Virtual/teen influencers; pandemic communication and strategic silence.

Books

Block, E. (2015). Political Communication and Leadership Mimetisation, Hugo Chavez and the Construction of Power and Identity. New York: Routledge

Block, E. (2022). Discursive Disruption, Populist Communication and Democracy: The Cases of Hugo Chávez and Donald J. Trump (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003118602

Selected articles

Block, E. and Negrine, R. (2017). The Populist Communication Style: Toward a Critical Framework. International Journal of Communication, 11(2017), 178-197

Block, E. (2013). A Culturalist Approach to the Concept of the Mediatization of Politics: The Age of ‘‘Media Hegemony’’”, Communication Theory. 23(2013), 259-278

Block, E., & Lovegrove, R. (2021). Discordant storytelling, ‘honest fakery’, identity peddling: How uncanny CGI characters are jamming public relations and influencer practices. Public Relations Inquiry, 10(3), 265-293. https://doi.org/10.1177/2046147X211026936

Le, T. L., & Block, E. (2024). When communist propaganda meets western public relations: Examining Vietnam’s government pandemic communication. Public Relations Inquiry, 13(1), 33-67. https://doi.org/10.1177/2046147X231218310

Book chapters

Block, Elena ( in press). Populist Communication Strategies in Intergroup Relations. The Sage Handbook of Intercultural Communication. Sage: 458-471

Block, Elena (2024). The Latin American political discourse. The Routledge Handbook of Political Communication in Ibero-America. London: Routledge.49-60

Block, E. (2023). “Social Responsibility” as a Weapon?. In: Weder, F., Rademacher, L., Schmidpeter, R. (eds) CSR Communication in the Media. CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18976-0_13

Methods and applications of statistics in evolutionary biology and population ecology.

My research involves the application and development of statistical methods in ecology, evolutionary biology, and general whole-organism biology. My two particular research foci are phylogenetic comparative methods and other uses of statistics in ecology, evolution, and systematics. I also have a strong interest in the application of Bayesian methods, and the statistical philosophy of the nature of evidence in whole-organism biology. How and why do scientists agree that certain data are evidence for or against a particular hypothesis?

I also provide a statistical consultation service for staff and students within the School of Biological Sciences

I am interested in taking graduate students at any level who are interested in quantitative methods in biology. Students in my lab will be able to (or be willing to learn) program computers in S (http://www.r-project.org), a compiled language such as C or Fortran, and/or a scripting language such as Python or Scheme in a Unix environment. Students are also encouraged to extend or develop their mathematical skills. A background in biology, statistics, mathematics, or computer science would be valuable. I can also co-supervise students who are interested in using quantitative methods for their thesis work, but for whom such methods are not a primary focus of research.

My research interests are in evolutionary quantitative genetics. Much of my research involves developing multivariate statistical approaches to the analysis of the genetic basis of complex traits, and the selection acting upon them, which are then applied to questions in statistical genetics and evolutionary biology. Many of the empirical studies I conduct use the Australian native model system Drosophila serrata.

Associate Professor Levon Blue is a member of Beausoleil First Nation in Canada and lives in Queensland, Australia. She is the HDR Coordinator at The University of Queensland in the Office of the Deputy-Vice-Chancellor Indigenous Engagement and coordinates courses within the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Major. Levon was awarded a PhD in 2016 that focused on financial literacy education practices in a First Nation community in Canada. Her research area includes financial literacy education and higher education with Indigenous peoples.

Stefan is a Staff Specialist in Neurology at the Princess Alexandra Hospital (PAH) and the Mater Centre for Neuroscience. He finished his training as neurologist in 2012.

He runs dedicated multiple sclerosis (MS) and Neuroimmunology clinics at the PAH, leading in modern MS therapies. Moreover, he has been at the forefront of advancing the field of neuroimmunology in Queensland, with establishment of dedicated neuroimmunology outpatient clinics at the RBWH and PAH, combining expertise from neurologists and immunologists in the care of this very complex group of disorders.

In addition to his busy, full-time clinical workload, Stefan has been involved as PI or CI in a range of clinical trials in the fields of MS, botulinum toxin, CIDP and Pompe’s disease. Additionally, he has performed and is involved in ongoing research projects of neuroimmunological disorders such as neuromyelitis optica, myasthenia gravis and autoimmune limbic encephalitis. He has been a member of the New Horizons study to assess prevalence of anti-neuronal antibodies in patients with new onset psychosis.

Prior to this, Stefan finished a PhD in the field of ‘Immunogenetics of Guillain-Barre Syndrome and Chronic inflammatory polyneuropathy’ at the University of Queensland in 2014. He also completed a doctoral thesis at the University of Heidelberg, Germany in 2002 in the field of T cell immunology. During this time, he has developed solid skills in bench-side immunological research.

Currently, he is neurological lead in a diverse group of clinicians and scientists investigating the role of antineuronal antibodies in neurological and psychiatric disease. He supervises 3 PhD students in the field of advanced imaging in autoimmune encephalitis and multiple sclerosis. He is currently building up a laboratory to test antineuronal antibodies using live cell assays.

Professor Antje Blumenthal combines her expertise in immunology and microbiology to lead research on molecular mechanisms that control immune responses to infection, alongside more recently developed research on new antimicrobials. The overall goal of her research is to improve our ability to treat severe bacterial infections as part of the global efforts to overcome the threat posed by antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Prof Blumenthal graduated with a major in Microbiology from the Christian-Albrechts-University in Kiel, Germany, pursued PhD research in Immunology at the Leibniz Research Center for Medicine and Biosciences Borstel, Germany, and undertook postdoctoral training at Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, USA. She joined The University of Queensland Diamantina Institute in 2010 where she leads the Infection & Inflammation Group, fostering cross-disciplinary collaborations with immunologists, microbiologists, chemists, clinical research teams and industry partners. Her research is enabled by major funding from international and national agencies, and has been recognised internationally and nationally by prestigious awards, speaking invitations at eminent conferences and institutions, invitations to peer-review for esteemed journals and funding agencies. Prof Blumenthal is an enthusiastic undergraduate teacher and research student advisor. She is proactive in advancing the careers of junior scientists, leads the development and implementation of initiatives that promote equity, diversity and inclusion in science, and a positive workplace culture. Through leadership roles within the University and professional societies as well as editorial roles for international journals, Prof Blumenthal actively contributes to the scientific community.

Lisa Bode lectures in Film and Television Studies at the University of Queensland. She is the author of Making Believe: Screen Performance and Special Effects in Popular Cinema (Rutgers University Press, 2017), which historicizes screen performance within the context of visual and special effects cinema and technological change in Hollywood filmmaking, through the silent, early sound, and current digital eras, in order to shed light on the ways that digital filmmaking processes such as motion capture, digital face-replacement, and green-screen acting are impacting screen acting and stardom. She has published work in edited collections and journals on the implications of digital filmmaking technologies for synthetic media; screen acting and stardom, the cultural reception of the synthespian, mock documentary performance, and the processes through which dead Hollywood stars are remembered, forgotten, or re-animated. She co-edited the August 2021 special issue of Convergence on Digital Faces and Deepfakes on screen, and is currently writing a monograph for Rutgers University Press called Deepfakes and Digital Bodies.

She is on the editorial board for the series Animation: Key Films / Filmmakers (Bloomsbury Academic, and Animation Studies, the open-access peer-reviewed journal for The Society for Animation Studies. In 2020 she co-founded the Visual Effects Research Network with Associate Professor Leon Gurevitch

Dr. Gabriela Bodea received her PhD in 2014 with highest honours (Summa cum laude) from the University of Bonn, Germany. Subsequently, Dr Bodea joined the Genome Plasticity and Disease group at the Mater Research Institute in Australia. Here, Dr. Bodea began investigating the role of LINE-1 retrotransposons, a class of mobile DNA elements colloquially referred to as "jumping genes", in creating genetic variability within neurons. In 2017, Dr. Bodea joined the Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland, where she is currently a Research Fellow in the Computational and Molecular Biology lab. Dr. Bodea's research aims to understand how the dynamic regulation of retrotransposons shapes neuronal identity in the mammalian brain and why certain neuronal subtypes are more susceptible to neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disorders. Dr Bodea's work has been supported by prestigious fellowships awarded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the NHMRC-ARC Dementia Research Development. Dr. Bodea has published in top journals such as Nature Neuroscience, Cell Reports, Genome Research, and Development. Dr Bodea has also been involved in the training and mentorship of MSc and PhD students and participated in course coordination and lecturing activities.