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I am a medicinal and organic chemist

Studied organic chemistry at the University of Sydney, moved to UQ in 1993, then worked for Bayer in Germany, before moving back to Australia in 1996. Worked in Melbourne at the Victorian College of Pharmacy (now MIPS). I then returned to UQ in 2000 to the Fairlie lab where we design and synthesise new chemical entities to tackle human disease. Since 2012 I have been on extended medical leave and am currently an Adjunct Research Fellow, researching proteins from flaviviruses such as Dengue, West Nile, and Zika viruses, and the coronaviruses SARS, MERS, and SARS-CoV-2.

Professor Jennifer Stow is a molecular cell biologist, an NHMRC Leadership Fellow and head of the Protein Trafficking and Inflammation research laboratory in The University of Queensland’s Institute of Molecular Bioscience (IMB). Her previous leadership appointments include as Division Head and Deputy Director (Research) at IMB (12 years) and she currently serves on national and international advisory boards, editorial boards and steering committees, and as an elected Associate Member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO).

Jenny Stow received her undergraduate and PhD qualifications at Melbourne’s Monash University before undertaking postdoctoral training in the Department of Cell Biology at Yale University School of Medicine, USA. With training as a microscopist in kidney research, she gained further experience at Yale as a postdoc in the lab of eminent cell biologist and microscopist, Dr Marilyn Farquhar, where protein trafficking was both a theme and a passion. Jenny then took up her first faculty appointment as an Assistant Professor in the Renal Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Harvard Medical School in Boston USA, where her research uncovered new roles for a class of enzymes, GTPases, in regulating trafficking within cells. At MGH her research also formed part of a highly successful NIH Renal Cell Biology Program. In late 1994, Jenny moved her research lab back to Australia, to The University of Queensland, in late 1994 as a Wellcome Trust International Medical Research Fellow. As part of IMB since, the Stow lab has continued a focus on protein trafficking, including pioneering live-cell imaging, to spearhead their work on trafficking in inflammation, cancer and chronic disease. Major discoveries include identifying new proteins and pathways for recycling adhesion proteins in epithelial cells, inflammatory cytokine secretion in macrophages and immune signalling through Toll-like receptors in inflammation and infection. Small GTPases of the Rab family, signalling adaptors and kinases feature among the molecules studied in the Stow lab for their functional roles and their potential as drug targets in inflammation and cancer. A keen focus is to understand the role of the fluid uptake pathway, macropinocytosis, in controlling inflammation, cancer and mucosal absorption.

Professor Stow has been awarded multiple career fellowships including from American Heart Association, Wellcome Trust and NHMRC. She has published >200 papers, cited over 15,500 times and she is the recipient of awards and honours, most recently including the 2019 President's Medal from the Australia and New Zealand Society for Cell and Developmental Biology. She is also academic head of IMB Microscopy, a world-class fluorescence microscopy and image analysis facility. Her research is funded by a variety of agencies and industry partnerships, in addition to NHMRC and ARC, including through the ARC Centre of Excellence in Quantum Biotechnology, QUBIC. The Stow lab work with national and international collaborators and welcome students and postdoctoral trainees to participate in their research. We value having a diverse, inclusive and supportive culture for research and celebrate the many diverse and wonderful successes of Stow lab alumni.

I am a biologist interested in the general question of how changes in developmental processes can lead to evolutionary variation and origin of complex traits (such as neural circuits). I study development and evolution of the brain of mammals. My doctoral thesis studied brain regions involved in olfactory and pheromonal communication in mammals. I discovered several events of parallel co-variation of sensory pathways in distantly related species sharing similar ecological niches, as cases of ontogenetic and phylogenetic plasticity. Currently, I study development and evolution of neocortical circuits by following two main lines of research: one aims to determine how early neuronal activity emerges during development and help shape brain connections, and the other one aims to understand what developmental processes led to evolutionary innovations in the mammalian brain. My research combines molecular development (electroporation, CRISPR), transcriptomics, sensory manipulations, neuroanatomy mapping (MRI, stereotaxic tracer injections, confocal and image analysis), optogenetics, and in vivo calcium imaging (multiphoton and widefield) in rodent pups and marsupial joeys.

Critical Care Medicine focuses on supporting patients, often with one or multiple organ failures. Based at the largest Australian cardiac hospital, our research investigates better ways to support patients with heart and/or lung failure. We explore technological, pharmacological and engineering advances that could help our patients to live longer and better. Our group is world-renowned for clinically relevant large animal models, including heart failure, respiratory failure (ARDS), heart transplantation, sepsis, cardiogenic shock, and more. All our studies use hospital-grade equipment and follow the same clinical guideline to maximise translation. We actively take on honours, MPhil and PhD students from multi-disciplinary backgrounds (science, engineering, medicine, allied health), with a successful track record in supporting our students to secure their own grants and funding. Students are expected to contribute to other studies of the group. For more information about the group, please visit ccrg.org.au, and email if you are interested to join us.

Professor Yasmina Sultanbawa's research is focused within the agribusiness development framework, specifically in the area of food processing, preservation, food safety and nutrition. Her current research includes the minimisation of post harvest losses through value addition and the search for natural preservatives to replace current synthetic chemicals. In addition, her research area also includes the challenge of nutrition security, in particular micronutrient deficiency (hidden hunger), lack of diet diversity and nutritional losses in the food supply chain, which are addressed by her work with underutilized Australian plant species and potential new crops. Her work on Australian native plant foods is focused on incorporation of these plants in mainstream agriculture and diet diversification Working with indigenous communities to develop nutritious and sustainable value added products from native plants for use in the food, feed, cosmetic and health care industries is a key strategy. The creation of employment, economic and social benefits to these remote communities is an anticipated outcome. She considers it a privilege to engage with these communities and is very passionate that her work will have a positive socio-economic impact.

Research Focus

• Functional ingredients (natural additives)

Functional food/feed/nutraceutical ingredients with enhanced nutritional and phytochemical profiles are obtained from specialty crops (Australian native plant foods) and industry co/by-products. Natural additives are obtained from raw materials of vegetable, fruit, herbs/spices or microbiological origin. An example is plant extracts which can provide e.g. antioxidants, shelf-life extension (natural antimicrobials), trace-nutrients (vitamins/ minerals) and novel flavours. Innovative technology solutions

• Novel packaging systems

Development of active, biodegradable packaging material with natural additives for shelf life extension, smart packaging with nanosensors for the effective detection of food contaminants, microperforated packaging systems with optimised modified atmospheres for fresh foods and high barrier packaging material for herbs and spices are practical objectives of her research. Engineered nano-delivery systems for plant bioactives Develop nano-platforms for targeted delivery and controlled release of plant bioactives including antioxidant and antimicrobial products, through testing of in vitro activities and shelf life under various conditions.

• Photodynamic treatment

Photodynamic treatment or photosensitization is a novel light and photo dye based approach which offers promising alternatives to conventional methods for the control of microorganisms. Plant bioactives such as curcumin has been successfully used to control mycrotoxigenic fungi. This technology has potential as a decontamination tool to reduce the microbial load in food and feed.

• Food safety

Her research focus in this field includes intervention strategies to inhibit and prevent food-borne pathogens and spoilage organisms in fresh food and beverages, elucidating mechanisms of antimicrobial action, shelf-life extension with natural antimicrobials, retaining bioactivity during processing and storage, search for natural inhibitors from Australian native plants, use of bioactive honey from Leptospermum polygalifolium (Jelly bush) in treating microbial wound infections.

Matt Sweet is an NHMRC Leadership Fellow, Group Leader, and Director of Higher Degree Research (DHDR) at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB) at The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. He was the founding Director of the IMB Centre for Inflammation and Disease Research (2014-2018), also serving as Deputy Head of the IMB Division of Cell Biology and Molecular Medicine during this period. Matt studies innate immunity, the body’s danger sensing system that responds to infection, injury and dysregulated homeostasis, and the role of this system in health and disease. Matt’s research team focuses on manipulating the innate immune system for the development of anti-infective and anti-inflammatory strategies. To do so, his lab characterizes the roles of specific innate immune pattern recognition receptors and their downstream signalling pathways/gene products in inflammatory disease processes, as well as in host responses to bacterial pathogens. He has authored >175 journal articles and book chapters, including in Science (2), Science Translational Medicine, Science Immunology, Nature Immunology, Nature Genetics, Nature Communications (4), PNAS USA (6) and Journal of Experimental Medicine (2), and his career publications have accrued >19,000 citations.

Biography

I was awarded a PhD (The University of Queensland) in 1996 for my research under the supervision of Prof David Hume into gene regulation in macrophages, immune cells with important roles in health and disease. I subsequently undertook a short postdoctoral position in the same laboratory, focusing on the activation of macrophages by pathogen products. I then embarked on a CJ Martin post-doctoral training fellowship with Prof Eddy Liew, FRS at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. Returning to The University of Queensland, I had a prominent role within the Cooperative Research Centre for Chronic Inflammatory Diseases (including as UQ node head from 2007-2008) and was appointed as a Group Leader at the IMB in 2007. I have continued fellowship support since this time, including as an ARC Future Fellow, an NHMRC Senior Research Fellow and an NHMRC Leadership Fellow (current, from 2021).

Key discoveries

CpG-containing DNA as an activator of innate immunity, and characterization of the receptor (TLR9) detecting this microbial component.

The IL-1 receptor family member ST2 as a critical regulator of innate immunity and inflammation.

Inflammatory and antimicrobial functions of histone deacetylase enzymes (HDACs) in macrophages.

Effects of the growth factor CSF-1 on inflammatory responses in macrophages.

Mechanisms responsible for divergence in TLR responses between human and mouse macrophages, as well as the functional consequences of such divergence.

TLR-inducible zinc toxicity as an antimicrobial weapon of macrophages and the identification of defects in this pathway in cystic fibrosis.

Host evasion strategies used by the bacterial pathogens Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium and uropathogenic E. coli.

SCIMP as a novel TLR adaptor that mediates TLR tyrosine phosphorylation and selective cytokine outputs.

Genes and pathways associated with the severity of chronic liver disease.

Molecular mechanisms controlling macrophage immunometabolism, as well as associated inflammatory and antimicrobial responses.

Anti-inflammatory and antibacterial activities of the metabolite ribulose-5-phosphate.

Research training

I have supervised or co-supervised 29 completed PhD students and 22 completed honours students, as well as 9 post-doctoral researchers. Many of my former staff and students continue to have active research careers around the world (USA, UK, Europe, Australia), including as independent laboratory heads. I currently supervise 5 PhD students in my laboratory, co-supervise 4 PhD students in other laboratories, and oversee the research activities of 2 post-doctoral researchers in my group. Current and former staff/students have received numerous fellowships and awards during their research careers (e.g. ARC DECRA, NHMRC CJ Martin fellowship, UQ post-doctoral fellowship, Smart State scholarship). I have also examined >25 PhD theses in the fields of innate immunity, inflammation and host defence.

Professional activities

I am an editorial board member of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology and Seminars in Cell & Developmental Biology, and have served as an editorial board member for several other journals in the past e.g. Immunology and Cell Biology. I have served on NHMRC project grant review panels in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2012 (as panel chair) and 2014, NHMRC Ideas panels in 2020 and 2024, NHMRC Investigator panels in 2021 and 2022, as well as a member of the NHMRC RGMS user reference group committee from 2010-2012. I acted as national representative for the Australasian Society of Immunology (ASI) Infection and Immunity special interest group from 2012-2017. At UQ, I served as chair of an animal ethics committee from 2013-2014, and co-organized the UQ Host-Pathogen interaction network from 2007-2010 (prior to the establishment of the Australian Infectious Diseases Research Centre). I am currently Director of Higher Degree by Research at IMB, overseeing HDR student recruitment and training.

I have made extensive contributions to conference organization in my discipline. I co-organized the national TLROZ2009 and TLROZ2012 conferences, I organized the first ever Australasian Society for Immunology (ASI) Infection and Immunity workshop (2009), was chair of the ASI Program Committee and co-organizer of the Infection and Immunity workshop for ASI2017, and I co-organized the annual IMB Inflammation Symposium (2014-2018). I also co-chaired the 2019 World Conference of Inflammation (Sydney, September 2019). In addition, I have been a member of the organizing committee for ASI2009, the 2014 International Cytokine and Interferon Society conference, the Lorne Infection and Immunity conference (2014-2020), and the Brisbane Immunology Group annual meeting (2008 to the present).

My research interests are at the intersection of plant developmental genetics, functional genomics, and molecular and systems biology, following my doctoral and postdoctoral training in the USA. The research effort in my group is focused on harnessing transformative genomics technology to understand the genetics of plant development, and to discover regulatory mechanisms coordinating plant growth and development. We utilize a variety of plant species in our research, from the model plant organism Arabidopsis to grain and horticultural crops like wheat, mango, avocado and macadamia. We employ a range of techniques based on high throughout DNA sequencing to explore gene expression, chromatin accessibility and modifications from single cell to whole plant levels, bioinformatics and computational biology tools to infer genetic components of gene regulatory networks, as well as gene editing technology to evaluate phenotipic consequences of perturbations in gene regulatory networks.

Protein trafficking in disease

The highly co-ordinated movement of the thousands of distinct membrane proteins between the cell surface and intracellular compartments is a critical factor in health and disease. This movement controls the organisation of cells in tissues and communication between cells and their environment. The success of this process depends on the regulated sorting and trafficking of proteins within the highly dynamic endosomal compartments of the cell in processes that are emerging as important drivers of neurodegenerative disease, cancer and metabolic pathologies. An understanding of how endosomal traffic is regulated, and how lysosomal traffic and degradation are modulated, is critical for providing insights into disease and devising new therapeutic approaches.

Major Undergraduate Teaching Activity

SBMS Honours Convenor (BBiomed, BAdvcSci (Cell Biology and Biomedical Science majors) & BSci (Cell Biology and Biomedical Science majors)

SBMS Honours Coordinator (BIOM6191 & BIOM6192)

BIOL2200 – Molecular Cell Biology I Lecturer and practical cooridinator

BIOL3006 – Molecular Cell Biology II Lecturer

Student Supervisor for Research Projects in Biomedical Sciences (SCIE3220/1 or Honours)

I grew up on the Devon coast hunting among the fucoids for crabs and shrimp. I undertook research while at school on the diet of blennies. At university in Swansea, south Wales, and as a marine Biology student I investigated informally the behaviour of intertidal pool dwelling organisms andmore formally (Hons) the ecology of benthic invertebrates. My PhD at the University of Queensland delved into the ecology and evolution of halfbeaks (Hemiramphidae) . My research track-record since reflects both my early interests and those developed subsequent to my PhD. I have published in diverse fields reflecting my general curiosity about marine life, and in particular the dynamic between evolution and action addressing challenges to extant paradigms that my extensive time in the field have prompted.

Professor Alan Tilbrook is nationally and internationally recognised for leading scientific research in animal science and biomedical science (endocrinology, neuroendocrinology, behaviour, stress, and reproduction). He is a global leader in animal welfare science. Professor Tilbrook has an outstanding balanced portfolio in leadership, strategic planning, research, academia, education and government. He is Professor of Animal Welfare in the School of Veterinary Science and has an affiliate appointment in the Centre for Animal Science, Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation at The University of Queensland. Professor Tilbrook is one of three expert members of a Strategy Advisory Group to provide expert strategic advice to the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry to assist the development of the renewed Australian Animal Welfare Strategy. He is Chair and Research Champion of the National Primary Industries Animal Welfare Research, Development and Extension Strategy, represents Universities Australia on the Board of the Australian and New Zealand Council for the Care of Animals in Research and Teaching, represents The University of Queensland on the World Organisation for Animal Health and is a member of the Australian Government’s Live Export Animal Welfare Advisory Group. Professor Tilbrook established The Animal Welfare Collaborative, a university-facilitated network of individuals, companies, and organisations working together to make evidence-based improvements in animal welfare. This was a collaborative venture with The University of Newcastle, The University of Western Australia and The University of Adelaide. He was a founder, Deputy Director and Co-Director of the Animal Welfare Science Centre, was the Research Chief of Livestock and Farming Systems at the South Australian Research and Development Institute and was Deputy Head of the Department of Physiology at Monash University. He has held numerous national and local leadership roles. Professor Tilbrook's research is conceptually driven with a multidisciplinary and integrative approach. He has developed cutting edge research programs across a range of species including sheep, pigs, poultry, cattle, goats, rodents, horses, buffalo and humans. Professor Tilbrook places a huge emphasis on collaboration, training and professional development.

​Dr Tosolini is a cell biologist with a focus at the intersection of axonal transport, neurotrophic factors, motor neurons and skeletal muscle, in the context of motor neuron disease (MND)/amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). His research to date has focused on utilising the connectivity between skeletal muscle and motor neurons for the enhanced delivery of therapeutic agents to the spinal cord (e.g., viral-mediated gene therapy). Building upon these foundations, his postdoctoral training focused on defining the axonal transport dynamics in a number of different experimental conditions, including stimulation with different neurotrophic factors (e.g., BDNF, GDNF), α motor neuron subtypes (i.e., fast motor neurons vs slow motor neurons), and alterations to such factors in MND/ALS pathology.

Dr Tosolini has joined the laboratories of A/Prof. Shyuan Ngo (AIBN) and Dr. Derek Steyn (SBMS) to undertake a novel project looking at assessing a novel therapeutic compound in mouse models of ALS, and in as well as in ALS patient-derived muscle cultures. This project is in collaboration with Dr. Giovanni Nardo at Laboratory of Molecular Neurobiology, Department of Neuroscience, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri IRCCS, Milan, Italy.

​Dr Tosolini completed his PhD in 2015 in the discipline of Anatomy at the School of Medical Sciences, University of New South Wales (UNSW). His PhD project focused on characterising the connectivity between various skeletal muscles and their innervating motor neuron pools, to optimally deliver agents (e.g., retrograde tracers, virus) to the spinal cord motor neurons via retrograde axonal transport. For the work produced in his PhD, Dr Tosolini was awarded a place on the Faculty of Medicine's Dean's List.

In 2016, Dr Tosolini joined the Schiavo Laboratory at University College London (UCL), UK as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate to undertake a project focused on: 1) understanding factors influencing axonal transport dynamics in distinct in vitro and in vivo models of motor neuron disease (MND)/amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and 2) revealing the signalling elements governing neuronal trans-synaptic transfer.

In 2020, Dr Tosolini was awarded a Junior Non-Clinical Post-Doctoral Fellowship by the Motor Neuron Disease Association, UK to expand his work on evaluating axonal transport dynamics in mouse models of motor neuron disease (MND) as well as in diverse human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-derived motor neurons. This project is a direct continuation of my post-doctoral training in the Schiavo laboratory, and included a novel collaboration with Prof. Rickie Patani (Francis Crick Institute, London, UK), to evaluate axonal transport dynamics of diverse organelles in mouse and human models of MND/ALS.

Dr. Kelvin Tuong is a Senior Research Fellow/Group Leader at the Ian Frazer Centre for Children’s Immunotherapy Research (IFCCIR), Child Health Research Centre. He is interested in single-cell analysis of immune cells and harnessing adaptive immune receptors for understanding immune cell development and function in health and in cancer.

Dr. Tuong was born and raised in Singapore and moved to Brisbane, Australia, after completing national service in Singapore and obtaining a Diploma in Biomedical Laboratory Technology (Ngee Ann Polytechnic).

Dr. Tuong was originally trained as a molecular cell biologist and gradually transitioned into bioinformatics during his post-doctoral training. He has been very prolific for an early career researcher, having published >50 articles since 2013, with nearly a third of them as first/co-first or last author and has a stellar track record of pushing out highly collaborative work in prestigious journals including Nature, Cell, Science, Nature Medicine, Nature Biotechnology J Exp Med etc. He has the rare combination of having excellent laboratory and bioinformatics skill sets which provide him a strong command of both fundamental immunology and computational approaches.

Dr. Tuong completed his undergraduate Bachelor's degree in Biomedical science with Class I Honours, followed by his PhD in macrophage cell biology and endocrinology at UQ (Prof. Jenny Stow lab and Emiritus Prof. George Muscat lab, IMB, UQ). He then went on to a post-doc position with Emiritus Prof. Ian Frazer (co-inventor of the Gardasil cervical cancer vaccine, UQ Frazer Institute, Translational Research Institute) where he worked on HPV immunology, cervical cancer and skin cancer. In his time in the Frazer lab, he developed an interest in bioinformatics analyses as a means to tackle and understanding immunology problems in health and disease. He then moved to the UK and joined Prof. Menna Clatworthy's lab at the University of Cambridge and Dr. Sarah Teichmann's lab at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. He has focused his interests on single-cell analyses of tissue immune cells, including T and B cells and their specific receptors (TCR/BCR). He has developed bespoke bioinformatics software, including one tailored for single-cell B Cell Receptor sequencing analysis, Dandelion, which he used in one of the largest combined single-cell transcriptomic, surface proteomic and TCR/BCR sequencing dataset in the world, published in Nature Medicine, and more recently in Nature Biotechnology where we introduced a TCR-based pseudotime trajectory analysis method.

Dr. Tuong is now leading the Computational Immunology group at the IFCCIR and his lab is focused on investigating how pediatric immunity is perturbed during cancer at the cellular level and how this information can be used for creating novel warning systems for children with cancer. For potential students/post-docs/trainees interested in joining the team, please contact Dr. Tuong at z.tuong@uq.edu.au.

Karnaker's research interests are natural products, peptide-based drug discovery and development, formulation chemistry and non-viral gene delivery system. Karnaker co-inventor and developed a novel, bioresponsive disulphide-linker technology, which has been used for non-viral vectors, peptide-therapeutics for pain and cancer treatment. Karnaker is also keen interest for topical, mucosal drug delivery using a range of dendrimer, nano and microbubbles, lipid and polymer-based nanoparticle systems in conjugation with both biological and physical stimuli-responsiveness.

Karnaker received a PhD in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from The University Queensland under the supervision of Dr Harendra Parekh and Dr Defang Ouyang. Prior to PhD, he completed a Master degree in Pharmaceutical Analysis and Quality assurance (India). Also worked as analytical research and development chemist for one year in a Pharma company. Since 2016, he his working with Dr Parekh team on a range of Industry-funded research projects and his role involves from ideation, research plan, execution, product delivery to industry partners on major platforms such as peptide-based therapeutics, gene therapy and sol-gel technology.

Mark is a Professor of food microbiology and serves as a Deputy Head of the School of Agriculture and Food Sustainability (since 2019) and as the current Lead of the Food Science & Technology Discipline in the school. He is also a Deputy Lead of the Innovative Ingredients program at the Food and Beverage Accelerator (FaBA), funded by the Australian Trailblazer university program scheme. He leads a research team focused on food safety, quality, and fermentation. After completing his PhD at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) under Prof Phil Giffard's supervision, he underwent postdoctoral training in Prof John Helmann's laboratory at Cornell University, USA (1999-2000), and at the CRC for Diagnostic Technologies, QUT (2000-01). He subsequently supported his position through a Dairy Australia Fellowship (2001-03) and an NHMRC New Investigator Grant (2004-06). In 2007, he joined UQ as an academic specialising in food microbiology.

Mark's research is currently funded by Agrifutures Australia, and he has received past funding from ARC Discovery, ARC Industrial Transformation Research Hub, ARC Industry Transformation Training Centre, and ARC Linkage schemes. He has also been supported by Horticulture Innovation (HIA), Dairy Innovation Australia Ltd (DIAL), and the Geoffrey Gardiner Dairy Foundation (GGDF). His research primarily focuses on lactic acid bacteria applications, plant-based dairy alternative fermentations, precision fermentation and biocontrol food applications targeting pathogens like Campylobacter and Listeria monocytogenes. He has successfully supervised 20 PhD and MPhil students to completion and currently supervises 3 postdoctoral research fellows and 2 PhD students.

Mark was the Director of the Master of Food Science & Technology program from 2008-2018. He contributes to teaching in food microbiology, food safety, and food biotechnology subjects at UQ. He is a Fellow of both the Australian Society for Microbiology (FASM) and the Australian Institute of Food Science and Technology (FAIFST), and serves on the editorial boards of mBio, the Journal of Food Protection, and Food Australia. He has received the 2017 Keith Farrer Award of Merit and the 2023 President's Award from the Australian Institute of Food Science and Technology (AIFST) for service to the food industry and the Institute. Additionally, Mark currently holds the position of President and Affiliate Council Delegate in the Australian Association for Food Protection (AAFP), the affiliate of the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP).

Dr Turni leads a national and international reference laboratory for respiratory bacterial pathogens where identification, serotyping, genotyping, sequencing and antimicrobial sensitivity testing is performed. Her team works with the poultry, pig and cattle industries, as well as major veterinary pharmaceutical companies around the world. The group performs vaccine efficacy trials, provides advice on vaccine strain selection, performs antimicrobial sensitivity testing and evaluates candidate novel antimicrobial agents. Essentially, the services provided by the group underpins the entire Australian prevention and control programs for the major bacterial respiratory diseases of pigs, poultry and cattle.

Her research has extended beyond vaccines and antibiotic sensitivity to determining optimal sample sites for collecting pathogens, understanding the association of different pathogens with disease, development of animal infection models, classification of bacteria and epidemiology of pathogens. Conny supervises PhD students with diverse projects such as antimicrobial sensitivity studies, risk factors and profiling of pathogenic Escherichia coli associated with avian collibacillosis, alternatives to antibiotics, development of on farm test for a virus and study of epidemiology of a new species of bacteria. She works in collaboration with a team of epidemiologist, veterinarian and virologist on projects in Australia and overseas.

Alice is a multidisciplinary Research Fellow in Professor Catherine Lovelock's Lab who models flows through wetland areas to identify opportunities to improve hydrological connectivity of sites including mangroves, saltmarsh and seagrass by restoring tidal flows. Her research interests include identifying and predicting hydrological restoration opportunities for coastal ecosystems and utilising coastal and marine ecosystems as nature-based solutions for coastal protection.

She completed her PhD (2021) in Environmental Engineering at the University of Queensland, combining the fields of Marine Ecology and Coastal Engineering. Her PhD investigated how interactions between and variability within physical conditions and seagrass characteristics affect each of the three mechanisms; 1) wave attenuation, 2) sediment stabilisation, and 3) sediment accretion, and highlight the implications for coastal protection by seagrass.

Prior to academia, Alice worked as a consultant drainage and coastal engineer for small and large-scale infrastructure projects. Alice is an Engineers Australia Chartered Environmental Engineer and Civil Engineer and an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Alice is currently the Chair of the Early- to Mid-Career Research Committee for the Centre for Marine Science.