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Nik is Associate Professor and Director of the Centre for Business and Organisational Psychology (CBOP) in UQ's School of Psychology. He lived, worked, and studied psychology in Germany, the UK, and Spain, he was awarded his PhD from the University of Exeter (UK) before joining The University of Queensland (Australia) in 2012.

Nik conducts fundamental and applied research to uncover psychological drivers that make groups and organisations fairer, more motivating, more effective, and healthier. His expertise lies in social identity and team work processes in social and organisational contexts including leadership and followership, motivation and creativity, and health and well-being. He uses diverse methods to understand people and organisations including experimental and intervention studies, field and survey research, archival methods, psychometric scale development, and systematic reviews and meta-analysis.

His work has been supported by several bodies including the Australian Research Council (e.g., he was awarded an ARC DECRA fellowship in 2018), the Australian Government, and several industry research-partnerships (with public and private organisations). In 2017, he won the APS Workplace Excellence Award for Leadership Development (together with Alex Haslam and Kim Peters) for his work with industry partners on the 5R leadership development program that seeks to help leaders to develop their leadership ability and enhance team functioning and well-being (https://tinyurl.com/adfu7xbu). He consults to organisations around social and organisational challenges and he is an (IECL-certified) orgnisational coach.

Nik is a co-founding member of the Global Identity Leadership Development (GILD) network of global leadership scholars, and serves on the Editorial Board of the European Journal of Social Psychology, and the flagship journal for leadership research, The Leadership Quarterly. He is Editor (with Michelle Ryan and Floor Rink) of the 'Organisational Psychology: Revisiting the Classic studies' published in 2023 as part of SAGE's classic studies in psychology series (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/organisational-psychology/book269849).

Dr Stehbens is a cell biologist with a long-standing interest in understanding the fundamental mechanisms that regulate cell adhesion and the cytoskeleton. She has made key contributions to the fields of quantitative microscopy, cell motility, adhesion and the cytoskeleton with publications spanning multiple fields from ion channels in brain cancer, to growth factor signalling and autophagy. Her research group (joint between AIBN and IMB) aims to understand the fundamental principles of how cells integrate secreted and biomechanical signals from their local microenvironment to facilitate movement and survival. They have uncovered an entirely novel role for the microtubule cytoskeleton in protecting cells from cortical and nuclear rupture during cell migration in 3D cell migration and invasion. Using patient-derived tumour cells, coupled to genetic alteration and substrate microfabrication, they use state-of-the-art microscopy to understand the mechanisms of cell migratory behaviour required for cancer cells to traverse the body during metastasis.

Her graduate work in the laboratory of Alpha Yap (IMB IQ) discovered how the microtubule cytoskeleton regulates cell-cell adhesion. After which she relocated to The University of California San Francisco (UCSF) to work with Prof Wittmann, a microtubule biologist who is an expert in live-cell spinning disc microscopy. Here she worked at the cutting edge of biology imaging advancements as the greater bay area research community combines several of the top-laboratories for imaging technologies. Supported by a competitive American Heart Fellowship Post-Doctoral fellowship, she identified how microtubules coordinate protease secretion during migration to mediate cell-matrix adhesion disassembly. In 2013, she returned to Australia to expand her imaging-based skill set to focus on models of cancer cell biology. Working with Prof. Pamela Pollock (QUT) she uncovered how activating FGFR2 mutations resulted in a loss of cell polarity potentiating migration and invasion in endometrial cancer. Following this, she worked with Prof. Nikolas Haass (UQDI) a melanoma expert, investigating the role of microtubule +TIP proteins in 3D models of metastatic invasion before starting her lab at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience as an ARC Future Fellow.

Lab Overview

Cells in living organisms navigate highly crowded three-dimensional environments, where their coordinated migration provides the driving force behind developmental and homeostatic tissue maintenance. Our research aims to understand the fundamental principles underpinning how cells integrate secreted and biomechanical signals from their local microenvironment to facilitate cell movement and survival. We apply these findings to understand how cancer cells exploit this to metastasise or spread to distal tissues. We hypothesise that targeting the crosstalk between the cytoskeleton and the mechanical micro-environment, can be developed as an anti-metastatic approach.

Cancer cells spread aggressively through tissues by adapting their cell shape to fit the environment in addition to altering their environment so they can squeeze through tight tissue spaces. Cancer cells sense and become more invasive following changes in the biophysical properties their microenvironment including increases in stromal stiffness and interstitial fluid pressures. These changes make cancer cells mechanically compliant and adaptive to fluctuations in their surrounding environment allowing them to alter their shape to fit matrix physical attributes. As such, cells need mechanisms in place to 1) detect these physical limits, 2) deform their cortex whilst producing mechanical force for forward locomotion and 3) orient themselves to move through tissues. We focus on understanding- at the molecular level- how the microtubule cytoskeleton and microtubule associated proteins called +TIPs, regulate how cells move through physically challenging environments. To do this we utilize cutting-edge methodology including microchannel fabrication, novel light sheet microscopy, quantitative imaging methods in combination with patient-derived cell and 3D hydrogel models to recapitulate the 3D microenvironment.

Our research areas include:

• Cytoskeleton
• Cell adhesion
• Cell migration
• Cell mechanics
• Cancer cell biology

Areas of Expertise

Microtubules and Cell-Cell Adhesion

My early research, in the laboratory of Professor Alpha Yap, focused on understanding how the microtubule cytoskeleton regulates E-cadherin-based cell-cell adhesion. This work was the first to discover that it was the dynamacity, not simply the tethering, of the microtubule cytoskeleton that was critical for E-cadherin accumulation and junctional reinforcement. This was in addition to defining a previously unappreciated role for the cytokinetic machinery (Ect2) in regulating cell-cell adhesion

• Stehbens, S.J., …,and Yap, A. S. (2006). Dynamic Microtubules Regulate the Local Concentration of E-cadherin at Cell-Cell Contacts. Journal of Cell Science 119: 1801-1811
• Ratheesh, A., … Stehbens, S.J., and Yap, A.S. (2012). Centralspindlin and α-catenin regulate Rho signalling at the epithelial zonula adherens. Nature Cell Biology 14(8): 818-28

Microtubules and Cell-Matrix Adhesion

Following my PhD, I relocated to the University of California San Francisco to work with Professor Torsten Wittmann, an expert in live-cell spinning disc microscopy and microtubule functions during cell motility. This work was dogma changing and established how the microtubule interacting protein, CLASP, facilitates targeted protease secretion at focal adhesions during epithelial sheet migration to mediate cell-matrix adhesion disassembly, from the inside-out. It includes the first observation of live, directed exocytosis of the matrix protease MT1MMP at focal adhesions. Our work pioneered the combined application of quantitative live-cell protein dynamics and the application of the novel super resolution imaging technique, SAIM (Scanning Angle Interference Microscopy). During my time at UCSF I learnt how to custom design live-cell microscopes with these live-cell imaging platforms now commercially distributed as the Spectral Diskovery and Andor Dragonfly.

• Stehbens, S.J., … and Wittmann., T (2014). CLASPs link focal-adhesion-associated microtubule capture to localized exocytosis and adhesion site turnover. Nature Cell Biology 16(6): 558-570
• Stehbens, S.J., and Witmann, T. (2014) Analysis of focal adhesion turnover: a quantitative live-cell imaging example. Methods in Cell Biology 123: 335-46
• Stehbens, S.J., and Witmann, T. (2012) Targeting and transport: how microtubules control focal adhesion dynamics. Journal of Cell Biology 20, 198(4): 481-9

Cell Morphology and Cancer Biology

In 2013 I returned to Australia, joining the lab of Pamela Pollock with focus on applying my skill set to have translational impact. Here I described the impact of activating FGFR2b-mutations on endometrial cancer progession. These findings uncovered collective cell polarity and invasion as common targets of disease-associated FGFR2 mutations that lead to shorter survival in endometrial cancer patients.

Stehbens, S.J, Ju, R.J and Pollock P.M. (2018) FGFR2b activating mutations disrupt cell polarity to potentiate migration and invasion in endometrial cancer. Journal of Cell Science, 131(15)

Microtubules in Metastatic Plasticity

In 2017, I joined the Experimental Melanoma Group at UQDI, where I work together with Professor Nikolas Haass in applying innovative live-cell spinning disc confocal imaging and biosensor approaches to understand cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions of melanoma with its microenvironment. Our work explores the adaptive role that the microtubule cytoskeleton plays in facilitating cell shape plasticity, matrix remodelling and resistance to compression during migration in complex 3D matrix models of metastatic melanoma invasion. We are fundamentally interested in understanding the reciprocal biophysical relationship between the microtubule cytoskeleton and the microenvironment during melanoma invasion, with the aim to expand our findings to other metastatic cancers.

Ju, Robert J., Stehbens, Samantha J., Haass, Nikolas K. 2018, ‘The Role of Melanoma Cell-Stroma Interaction in Cell Motility, Invasion, and Metastasis’, Frontiers in Medicine, vol. 5

Assoc. Prof. Stephan is an anatomist and forensic anthropologist with research interests in skeletal analysis and identification in the medicolegal setting. Specifcally these research interests include: craniofacial identification, radiographic comparison, trauma, unmingling of skeletons, biological profile estimations and standards of practice. Carl heads the Laboratory for Human Craniofacial and Skeletal Identification (HuCS-ID Lab), and is Chief Anatomist at The University of Queensland (UQ) School of Anatomy.

Carl is a Fellow of The American Academy of Forensic Sciences and recent past President of the International Association of Craniofacial Identification. Carl served as Special Issue Managing Guest Editor for Forensic Science International, Latest Progress in Craniofacial Identification, 2018. He has been Editorial Board Member of the Journal of Forensic Sciences (2013-23) and Associate Editor of Forensic Anthropology (2016-20). Carl founded the SBMS Skeletal Collection and Skeletisation Program at UQ in late 2014, re-energising forensic osteology within the UQ School of Anatomy and more broadly within the School of Biomedical Sciences.

Carl's prior appointments include forensic anthropology analyst with the Iraq Mass Graves Investigation Team (USA Army Corps of Engineers on behalf of the USA Department of Justice) and ORISE researcher at the USA Department of Defence Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii. He often now serves as an external consultant to the USA Defence POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA). At UQ and as Chief Anatomist and School of Anatomy manager, Carl works very closely with the SBMS Gross Anatomy Facility, in all matters of anatomy teaching, research and governance management.

Working in joint with the GAF Manager, Carl has cross adapted ISO17025 style practices and auditing procedures to the UQ School of Anatomy space and introduced the first Code-of-Practice for Use of Human Tissues within the UQ School of Anatomy since its inauguration (1927). These accreditation-style policies and procedures are further implemented and expanded in the HuCS-ID Lab, providing vital learning experiences and skill sets for Honours and Higher Research Degree students wanting to pursue careers in forensic science. New data analytic, casework and research tools developed by the HuCS-ID Lab and in the statistical environment of R, are freely and routinely released for others to use at the website: CRANIOFACIALidentification.com.

Carl's research outputs currently exceed 100 total scientific publications, including more than 85 full-length research articles..

Elizabeth Stephens is an Associate Professor of Cultural Studies in the School of Communication and Arts. She was previously an Australian Research Council Future Fellow in the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (UQ, 2017-2021), Associate Dean Research at Southern Cross University (2014-2017), and an ARC Australian Research Fellow in the Centre for the History of European Discourses (UQ, 2010-2014). Her background is in gender and sexuality studies, and her current research focuses on three interconnected themes:

• popular histories and representations of science, medicine and technology
• collaborations between the arts and sciences
• the critical medical humanities

A new research project examines the history and culture of work, productivity and fatigue. Elizabeth is author of over 100 publications, including four books: Artificial Life: The Art of Automating Living Systems (University of Western Australia Press, 2025), co-authored with Oron Catts, Sarah Collins, and Ionat Zurr, A Critical Genealogy of Normality (University of Chicago Press, 2017), co-authored with Peter Cryle; Anatomy as Spectacle: Public Exhibitions of the Body from 1700 to the Present (Liverpool University Press, 2011), and Queer Writing: Homoeroticism in Jean Genet's Fiction (Palgrave 2009).

She welcomes inquiries from potential PhD students, and can offer supervision in the following areas:

• cultural studies of science, medicine and/or technology
• art/science collaboration
• medical humanities
• digital cultures
• gender and sexuality studies

I began my scientific career with a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and Chemistry, followed by a Bachelor of Science with First Class Honours in Chemistry from Massey University, New Zealand. My honours project focused on developing hydrogels for controlled peptide release in the gut. I then pursued a PhD at Massey University, working on synthetic anti-cancer drugs based on cyclodextrins.

After completing my PhD, I worked as a Research Officer at the New Zealand Veterinary Pathology Epicentre, refining my diagnostic research skills. I continued my career as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Kansas State University, contributing to the detection and surveillance of zoonotic diseases in the swine industry.

Currently, at the University of Queensland, I integrate my expertise in synthetic peptides with vaccine development. My research bridges medical and agricultural biotechnology, focusing on innovative adjuvants and vaccines that span medicinal chemistry, nanotechnology, and immunology, aiming to enhance both health outcomes and agricultural practices.

Michele Sterling is a NHMRC Leadership Fellow (leadership level 2), Professor in the Recover Injury Research Centre, Program Lead of the Musculoskeletal Injury research program and Director of the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence (CRE) in Better Health Outcomes for Compensable Injury. She is a Musculoskeletal Physiotherapist and a Fellow of the Australian College of Physiotherapists. She is internationally recognised for her research on whiplash-associated disorders. Michele’s research focusses on the mechanisms underlying the development of chronic pain after injury, predictive algorithms for outcomes and developing effective interventions for musculoskeletal injury and pain. She has received over $50M in research funding from the NHMRC, MRFF, ARC and industry partners, including 7 NHMRC project grants, and 2 Centres of Research Excellence. Michele holds editorial roles with several leading journals and textbooks, including being a Section Editor of PAIN and co-editors of the 4th and 5th editions of the seminal physiotherapy textbook 'Grieve's Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy). Michele has published over 325 scientific works and has received numerous awards for her research including the Research Australia Research Translation award in 2023. Examples of recognition as a national and international leader in the field include:

2024- Secretary of the Executive Council - International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP)

2022-2024 Chair Scientific Program Committee World Pain Congress, Amsterdam 2024

2023-2027 NHMRC Leadership Fellow (Level 2) for research of road traffic injury.

2023 Research Australia Research Translation award

2016-2022 Council member International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP)

After graduating from the University of Melbourne in 1997, Allison spent 2 years in mixed practice in Gawler, SA, before traveling to the USA to undertake a residency in Large Animal Internal Medicine at the Ohio State University. She completed her Masters of Science and was awarded Diplomate status of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM) in 2002. She then became a faculty member at Auburn University in Alabama and competed a fellowship in Emergency and Critical Care and obtained Diplomate status in 2007. Allison worked as a specialist and taught veterinary students at Auburn University for 12 years, and has over 300 publications/book chapters/scientific presentations/conference lectures. She was awarded 30 research grants and has presented research throughout the world in the areas of equine endocrinology, fungal disease, neurology, infectious disease and pharmacology. Allison resigned her position as Professor of Equine Medicine at Auburn University in 2015 and moved back to Australia. She spent some time in small animal, mixed and equine practice seeing primarily emergency cases whlist actuing as a Director on the Veterinary Surgeons Board of Victoria. She then completed her PhD at the Swedish Agricultural University in Uppsala and commenced as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Queensland's School of Veterinary Science. Allison enjoys speaking at international conferences. Her current research interests include equine endocrinology, pharmacokinetics and tthe local Queensland specific probelms of Hendra virus diagnsotics and vaccination responses and treatment of Insect Bite Hypersensitivity. Because of her broad prior experieinces she is able to supervise graduate students and undertake collaborative research working with a number of veterinary species.

Philip holds a PhD in fire ecology and has worked in the field of nature conservation and national park management in Namibia, South Africa and Australia. While working in nature conservation he gained extensive experience in wildlife capture, translocation and management, fire ecology and biodiversity conservation fuelling his passion for research and working in the field. In Australia Philip lectured in wildlife management, wildfire behaviour, fire ecology and other biological/conservation science courses at Charles Darwin University for a number of years.He has presented internationally on topics ranging from invasive species to wildfire and fire ecology, and has lectured in wildfire behaviour, fire ecology and other environmental science courses. Philip is a Certified Wildlands Fire Ecologist through the Association for Fire Ecology, and is undertaking further studies in veterinary and wildlife science.

Philip is a Research Fellow with the Applied Behavioural Ecology and Ecological Research Unit (ABEERU) in the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at the University of South Africa.

Dr Michael Edward Stewart completed his PhD at the University of Queensland in 2013. His first monograph, based on this work, The Soldier's Life: Martial Virtues and Manly Romanitas in the early Byzantine Empire was published in 2017. His second book, Masculinity, Identity, and Power-Politics in the Age of Justinian: A Study of Procopius was published in 2020 with Amsterdam University Press. He co-edited with David Alan Parnell and Conor Whately the Routledge Handbook on Identity in Byzantium (Routledge) 2022.

Among his current and forthcoming projects are an edited volume for Amsterdam University Press, 12 Generals: Portraits of Generalship & Authority in the Age of Justinian (2025) and a monograph under contract for Routledge: Marriage, Alliance, and Social Networks in the Age of Theodora and Justinian. Dr. Stewart has been an invited speaker for the ICS (School of Advanced Studies University of London) and at the University of Venice.

In the past decade he has published several articles for wider audiences on the Late Roman army, the historian Procopius, the Arab conquests and other periods of Roman/Byzantine history for magazines such as Desperta Ferro, Medieval Warfare Magazine, Medieval World: Culture & Conflict, and medievalists.net.

Dr. Stewart has been interviewed on numerous platforms including the newbooksnetwork.com and Agnus.net. He has peer reviewed book manuscripts for Palgrave Macmillan, Brill, Bloomsbury, and Routledge as well as articles for Byzantion, Classica Cracoviensia, Studies in Late Antiquity, Eos, Revista de Historian, Journal of Ancient Civilizations, and Journal of Late Antique, Islamic and Byzantine Studies

Associate Professor Steyn is a leading expert in neurodegenerative disease research, specializing in the metabolic and physiological aspects of Motor Neurone Disease (MND). He currently directs a comprehensive translational research program at the University of Queensland, focusing on the interplay between metabolism and disease progression in MND, and leads key projects investigating the impact of metabolic dysfunction, appetite dysregulation, and hypermetabolism on patient outcomes. His work prioritizes the integration of pre-clinical models, clinical studies, and innovative digital health technologies to advance understanding of the heterogeneity in MND, patient care and therapeutic development.

Associate Professor Steyn’s career began with detailed investigations into the hypothalamic regulation of energy homeostasis, growth, and reproduction. He developed industry-standard methodologies for evaluating hormone release patterns in rodent models, particularly concerning growth hormone regulation. In 2015, he transitioned to focus on neurodegenerative diseases, establishing a research platform at UQ that has significantly advanced the analysis of metabolic phenotypes in MND.

His current research projects include the MEND-MND study, which explores how altered energy metabolism influences disease progression, and the EATT4MND study, which examines the consequences of appetite loss and impaired body weight regulation on disease outcomes. Through collaboration with industry partners, he is also developing novel therapeutic strategies and refining wearable digital health technologies for precise, real-time monitoring of disease progression, including the validation of actigraphy-based measures as clinical trial biomarkers.

Dr Stjepanović is a senior research fellow at the National Centre for Youth Substance Use Research (NCYSUR). His work focusses on how drug use patterns are changing, particularly as a consequence of public policy. This includes, for example, understanding who vapes cannabis, if psychedelics are being used to self-treat physical and psychiatric symptoms, and what the effect psychedelic microdosing has. Additionally, he is interested in using experimental methods to understand substance use, leveraging his background in experimental psychology and cognitive neuroscience.