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Treasure McGuire graduated with a Bachelor of Pharmacy and a Bachelor of Science (Pharmacology) from the University of Queensland UQ). She also completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Clinical Pharmacy and Graduate Certificate in Higher Education at UQ. In 2005, she completed her PhD in the School of Population Health, UQ, entitled Consumer medicines call centres: a medication liaison model of pharmaceutical care.

She has held a sennior conjoint appointment between the School of Pharmacy, UQ and Mater Pharmacy, Mater Health, Brisbane since 1996, and was appointed as a Senior Lecturer in 2006. In her Mater role, she has been Assistant Director of Pharmacy (Practice and Development) over this same time period. At UQ, she coordinates a graduate clinical pharmacy course within the Master of Clinical Pharmacy program. In 2016, this program received a UQ Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences Team Award for Programs that Enhance Learning and in 2017 a citation in the University of Queensland Award for Excellence in Teaching and Learning.

Treasure’s research is translational, focussing on patient centred-care and quality use of medicines in the domains of medicines information, evidence-based practice, medication safety, reproductive health, complementary medicines, communicable diseases and interprofessional education. She is a Fellow of the Australian College of Pharmacy and a Fellow of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia.In recognition of her services to medicines information, she received the Lilly International Fellowship in Hospital Pharmacy and the Bowl of Hygeia of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia. In 2015, she was the recipient of the Sr Eileen Pollard Medal (Mater Research-UQ) for excellence in incorporating research into clinical care provision.

Jared is a proud Yuwi man, pharmacist and early-career researcher with interests spanning from culturally safe and effective pharmacy practice through to new technologies for pharmaceutical development and delivery. After graduating from UQ with a Bachelor of Pharmacy (Honours) in 2012, he worked as a community pharmacist before returning to undertake a PhD in pharmaceutical sciences, focusing on discovering new drugs for Alzheimer’s disease. Throughout his PhD, Jared developed an interest in teaching and tutored for many pharmacy courses. Ultimately this led to his current role as a Lecturer with UQ School of Pharmacy upon finishing his PhD in 2021. Jared also works as a clinical and research pharmacist with the Institute of Urban Indigenous Health (IUIH).

Dr Patty Hernández Mitre is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Antimicrobial Optimisation Group lead by Professor Jason Roberts, and part of the CRE-RESPOND (Centre of Research Excellence - REduce the burden of antimicrobial reSistance through oPtimal persONalised Dosing) team at the University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research located in the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital Campus at Herston, in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

Patty is a Certara Certified NCA Analyst using Phoenix WinNonlin Version 8.3 and performs non-compartmental pharmacokinetic analysis of Phase I investigational drugs for the pharmaceutical industry, as well as population pharmacokinetic modelling for clinical collaborators of a variety of drugs including antiepileptics, antimicrobials and antifungals, using NONMEM and Pmetrics.

She currently leads the data analysis of the Screening Anti-Fungal Exposure in Intensive Care Units (SAFE-ICU) study, a multi-national study across 12 countries that aims to develop optimised antibiotic dosing guidelines for ICU patients with life-threatening infections that account for patient characteristics.

Dr Moniruzzaman is working as a Senior Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the UQ Faculty of Medicine and PA Hospital of Metro South Health. His research focuses on the molecular pathobiology of inflammatory diseases, in particular, how mucosal epithelial cells and gut microbiota regulate immune function in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and contribute to different diseases, including inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) and functional GI symptoms called disorders of gut-brain interactions (DGBI). Dr Moniruzzaman received his PhD from The University of Queensland in 2020, where he studied how the interleukin(IL)-20 family of cytokines (IL-20, IL-22, and IL-24) regulate mucosal epithelial and immune function in inflammatory and infectious diseases, including ulcerative colitis (UC) and respiratory syncytial virus. After graduation, he received postdoctoral training in the IBD Lab at Mater Research Institute – UQ and Nanomedicine Lab at UQ School of Pharmacy, where he investigated the role of cannabinoid receptors in UC and colitis-associated colorectal cancer, development of cannabinoid formulations to treat UC, and involvement of autophagy gene Atg7 in 6-Thioguanin mediated protection from UC. He was awarded a highly competitive UQ Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (2021-2022) and UQ School of Pharmacy Strategic Grant (2022) to study cannabinoids and Atg7 in UC, Translational Research Institute LINC Grant (2023) to study cannabinoids in palliative care of patients with advanced cancer, and Metro South Health SERTA (2024-2025) to study non-antibiotic treatment of SI dysbiosis in patients with DGBI. His current work focuses on how small intestinal dysbiosis controls the mucosal immune microenvironment and contributes to the pathogenesis of DGBI, including irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), functional dyspepsia (FD), and gastroparesis.

Greg studies cellular signalling in disease and the identification of new drug targets. Greg leads the Calcium Signalling Therapeutics Team (CaSTT) in the School of Pharmacy at UQ.

His lab specializes in the development and application of genetically encoded calcium indicators for high-content imaging in live cells. His team focuses on integrating these technologies into high-throughput assays that are critical for drug discovery efforts targeting calcium-mediated signaling pathways. The group has developed and utilized high-content imaging platforms to investigate calcium signaling in various cell types. These platforms enable the team to conduct large-scale screenings and these have been instrumental in identifying novel therapeutic targets.

Greg has established a research program with research funding via NHMRC, ARC, Queensland Cancer Council, Society of Biomolecular Screening, Department of Defense (USA) and other grants and collaboration with Pharmaceutical companies. His interests are signal transduction in disease, calcium transporters as drug targets and biomolecular screening. His work has led to patents and projects towards commercialization for new therapies for cancer.

In 2006 he received a UQ Foundation research excellence award and in 2016 he received the UQ Research Higher Degree Supervision Excellence Award - video link. Greg has also recieved a Research Mentorship Award (HaBS, 2017) and an award for Excellence in Leadership (UQ, 2016).

Dr Moyle’s laboratory (www.moylelab.com) uses cutting edge technologies for the synthesis of peptides, protein expression, and protein semi-synthesis to gain insights into the functional roles played by various biochemical pathways, to engineer better protein and peptide therapeutics, and to improve the delivery characteristics of various therapeutic molecules. Specific current areas of interest are detailed below:

1. Subunit Vaccine Development: methods to develop improved vaccines through the combination of recombinant and synthetic approaches to improve immunopotency and tailor immune responses (links to reseach articles on semisynthetic vaccines and peptide vaccines; reviews on vaccine development).
2. Delivery Systems for Nucleic Acid-Based Molecules: multi-component synthetic and recombinant approaches to improve the cellular uptake, and targeted delivery of various oligonucleotide molecules (e.g. siRNA, mRNA, pDNA and CRISPR-Cas9) as an exciting approach to treat or prevent various diseases (links to research articles and reviews).
3. Deciphering the Roles of Post-Translational Modifications: The combination of peptide synthesis and protein semisynthesis to enable the production of large amounts of site-specifically modified species, that can be used to deconvolute the roles played by various post-translational modifications (links to research articles).
4. Peptide/Protein Drugs and Delivery: The study of methods to improve the delivery characteristics of peptide/protein drugs (e.g. poor oral absorption, instability to chemical/enzymatic degradation, and the inability to reach their site/s of action) through chemical engineering approaches.
5. New Approaches for Superbugs: the development of antivirulence approaches, and formulations (e.g. various types of nanoparticles - silver, protein, mesoporous silica), which reduce the ability for microbes to cause disease, and make them more readily treated with antimicrobials, by providing access to synergistic combinations, and reducing the risk of antimicrobial resistance.

Information for Potential Students:

The Moyle lab considers applications from potential students and postdoctoral fellows with an interest in: i) infection control (including subunit vaccine and antimicrobial development); ii) delivery systems for peptide therapeutics; iii) targeted delivery systems; iv) studying the function of posttranslational modifications; and v) delivery systems for nucleic acid-based therapeutics (e.g. siRNA, shRNA, miRNA, mRNA, pDNA and CRISPR-Cas9). If you are interested in working in any of these areas please feel free to contact Dr Moyle (p.moyle@uq.edu.au). Please ensure that you supply an up to date CV; describe why you would like to work in the Moyle lab; provide a listing of publications (preferably with impact factors and citation counts); and indicate what skills you would bring to the lab. Detailed information on our laboratory is available at www.moylelab.com. Preference will be given to students and postdoctoral fellows who have their own funding.

Dr Moyle Biosketch:

Dr Moyle (H-index 30, >2600 citations; >95 publications; 13/8/2024; Google Scholar, ORCID, ResearcherID, and Publons profiles) received a PhD (Dec 2006) and a Bachelor of Pharmacy (Hons I) (Dec 2001) from The University of Queensland (UQ); graduated from the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia pre-registration pharmacist-training course (Nov 2002); and is registered with the Pharmacy Board of Australia. He currently works as an Associate Professor in the UQ School of Pharmacy, where he has been based since 2014.

Dr Moyle works in the fields of medicinal chemistry, chemical biology, and drug formulation, investigating subunit vaccine development, outcomes associated with histone post-translational modifications, and methods to improve the delivery characteristics of oligonucleotide (e.g. siRNA and pDNA), peptide, and protein therapeutics. During his PhD, Dr Moyle developed methods that enabled the synthesis of pure, lipid adjuvanted peptide vaccines, using advanced chemical ligation techniques. In addition, the conjugation of mannose to combined prophylactic/therapeutic human papillomavirus type-16 vaccines, to target dendritic cells, was demonstrated to significantly improve vaccine anti-tumour activity. This work, conducted with leading researchers at the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute (Prof Michael Good & Dr Colleen Olive), established Dr Moyle’s national and international profile in the field of vaccine development, resulting in 11 peer reviewed papers, including top journals in the field (J Med Chem; J Org Chem), as well as 6 review articles and 2 invited book chapters.

Dr Moyle undertook his postdoctoral training in the laboratory of one of the world’s premier chemical biologists, Professor Tom Muir (the Rockefeller University, NY, USA; now at Princeton University, NJ, USA). During this time he developed an extensive knowledge of techniques for protein expression, bioconjugation, bioassays, and proteomics, which represent an essential skill set required for this proposal. As part of this work, Dr Moyle developed novel synthetic routes to generate site-specific ADP-ribose conjugated peptides and proteins. This research was hailed as a major breakthrough in the field, leading to several collaborations, and an exemplary publication in the prestigious chemistry journal JACS. This vast body of work identified the enzyme (PARP10) responsible for mono-ADP-ribosylation of histone H2B, and demonstrated interactions between this modification and several proteins, including BAL, which is associated with B cell lymphomas. In addition, a number of robust chemical methods were developed to enable the synthesis of a complete library of methyl-arginine containing histones, which were incorporated into synthetic chemically-defined chromatin to investigate the site-specific effects of arginine methylation on histone acetylation. This work led to a collaboration with colleagues at Rockefeller to investigate the effects of histone arginine methylation on transcription.

Teaching:

Dr Moyle teaches into the following subjects in the UQ School of Pharmacy.

• PHRM3011 (Quality Use of Medicines) - course coordinator
• PHRM4021 (Integrated Pharmaceutical Development)
• PHRM3021 (Dosage Form Design)
• PHRM2040 (Drug Discovery)

Awards:

2016 - Health and Behavioural Sciences (HABS) faculty commendation for Early Career Citations for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning (ECCOSL)

2015 - ChemMedChem top 10 cited article of 2013 (link)

2014 - Highest ranked NHMRC development grant (2013; APP1074899)

2013 - Institute for Molecular Biology (IMB) Division of Chemistry and Structural Biology Prize

Professor Nissen is Director, and Taylor Family Chair, of the Centre for the Business and Economics of Health (CBEH), Faculty of Business Economics and Law at The University of Queensland. She has been a prominent health practitioner leader, educator, researcher, and implementation scientist nationally and internationally for more than 25 years. A pharmacist by training, her research has driven major health system change, notably leading to the introduction of immunization services by pharmacists throughout Australia (Queensland Pharmacists Immunization Pilot (QPIP), (2014-15) and more recently the Urinary Tract Infection Pharmacy Pilot – Queensland (UTIPP-Q, 2020-21), both Australian firsts. Before joining UQ, Lisa was previously Head of the School of Clinical Sciences at QUT (2012-22) overseeing the training for 2,500 students per year across seven clinical disciplines. In late 2022 she returned to UQ, taking on a new and innovative role as Director of the EvolveHealth Health Workforce Optimisation Program at CBEH. This program is part of the seven strategic Health Research Accelerator (HERA) initiatives announced by UQ in 2022, which will address some of the most pressing health and medical challenges of today.

Lisa has had career-long leadership and executive roles with national boards and state committees including the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia, Family Planning Queensland, and Hepatitis Queensland. Professor Nissen was a ministerial appointment to the Queensland Health Interim Pharmacy Round Table overseeing the implementation of a council to govern pharmacy ownership in Queensland. She is also a ministerial appointment to the Queensland Health Voluntary Assisted Dying Review Board. She is on governance boards various other health organization groups including the Optometry Council of Australia and New Zealand Board, and the AHPRA scheduled medicines expert committee.

Professor Nissen focuses on strategic collaborations across the healthcare continuum with key partnerships in government, professional boards, associations, university, and other industry and consumer groups. These have led to the implementation of multiple complex practice change interventions. She has a proven record of bringing together these groups to focus on establishing multidisciplinary care teams to provide consumer-centric health care. This often means challenging currently held views of the scope of practice of health professionals, drawing on her high-level collaboration and negotiation skills.

Professor Nissen has supervised more than 80 higher degree research students and published over 180 peer-reviewed journal articles, and 200 professional publications. She has given more than 250 invited keynotes, plenary, and workshop presentations. In the past 5 years she has generated more than $9M in competitive research funding.

Dr Osborne, BSc(Hons), MAgSc, PhD is an epidemiologist and toxicologist with research interests in using environmental epidemiology to examine aetiology and pathological pathways of disease. He has worked on a range of projects examining environmental exposures and health outcomes including exposure to metals, pollen, mould, chronic exposures to low levels of chemicals, pesticide and cyanotoxins. He also has experience examining how exposure to the environment may increase health and wellbeing (green/bluespace and solar irradiance and vitamin D).

He has developed skills in the linkage of environmental and population health data in an interdisciplinary context, and has expertise in design, linkage, hypothesis formulation, analysis, interpretation, translation and dissemination.

He has experience in designing and collecting epidemiological data and initiating studies of primary collected data (HealthIron, HealthNuts, Cornwall Housing Study, Survey of Recreational Water Users, Monitoring of Meniere’s Symptoms).

He also has used secondary data from existing cohorts (NHANES, UK Biobank, 1958 Birth Cohort, British Household Survey, Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study, South Asian Clinical Toxicology Research Collaboration), as well as linkage of previously unconnected “big data” sets in mashups on novel platforms (MEDMI project). He has used traditional statistical methods such as linear/logistic regression, time series analysis, interrupted time series and Cox regression to ascertain associations between exposures and outcomes, as well as integrating confirmatory structured equation modelling with environmental/health data sets to construct conceptual diagrams of associations and assess pathway directions.

He currently researches pollen and health outcomes as well as chronic kidney disease in low to middle income countries.

He has supervised 6 PhD students to completion (2 primary supervisor, 4 co-supervisor) and currently supervises 4 PhD student. He has been associate editor of Archives of Environmental and Occupational Health since 2011 and is on the editorial board of International Journal of Epidemiology and Pediatric Allergy, Immunology and Pulmonology. He is a member of Australasian Epidemiology Association, International Society of Environmental Epidemiology and International Epidemiology Association.

He has previously worked at the Universities of NSW, Sydney, Exeter, Melbourne, Portsmouth, Queensland and Flinders, the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and the Cancer Council Victoria. He completed his PhD at the School of Population Health, University of Queensland/National Research Centre of Environmental Toxicology working on the toxicology and public health effects of cyanobacterial toxins in southeast Queensland.

Harendra's research interests are in the area of synthetic pharmaceutical chemistry, pharmaceutics as applied to nano-carriers, and advanced non-viral drug/gene delivery system design, synthesis and evaluation. His team at PACE have been instrumental in developing highly versatile micro- & nanobubble formulations, which when used in-conjuction with ultrasound, pave the way for improved rates of 'on-demand' drug delivery and release in target tissue. Harendra also has a keen interest in developing bioresponsive drug/gene delivery systems with current engagement with pharma partners, globally, to commercialise his platforms. Separately, Dr Parekh has been developing a program to reformulate TCMs, in collaboration with researchers at a leading Chinese research institute; the outcomes of this work was aired across Asia in a BBC World News story, and showcased (TV & radio) by the Australian Academy of Science, National Touring Series.

BScPharm(Hon I), PhD (Nottingham)

Harendra completed his BSc in pharmacy (UK) and registered as a Pharmacist in 1998. He went onto undertake his PhD in Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Nottingham in the same year. Under the supervision of Dr B. Kellam and Dr. S. R. Chhabra he investigated the development of novel linkers for solid phase peptide and glycopeptide synthesis. Harendra was awarded his PhD in 2002, and after a short time working in community pharmacy in the UK relocated to Australia and took up a position as research officer in the School of Chemistry at UQ. He continues to be a member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of GB and is also registered with the AHPRA (pharmacist) in QLD.

During his post-doctoral tenure he explored the area of non-viral gene delivery via chemical synthesis of novel dendrimeric systems. Emphasis was on the treatment of age-related macular degeneration and in 2004 he received Uniquest's Trailblazer Prize for commercialisation potential. In May 2005 Dr Parekh was appointed Lecturer within the School of Pharmacy, and promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2011. He also holds adjunct positions at Manipal University (India), and the National University of Singapore's Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Institute (NNI).

Research Interests

• Advanced Drug Delivery and Nanomedicine 1.Advanced drug delivery methods (controlled release dosage forms such as tablets, granules and microspheres) 2. Biomaterials as next generation adjuvant for vaccine delivery 3. Surface modified nanomaterials (Silica, Polymer, Liposomes) 4. Programmable nanoparticales for oral drug delivery and targeting 5. Translocation of nanoparticles after oral drug delivery (In-vitro and In-vivo)

Qualifications

• Master of Pharmaceutical Science, Gujarat University
• Bachelor of Pharmacy, Gujarat University

Dr Rash completed his Honours (1996) and PhD (2001) on the pharmacological activity of spider venoms at the Department of Pharmacology, Monash University in the group of Professor Wayne Hodgson. After 18 months as an Assistant Lecturer at Monash Pharmacology, he was awarded an INSERM/NH&MRC Post-doctoral Fellowship to work in the group of Prof. Michel Lazdunski at the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology in Antibes, France. It was here that he became involved in discovery and characterisation of venom peptides that act on acid-sensing ion channels, voltage-gated sodium channels and other pain related channels. Upon returning to Australia to the Institute for Molecular Bioscience (The University of Queensland), he established an ASIC research program and was awarded an NH&MRC project grant as CIA to investigate the molecular basis of the interaction of PcTx1 and APETx2 with ASIC1a and ASIC3 respectively. Dr Rash was appointed as senior lecturer in Pharmacology in the School of Biomedical Sciences in early 2016 where he continues his research on identifying novel bioactive peptides from animal venoms, unravelling the molecular basis for their specific channel interactions and their use as research tools and potential therapeutic lead molecules.

Professor Jason Roberts is Director of the University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research (UQCCR), an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Leadership Fellow L2 at The University of Queensland. He is also a Consultant Clinical Pharmacist at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital and Interim Director of the Herston Infectious Diseases Institute (HeIDI). He is Director of the NHMRC-funded Centre for Research Excellence RESPOND which is based at UQCCR. He is a clinician-scientist with a strong interest in research and his principal research theme is optimization of antimicrobial dosing in the critically ill. Prof Roberts has authored over 650 published papers and book chapters on this topic, has been awarded over $55 million in grants and has supervised >20 PhD students to completion.

Prof Roberts was recognised as Australia’s leading researcher in two separate categories, Critical Care and Communicable Diseases, by the Australian’s 2019 Research Magazine.

He has been invited to present his results at major international conferences in critical care, infectious diseases, pharmacy, nephrology, transplant and safety. He has served on the Critical Review Panel for ATS/IDSA Guidelines of HAP, HCAP and VAP and the Australian Therapeutic Guidelines - Antibiotic and the 2021 Surviving Sepsis Guidelines. He is the Past Chair of the Working Group for Antimicrobial Use in ICU for the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine and an Executive Member of the PK/PD Group (EPASG) within the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID).

He is Section Editor for the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents and an Associate Editor of the Journal or Pharmacy Practice and Research, the journal for the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia and an Associate Editor for Pharmacotherapy and Aanesthesiology Pain and Critical Care Medicine journal. He has convened >50 seminars/conferences including being co-convenor for Medicines Management 2013, The National Conference for Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia.

He also engages with Industry to perform studies that develop optimised antibiotic dosing regimens that maximise antibiotic efficacy for testing in clinical trials or for use in special patient populations (e.g. critically ill, pneumonia, dialysis).

Michael (Mike) Roberts is a NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow and Emeritus Professor of Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics and Director of the Therapeutics Research Centre in the Diamantina Institute at The University of Queensland, which is based in the Translational Research Institute adjacent to the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane, Qld, Australia. He is also Professor of Therapeutics & Pharmaceutical Science at the University of South Australia with laboratories in the Basil Hetzel Institute at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Adelaide, South Australia.

Dr Rosengren is an Associate Professor at the School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Queensland. He completed his PhD, which focused on structure-activity relationships of antimicrobial peptides, under the supervision of Professor David Craik at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience, UQ, in 2003. After two years of post-doctoral work at IMB he moved to Sweden in 2005 to take up a position as Assistant Professor at Linnaeus University, Kalmar. During 2008-2009 he held a joint appointment between Linnaeus University and Uppsala University. In 2009 he was awarded the Swedish “Docent” title before returning to University of Queensland as a Senior Research Officer, funded by an NHMRC Career Development Award and an ARC Future Fellowship. Dr Rosengren’s research focuses on structure activity relationships of bioactive peptides, in particular peptide hormones and the use of NMR spectroscopy in the design of novel peptide drug leads.

Dr Ben Ross is a chemist with interests in medicinal chemistry, computer-aided drug design, virtual screening, synthetic chemistry, enzyme inhibitors, ion channel modulators, antivirals, amyloid diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, and cancer.

Follow Dr Ben Ross and his team on Twitter: @RossChemLab ||| Google Scholar: Benjamin P. Ross ||| ResearcherID: A-9573-2012 ||| ORCID: 0000-0002-1899-8484 ||| Scopus Author ID:7401608823 ||| Group Web Page: www.drbenross.com

Research Interests

The main focus of Dr Ben Ross's research is the application of computer-aided drug design and synthetic chemistry to create new drug candidates for cancer, viral infections, and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease. His team's novel molecules are evaluated using a variety of biochemical, biophysical, and cell-based screening assays, as well as animal models of disease, both within their lab and in partnership with local and international collaborators. Consideration of drug-likeness is an integral part of the design process, since good ADMET properties are crucial for their molecules to reach the clinic.

Biography

Ben Ross graduated with a First-Class Honours Degree in Chemistry (1999) and then moved to the UQ School of Pharmacy where he gained a Doctorate in the field of Medicinal Chemistry (2004). He worked in the School of Molecular and Microbial Sciences as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with Dr Ross McGeary for two years (2004-2006) during which he completed the synthesis of a variety of biologically useful molecules. In June 2006 Ben was appointed to a Lectureship within the UQ School of Pharmacy. In the first half of 2012 he was a Guest Researcher in the Department of Biochemistry and Structural Biology, Lund University, Sweden. In 2013 Ben was promoted to Senior Lecturer at UQ. A general theme of his research is medicinal chemistry, specifically the application of synthetic chemistry and molecular modeling to discover novel molecules with application as drugs or tools for research. Ben's team has published extensively in journals having a moderate-to-high impact factor in their specialised area of research (e.g. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, Nanoscale, Food Chemistry).

Selected Primary Research Articles

Bifunctional Succinylated ε-Polylysine Coated Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles for pH-Responsive and Intracellular Drug Delivery Targeting the Colon. C.T.H. Nguyen, R.I. Webb, L.K. Lambert, E. Strounina, E.C. Lee, M.-O. Parat, M.A. McGuckin, A. Popat, P.J. Cabot, B.P. Ross*. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 2017, 9, 9470-9483. doi:10.1021/acsami.7b00411 (2016 JIF 7.5, Quartile 1)

Discovery and Structure-Activity Relationships of a Highly Selective Butyrylcholinesterase Inhibitor by Structure-Based Virtual Screening. S.N. Dighe, G.S. Deora, E. De la Mora, F. Nachon, S. Chan, M.-O. Parat, X. Brazzolotto*, B.P. Ross*. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 2016, 59, 7683-7689. doi:10.1021/acs.jmedchem.6b00356 (Featured on the front cover of the journal: http://pubs.acs.org/toc/jmcmar/59/16) (2016 JIF 6.3, Quartile 1)

GAG mimetic functionalised solid and mesoporous silica nanoparticles as viral entry inhibitors of herpes simplex type 1 and type 2 viruses. E.C. Lee, N. Davis-Poynter*, C.T.H. Nguyen, A.A. Peters, G.R. Monteith, E. Strouina, A. Popat*, B.P. Ross*. Nanoscale 2016, 8, 16192-16196. doi:10.1039/C6NR03878F (2016 JIF 7.4, Quartile 1)

Metal chelation, radical scavenging and inhibition of Aβ42 fibrillation by food constituents in relation to Alzheimer’s disease. S. Chan, S. Kantham, V.M. Rao, M.K. Palanivelu, H.L. Pham, P.N. Shaw, R.P. McGeary, B.P. Ross*. Food Chemistry 2016, 199, 185-194. doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2015.11.118 (2016 JIF 4.5, Quartile 1)

"Click" Assembly of Glycoclusters and Discovery of a Trehalose Analogue that Retards Aβ40 Aggregation and Inhibits Aβ40-induced Neurotoxicity. H. Rajaram, M.K. Palanivelu, T.V. Arumugam, V.M. Rao, P.N. Shaw, R.P. McGeary, B.P. Ross*. Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters 2014, 24, 4523-4528. doi:10.1016/j.bmcl.2014.07.077 (2014 JIF 2.4, Quartile 3)

Enzyme-Responsive Controlled Release of Covalently Bound Prodrug from Functional Mesoporous Silica Nanospheres. A. Popat, B.P. Ross, J.Liu, S. Jambhrunkar, F. Kleitz*, S.Z. Qiao*. Angewandte Chemie International Edition 2012, 51, 12486-12489. doi:10.1002/anie.201206416 (2010 JIF 13.7, Quartile 1)

PhD vacancies - PhD opportunities

Australian and international students with backgrounds in chemistry, biochemistry, and pharmacy are encouraged to contact Dr Ben Ross to discuss possible Honours or PhD projects and scholarships.

Sources of funding include: UQ Scholarships; NHMRC Postgraduate Scholarships; Endeavour Scholarships and Fellowships; Malaysia Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) Scholarships; Ministry of Education Saudi Arabia; and the China Scholarship Council (CSC), as well as many other funding schemes. Contact Dr Ben Ross via email to discuss the best strategy to obtain a scholarship.

Teaching and Service Activities

Dr Ben Ross is the Research Higher Degrees Coordinator for the School of Pharmacy, and an Academic Advisor for Year 2 of the BPharm(Hons) program. He also coordinates and teaches within the following undergraduate BPharm(Hons) courses:

PHRM2021 Dosage Form Design A1;

PHRM2022 Dosage Form Design A2;

PHRM2040 Drug Discovery A1;

PHRM2041 Drug Discovery A2 - Course Coordinator;

PHRM3021 Dosage Form Design B1.

I am Professor, NHMRC Investigator Fellow (EL2) and group leader (Exosome Biology Laboratory) at UQ Centre for Clinical Research. I am nationally and internationally (>20 invitations to international meetings in the last 5 years) acknowledged key opinion leader on Extracellular Vesicle (rated 3th worldwide (Top 0.015%) and 1st in Australia in expertise for “Extracellular Vesicles and Exosomes” on Expertscape) and biomarker discovery (140 publications, and >8000 citations in the last 7 year). I have made a major conceptual contribution to EV biology with diagnostic and therapeutic implications. In the last 8 years, my primary research and commercialisation activities have focused on the identification and validation of biomarkers, and development of In Vitro Multivariate Index Assays for clinically relevant complications (including ovarian cancers, and obstetrical syndromes) and their translation into clinical applications. In Academia, I have pursued these objectives through the development and leadership of clinical translation research teams and facilities, both in Australia and overseas. For example, I had a leadership role in established the Centre for Clinical Diagnostics (CCD). Within the UQCCR, I established an exosome research team to evaluate the clinical utility of extracellular vesicles as liquid biopsies, IVDs and therapeutics. Much of our effort in this field of endeavour has involved optimising isolation methods for extracellular vesicles and their analytical analysis - including the use of protein solution array (e.g. Luminex), mass spectrometry profiling (using MS/MS SWATH) and more recently miRNA analysis.