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Matthew J. Roberts, BSc, MBBS, PhD, FRACS (Urol)

• Consultant Urologist, Royal Brisbane and Women’s (RBWH), Surgical Treatment and Rehabilitation Service (STARS), Queensland Health
• Clinician Research Fellow, Metro North Hospital and Health Service
• Group Leader & Associate Professor, The University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research

Matthew is a medical graduate of The University of Queensland and completed Urology specialty training in Queensland and New South Wales. He completed his PhD under the supervision of Professor “Frank” Gardiner investigating new biomarkers for the early detection and characterization of prostate cancer.

Matthew is a surgeon-scientist, working clinically as a urologist and robotic surgeon at RBWH & STARS with academic appointment as Clinician Research Fellow at Metro North Health (Qld) and Associate Professor at UQCCR. His clinical and research interests are in Urologic cancers (e.g. prostate cancer), focusing on novel imaging and biomarkers, clinical trials, urological infections and innovation in urology. He has authored over 140 peer reviewed manuscripts in international journals and presented research at more than 20 international urology and clinical cancer meetings. He is a member of the EAU Prostate Cancer Guidelines Committee, Prostate Cancer Outcomes Registry (PCOR)-Queensland Steering Committee, Editorial Board of the BJU International, as well as Co-Convenor of the ANZUP 2024 ASM.

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.

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).

Conjoint Professor Paul Robinson is the Deputy Director of the Children’s Health Environment Program within the Child Health Research Centre (CHRC), and Senior Staff Specialist in Respiratory and Sleep Medicine at the Queensland Children’s Hospital. His research program performs translational research outlining the role of peripheral airway function tests in early lung disease detection and ongoing monitoring of established disease.

He has led the development and standardisation of novel measures of lung function across the entire age range from infancy onwards, facilitating the development of commercial equipment available for widespread use. His research focuses on defining the clinical utility of two specific peripheral airway function tests (Multiple breath washout, MBW, and oscillometry) in important obstructive lung diseases (e.g., asthma, cystic fibrosis, and post bone marrow transplant pulmonary graft vs host disease) and in understanding the impacts of environmental exposures. Structure-function relationships have been explored using state-of-the-art imaging techniques, with the aim of also developing new strategies to reduce any radiation exposure associated with these to advance incorporation into clinical care (e.g., ultra-low dose CT).

These novel lung function tools not only in the hospital setting but also in the school and home setting, enabling the successful development of a parent-supervised remote monitoring strategy for asthma which has been shown to reflect clinically meaningful outcomes missed by conventional approaches. In collaboration with industry, this strategy is now being employed in a series of research projects.

Involvement in longitudinal birth cohorts has outlined the early lung function trajectories in health, and the identification of risk factors affecting normal lung development and contributing to the early development of asthma. Studies investigating environmental health have highlighted the adverse effects of ultrafine particle air pollution.

Professor Robinson’s standing as an international expert, both in terms of clinical and research experience, has led to broader leadership roles across national and international levels.

Dr Melanie Robitaille is a Senior Post-Doctoral Researcher working with the Calcium Signalling in Therapeutics Team (CaSTT) in the School of Pharmacy. This team specializes in the development and application of novel methodologies and cellular assays in drug discovery, including the use of genetically encoded indicator for high-content imaging in live cells.

Her interests are to elucidate how calcium signals are remodelled in disease states, to identify calcium transporters as new therapeutic targets and to develop molecular and cellular screening tools to be used in drug development programs. She has an established profile in cellular and molecular biology, with high expertise in plasmid cloning, lentiviral transduction and the use of CRISPR/Cas9 to modulate gene expression.

A/Prof Barbara Rolfe is a Group Leader at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology. A/Prof Rolfe is an immunologist and cell biologist, whose major research interests are the role of the innate immune system in cancer, the identification of novel therapeutic strategies for cancer, and nanomaterial safety. Her research has led to the identification of a previously unknown mechanism by which dysregulation of the immune system contributes to cancer development and growth, and provided information regarding the immune response to nanomaterials and the influence of physicochemical characteristics on biodistribution and cellular uptake. A/Prof Rolfe has used mouse models and small peptide agonists and antagonists to investigate the role of the innate immune system in tumour development and growth. This research demonstrated for the first time an important role for complement proteins in promoting tumour growth via regulation of immunosuppressive innate immune cells. Ongoing research is aimed focussed on gaining a better understanding of the role of complement proteins in tumour growth, developing novel immunotherapeutic strategies for cancer and investigating the application of nanomaterials for targeted delivery of anti-cancer drugs.

Prof Katharina Ronacher obtained an MSc degree in Medical Biochemistry from the University of Vienna (Austria). Thereafter, she was awarded a prestigious fellowship from the Austrian Ministry of Science and Technology to complete a PhD at the University of Cape Town (South Africa). She completed her post-doctoral fellowship at Stellenbosch University, where she was subsequently offered a faculty position. Prof Ronacher was Senior Scientist on several large clinical research trials funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the European Union and the US National Institutes of Health with focus on identification of biomarkers for tuberculosis (TB) treatment response. In parallel, she established her independent research group investigating how endocrine factors impact immune responses to TB, for which she received uninterrupted funding from national and international funding bodies since 2008. In 2015, she was awarded a NIH R01 grant for her ground-breaking research into the underlying immunological and metabolic mechanisms of increased susceptibility of diabetes patients to TB. With this grant she has lead the international ALERT Consortium with clinical field sites in South Africa and at the Texas/Mexico border.

She relocated to Brisbane in 2017, where she now heads the Infection, Immunity and Metabolism group at the Mater Research Institute – University of Queensland, but continues to collaborate with clinicians and researchers in South Africa, the USA and Europe and holds an affiliate appointment as Professor Extraordinary at Stellenbosch University.

Prof Ronacher's current research investigates the underlying immunological mechanisms contributing to more severe bacterial and viral respiratory infections in obesity and diabetes. Her research provides critical insights into the role of cholesterol and its derivatives in regulation of inflammation in the lung and how this knowledge can be exploided for novel therapeutic approaches to treat respiratory infections.

Tanya is a certified practising speech-language pathologist who has a particular clinical and research interest in both paediatric and adult language. She has experience in conducting mixed-methods studies.

Tanya’s research interests include exploring family-centred models of care and client outcomes using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health framework when working with young children who are ‘late talkers’ or who have a developmental language delay/disorder and their families.

Tanya is also passionate about the provision of accessible health information to adults who have aphasia post-stroke and to their family members. Tanya undertook her doctoral research within the Communication Disability Centre (CDC) at The University of Queensland. She is particularly interested in patient education and ensuring people with aphasia, their family, and friends receive appropriate health information and access to services across the continuum of care.

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 Megan Ross (she/her) is a titled research physiotherapist and postdoctoral research fellow at RECOVER Injury Research Centre, The University of Queensland. She is part of a research team, led by Professor Trevor Russell, which focuses on developing more effective and efficient health services supported by technology innovation. Megan’s current research projects include exploring consumer perspectives of the telerehabilitation service delivery model, factors that influence the uptake and utilisation of telerehabilitation, and exploring the acceptability and usability of digital health innovations. Megan has a broad range of research skills that span both quantitative and qualitative methods and co-design approaches, including systematic reviews, cross-sectional and longitudinal study designs and data analysis, discrete choice experiments, interviews and focus group discussions and thematic analysis.

Dr Ross received a Bachelor of Physiotherapy (with First Class Honours) in 2012 and a PhD in Physiotherapy in 2020 from The University of Queensland. Megan is the inaugural Chair of the Australian Physiotherapy Association’s LGBTQIA+ Advisory Committee, is Deputy Chair of the Australian Physiotherapy Associations’ National Advisory Committee and sits on the Queensland Gender Affirming Network Steering Committee. Dr Ross leads a program of research in the area of LGBTQIA+ experiences of, and access to healthcare with a focus on physiotherapy and allied health. Megan is passionate about ensuring safe and affirming access to healthcare for people with diverse gender identities, sexual orientations and sex characteristics and has received over $1M AUD in funding, including a CIA MRFF grant to co-design, implement and evaluate an LGBTQIA+ affirming model of primary care. The overarching objective of Dr Ross’s work is to improve access to, provision of, and experiences with health care and ultimately contribute to improved health and wellbeing for the LGBTQIA+ communities.

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.

Professor Eugeni Roura is a nutritionist by background with specific research interests in digestive physiology and chemosensory science. He joined the University of Queensland (UQ) in 2010 as a member of the Centre for Nutrition and Food Sciences, where he leads a research team active in the interface between basic and translational research aiming at industrial and societal applications. The main research interests include gut nutrient sensing mechanisms and appetite modulation (including taste and smell) relevant to humans, pigs and poultry. Recently, the research focus has evolved to include transgenerational nutrition studies including foetal development in pigs and “in ovo” applications in chickens. In 2011 he joined the UQ School of Biomedical Sciences as an Affiliated Lecturer.

Professor Roura graduated with a Veterinary Science degree from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB) before pursuing post-graduate studies in Nutrition at the University of California (UC Davis). After finishing a Post-Doctoral position at UC Davis, he started a sixteen-year industry career working for the feed and food industries in R&D and market-focused technical services, culminating as Group Deputy R&D Director of Lucta S.A.

He has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific publications, and he has been invited as keynote speaker to ca 50 scientific meetings. He is currently serving as a member of the National Committee for Nutrition of the Australian Academy of Sciences, International Steering Committee of the Digestive Physiology of pigs, R&D and Education Committee of the Australasian Pork Research Institute Ltd., expert evaluator of 1 international and 2 national research grant programs, and as Editorial Board of two scientific journals ("Journal of Animal Science and Biotechnology" and "Animals"). Main past positions include President of the Austral-Asian Chemosensory Society, Vice-Chairperson of the Board Specialty Committee of Mongolian Medicine, Standards Australia FT-022 Committee “Sensory Analysis of Food”, Master of Dietetics Studies Engagement Committee (UQ), AgriFutures Chicken Meat Advisory Panel, and the European Feed Additive Federation (FEFANA) amongst others. In addition, Professor Eugeni Roura has been involved in several national and international conference organizing committees including acting as leading co-Chair of the Digestive Physiology of Pigs 2018.

I currently have a number of research interests, both in Biomedical and well as in Teaching-Focussed Research.

Biomedical projects have traditionally been done with collaborators, and some of the projects have included:

• mechanisms of action of animal venoms and toxins, and we have used the organ bath laboratory and pharmacologoical techniques as bioassays
• study of bitter tasting compounds on pig digestive processes, to better understand activation of bitter taste receptors in vivo

Teaching-focussed interested are around university student behaviour with regard to learning activities and engagement. Universities around the world are grappling with shifts in effective and engaging educational strategies, as well as student expectations, in their delivery of content. In an age where students can do on-line courses at universities far from Australia, academics are carefully considering student engagement and success here at UQ.

• Lecture slots currently have the bulk of contact hours in most courses, with ~39 lectures per course across a semester. These are largely recorded and used as a teaching resource. Student attendance to the traditional lecture spaces has decreased significantly across all campuses, with a UQ average of ~60% across all courses. This type of analysis has recently led to UQ offering smaller venues for larger courses in which there have been patterns of partial attendance.
• My work seeks to better understand what motivates students to attend these spaces in their traditional sense and in the transition to an increasing number of flipped classroom models and blended learning, where the academics are less on the stage, and are instead facilitating activities for learning, while students will be engaged in learning content largely outside the lecture slots.
• "Embracing the Unknown" Experience in third year science courses is also an interest, in which research work and its associated uncertainties cause varying levels of anxiety in some students. Best understanding this process and supporting students through it is also an interest of mine.

Trevor Russell is a Professor of Physiotherapy and the Director of the RECOVER Injury Research Centre where he leads a stream of research on Technology Enabled Rehabilitation. He is also co-director of both the Centre for Research in Telerehabilitation and the Telerehabilitation Clinic at the University of Queensland. His research focusses on the use of digital technologies for the remote delivery of health services with a particular focus on telerehabilitation technologies. Specifically his research aims to develop innovative computer based hardware and software solutions to enable the provision of rehabilitation services remotely via the Internet; to further the evidence base of technology enabled rehabilitation through controlled clinical trials; to evaluate the treatment efficacy of specific technology enabled interventions; investigate cost-benefit factors related to technology enabled services; and develop best practice guidelines for the implementation of technology enabled services in the rehabilitation sciences. His work is amongst the earliest and most extensive in this field.

Dr. Steven Rynne is an Associate Professor and Program Convenor for Sports Coaching with the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences at The University of Queensland, Australia. The major theme that runs throughout Steven’s work is learning in sport. Within this broad theme he has worked and conducted research with a variety of peak domestic and international sporting bodies aimed at fostering high performance through learning (e.g. how elite coaches learn their craft) and understanding outcomes for sport participants (e.g. sport for reconciliation). Steven teaches undergraduate and graduate students, is a cycling coach and registered HPE teacher, and has been immersed in junior and community sport settings for more than two decades.