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Dr Jenny Fung is a Senior Research Officer at the School of Biomedical Sciences (SBMS), where she investigates the genetic and immune mechanisms underlying complex diseases. Her research combines molecular biology, genomics, computational analysis, and both ex-vivo and in-vivo models, with a focus on translating discoveries to benefit patients.

Dr Fung completed her PhD in Endocrinology at UQ and conducted postdoctoral research at QIMR Berghofer and The Institute for Molecular Bioscience, uncovering key molecular mechanisms driving endometriosis. In 2019, she joined Professor Trent Woodruff’s laboratory, expanding her work to neurodegenerative diseases, including motor neuron disease (MND), Huntington’s disease, and frontotemporal dementia. She has contributed her expertise in high-throughput proteomics to a Phase Ib clinical trial in MND and is actively involved in patient-focused projects, including identifying immune and molecular biomarkers in longitudinal patient cohorts and evaluating therapeutic targets in patient-derived cells.

She has published over 40 peer-reviewed papers in journals including Nature Genetics, Nature Communications, PNAS, and Brain, Behavior, and Immunity. Dr Fung is passionate about connecting laboratory discoveries with clinical impact and co-leads projects integrating genetics, immunology, and patient-focused research to develop new strategies for treating complex diseases.

My research focuses on the biological control and integrated management of insect pests. Understanding the ecological and biological relationships between insects and their natural enemies (pathogens, parasitoids and predators) and the interactions between these natural enemies is fundamental to effective biological control and is central to my research. Strategies which manipulate natural enemies to enhance their impact on pest populations are under development, examples include

• Integration of biological stressors and fungal entomopathogens for improved control of insect pests
• Reduced insecticide inputs combined with the provision of adult food sources to enhance endemic parasitoid performance
• Utilizing inducible plant defences to manipulate pests and improve the effectiveness of natural enemies.

Externally funded research projects concentrate on the development of sustainable pest management strategies for insect pests in developing countries. In Indonesia the structure and function of the natural enemy complexes attacking the diamondback moth (Plutella xylostella) and the cabbage cluster caterpillar (Crocidolomia pavonana) are being determined. In Samoa the biology and ecology of the egg parasitoid Trichogramma chilonis is being investigated and the possibility of its release as a biological control agent of C. pavonana in Fiji, Tonga and Solomon Islands explored. Research in Fiji is focused on quantifying field resistance of the diamondback moth to commonly used insecticides. An insecticide resistance management strategy has been developed and will be implemented in collaboration with UN-FAO.

BA University of Oxford

MSc Imperial College

PhD Imperial College

Sebastian is an expert on molecular pharmacology of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs - the largest class of cell surface recpetors and major drug targets). His lab has a particular interest in those involved in communication between the gastrointestinal tract and brain (the so-called gut-brain axis). Current foccusses include ghrelin, melanocortin 4, dopamine D2, and cholecystokinin receptors and the lab has also worked on the calcitonin, glucagon-like peptide 1 and other receptors. His lab is interested in answering complelling biological questions relating to physiology and pathophysiology of the gut-brain axis all the way down to the level of the receptor.

Sebastian is from Adelaide and received his BSc(Hons) and PhD. from the University of Adelaide, where he worked on the Aryl Hydrocarbon receptor in the lab of Murray Whitelaw. He then did postdoctoral research on haematopoitic stem cell differentiation in Kelly McNagny’s lab at the Biomedical Research Centre at the University of British Columbia before joining Patrick Sexton to work on G protein-coupled receptors at Monash University .

Sebastian is now an ARC Future Fellow with his own research program in the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Queensland. He remains an adjunct member of MIPS DDB as well as CCeMMP.

Sebastian has honours and PhD positions for motivated students who have a strong desire to assume ownership of a project and work independently.

Dr Luis Furuya Kanamori MBBS, MEpi, MPH, PhD, FACTM is a clinical epidemiologist and research synthesis methodologist. He is an international leader in travel medicine, vaccine preventable diseases, and research synthesis, and has been listed in Stanford University’s World top 2% of scientists.

Dr Furuya Kanamori leads the Travel Medicine and Vaccine Preventable Diseases Theme, and the Clinician-Epidemiologist Hub at UQ's HERA program on Operational Research and Decision Support for Infectious Diseases (ODeSI). He is Director of Research of the Clinical Research & Evidence Synthesis (CRESTMA) at the Travel Medicine Alliance (TMA), network of 30+ travel medicine clinics in Australia.

Dr Furuya Kanamori’s applied research on travel medicine and vaccine preventable diseases has influenced key changes in clinical and public health guidelines (e.g., WHO, ATAGI, Australian Immunisation Handbook, UptoDate). His methodological work on publication bias (LFK index) has been implemented in MetaXL, Stata, and R, and has been utilised in 800+ published meta-analyses.

In addition to his academic roles, Dr Furuya Kanamori is editorial board member for J Travel Med and Clin Infect Dis, and chairs the Research and Awards Committee of the International Society of Travel Medicine.

Selina Fyfe is a research scientist in food systems, food science and food composition who holds a Research Fellow position at the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI). Her research special interests include plant foods, traditional foods and food security. Selina's current research projects focus on food systems and on food composition. Her PhD thesis was on the Australian green plum (Buchanania obovata) and included food chemistry, metabolomics, multivariate statistical analysis, food composition and nutrition profiles, food sensory analysis and descriptions, physical properties, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), fruit growth and maturation, and responsible research. Prior to food science, she was a multi-skilled medical scientist working in pathology laboratories and this background deepens her application of food science and her knowledge of the food system.

Professor Gabrielli completed his undergraduate education at James Cook University in Townsville and PhD at La Trobe University in Melbourne. After two postdoctoral positions in the USA in the emerging field of cell cycle regulation, he was recruited to establish his own independent research at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research, and then recruited to the Diamantina Institute in 2002, and Mater Research Institute in 2016. He is head of the Smiling for Smiddy Cell Cycle Group.

Research Interests

Mechanisms that regulate cell division, particularly progression into mitosis. These mechanisms are often mutated in cancers and are likely to be major contributors to cancer development. Identifying the genetic mutations that disrupt normal progression and particularly mechanisms, known as checkpoints, provides diagnostic and prognostic opportunities. It also provides potential new targets for chemotherapeutics as drugs targeting defective checkpoints have tumour selective cytotoxic potential.

Research Projects

• Identifying the molecular basis for defective checkpoints in melanoma.
• Targeting defective cell cycle responses to ultraviolet radiation, replication stress and TopoII inhibitors in melanoma, and investigating whether the same defects in other cancer types respond to similar targeting.
• Investigating means of identify very early changes in moles that drive progression to melanoma
• Targeting Aurora kinases in HPV-driven cancers

Frédéric Gachon received his PhD in 2001 from the University of Montpellier (France). Between 2001 and 2006, he performed his post-doctoral training with Prof. Ueli Schibler at the department of Molecular Biology of the University of Geneva (Switzerland), where he started to work on the regulation of physiology by the circadian clock. In 2006, he worked at the Institute of Human Genetic in Montpellier (France) as a junior group leader before continued his career in Switzerland as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacology of the University of Lausanne (2009-2012) and as a group leader at the Nestlé Institute of Health Sciences, Lausanne (2012-2018). He finally joined the Institute of Molecular Bioscience of the University of Queensland as an Associate Professor in 2019. During all these years, research of the Gachon group focussed on the understanding of the role of feeding and circadian rhythms on mouse and human physiology, contributing to the fundamental basis for chronopharmacology and chrononutrition.

Mike Gagan joined the University of Queensland in 2018 to pursue his abiding interests in tropical palaeoclimatology, natural hazards, neotectonics, and early human migration in Australasia. He received his BA in geology from UC Santa Barbara (1980) and then relocated to Australia to work with Elf Aquitaine Minerals Pty. Ltd. as an exploration geologist (1981-84) on the Sorby Hills (WA) carbonate-hosted lead-zinc-silver deposit. He completed his PhD at James Cook University (1990) on the marine geology of the Great Barrier Reef, and then held faculty appointments at the University of New England, Northern Rivers (1988-1991) and the Australian National University (1992-2017).

Since 1994, Mike has enjoyed an active scientific partnership with colleagues at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI). The group uses geochemical tracers in raised-reef corals and speleothems to explore three Quaternary research themes: (1) the history of ocean temperature, salinity and palaeomonsoons in Australasia; (2) environmental impacts and early human dispersal; and (3) reconstructing great-earthquake cycles along convergent plate boundaries. The recent award of ARC Discovery grant DP180103762 will allow these topics to be further developed at UQ.

Professor Peter Galbraith has an outstanding profile in mathematics education. In research, Peter’s major contribution has been in the field of mathematical modelling and the teaching of modelling to secondary school students. Peter is widely recognised for his international leadership in mathematics education. He has served on the editorial board of Educational Studies in Mathematics since 1999.

I am a plant pathologist specialising in the study of fungal pathogens of all manner of plants from agricultural and natural settings. My research career has spanned various areas of interest from horticultural and agricultural crop diseases, the development of disease forecasting systems, the study of soil mycorrhizal fungi, the use of beneficial microbes in promoting soil health and plant disease management and the scholarship of teaching and learning.

A key area of development has been the investigation of dieback disorders of invasive woody weeds in the Australian landscape. This has resulted in the development of a bioherbicide for the invasive weed Parkinsonia and the establishment of a start-up company - BioHerbicides Australia (BHA). BHA now produces this bioherbicide (which is a registered product) and has developed a range of synthetic herbicide products along with the delivery technology required for field implementation. My research team bioprospects for new control agents for a range of woody weeds (there are many) and also explores the use of synthetic herbicides. My research takes me to many interesting locations in outback Queensland, the Northern Territory, Western Australia and New South Wales. I am interested in many weed species including mimosa bush, chinee apple, celtis, prickly acacia, athel pine, mesquite, leucaena, rubber vine and various cacti.

I have been Deputy Head of School (Gatton) since 2013 where my main function has been to support the HoS as we develop this school through a process of growth and change with recruitment of new staff, development of new processes and teams and create a true sense of collegiality across both campus locations. We have taken Agriculture at UQ from an international ranking of #7 in 2016 to #3 in 2022. Apart from administrative tasks, my key role is to support and develop new staff to settle into their academic jobs, assist them with achieving milestones and probation and manage their development of KPIs and career development.

Dr Alana Gall is a proud Pakana (Tasmanian Aboriginal) woman whose ancestral heritage links to the north-east coast of Lutruwita (Tasmania), and more recently, the Bass Strait Islands of Cape Barren and Flinders Island.

Alana is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the First Nations Cancer & Wellbeing Research team, and the Project Manager of the What Matters 2 Adults Implementation project. Alana’s research focusses on wellbeing and holistic health for Indigenous peoples globally. The aim of the WM2A-I study she is managing, is to test the most appropriate and effective methods for implementing the newly developed WM2Adults Wellbeing measure - the first nationally-relevant wellbeing measure developed specifically for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults.

Alana has a background in nutritional medicine and has more than 10 years’ experience in research, research translation, community engagement, health education and clinical consultation. Alana’s PhD thesis, titled Exploring Wellbeing from Indigenous Perspectives, centres primarily on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ wellbeing but also includes a focus on the domains of wellbeing for Indigenous peoples in Canada, Aotearoa (New Zealand) and the United States.

On a personal note, Alana is passionate about empowering others to take control of their own health and believes better health and wellbeing can be achieved at a population level through transdisciplinary approaches that adhere to holistic models of health and wellbeing. Alana is also passionate about education, understanding on both an academic and personal level, that this is one significant way to lift individuals, families and communities out of poverty – having hope for the future is imperative to good health and wellbeing. Due to this passion, Alana produced a free worksheet for children during the COVID-19 pandemic, in collaboration with Wingaru Kids about antimicrobial bush medicines and would love to collaborate in this space more.

Rosie is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at The University of Queensland Business School. Her research focuses on institutional disruption and the governance of disaster recovery, with particular attention to how policies and programs shape community resilience.

She completed her PhD in Strategy at The University of Queensland, examining how communities in New South Wales responded to institutional disruption during the 2019–2020 bushfires and 2022 Northern Rivers floods. Her research demonstrated how institutional failure contributed to sensemaking breakdown, leaving residents uncertain, unsupported, and forced to improvise their own responses. These community-led efforts were shaped by strong attachments to place and the mobilisation of local resources. The study developed a process model of improvised place custodianship, offering new insight into how people navigate governance breakdowns during extreme weather events.

Rosie has taught at UQ since 2018 across a range of management, strategy, and marketing courses. She is currently involved in evaluating large-scale disaster recovery programs, analysing how resilience and reconstruction strategies are implemented on the ground. Her work explores how responsibility for resilience is shared across governments, communities, and industries as extreme weather events become more frequent and severe.

Guided by a research ethos grounded in care and engaged scholarship, Rosie is committed to bridging research and practice to support more accountable, equitable, and locally informed disaster recovery efforts.

Marcus Gallagher is an Associate Professor in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. His research interests are in the foundations of artificial intelligence, including optimisation and machine learning algorithms. He is particularly interested in understanding the relationship between algorithm performance and problem structure via benchmarking. His research includes cross-disciplinary collaborations and real-world applications of AI techniques in areas such as healthcare and computer networks.

Dr Gallagher received his BCompSc and GradDipSc from the University of New England, Australia in 1994 and 1995 respectively, and his PhD in 2000 from the University of Queensland, Australia. He also completed a GradCert (Higher Education) in 2010.

Victor is a Postdoctoral researcher at The University of Queensland, with a clinical and academic background in rehabilitation medicine, public health, and digital health equity. His research focuses on enhancing healthcare access for culturally and linguistically diverse communities, particularly through the development of telehealth innovations and inclusive service design. He has experience teaching public health and epidemiology to medical students and mentoring postgraduate researchers. Victor has co-authored peer-reviewed publications, contributed to national surveys, and helped develop validated tools, including the Digital Health Acceptability Questionnaire.

He completed his Medical Doctor degree in Peru, followed by a specialisation in Rehabilitation Medicine, and later earned a Master of Public Health and a PhD from UQ. His doctoral research explored equity in telehealth access and was supported by multiple competitive scholarships and grants. Victor has also held leadership roles in Peru’s national health system and sports medicine programs, including the PanAmerican Games Lima 2019. His work has been recognised through awards for research excellence, equity, and inclusion.