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General Research specialises in: Evolutionary microbiology, Marine microbiology; Molecular phylogenetics, genomics and bioinformatics of bacteria; Planctomycete bacteria; Bacterial cell biology and structure.

Current research projects include:

Professor Shu Fukai obtained his BAgSci (Biological Science) from Tokyo University. He then went on to undertake his PhD Studies at Adelaide University on a study of canopy photosynthesis in subterranean clover. This was followed with postdoctoral studies at the University of California, Davis. He spent 3 years at Macquarie University as a tutor in Biological Sciences. He then joined UQ as an academic staff member. Much of Prof. Fukai’s research at UQ has focused on crop physiological understanding of genotypic variation in abiotic stress resistance and of different cropping systems. During his time at UQ he has supervised many postgraduate students and has been the School Postgraduate Coordinator for the past 5 years.

The actions of people just like you and me have caused a massive biodiversity crisis, pushing many species to the brink of extinction and beyond. Doing something about this is one of the most important and urgent problems globally. I am interested in understanding how people have affected the natural world around them, and how some of their destructive effects can best be reversed. On the flip side, I am also keen to understand whether people can benefit positively from experiences of biodiversity.

To answer these questions I work on pure and applied topics in biodiversity and conservation. Much of my work is interdisciplinary, focusing on the interactions between people and nature, how these can be enhanced, and how these relationships can be shaped to converge on coherent solutions to the biodiversity crisis. Current research topics include the ecology and conservation of migratory species, understanding what drives some people to show stronger environmental concern than others, and strategies for designing efficient conservation plans. I enjoy working closely with all my wonderful colleagues in the Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science.

Dr. Fulopova is an early career Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI), The University of Queensland (UQ), focusing on research promoting neural adaptation in health and disease. Dr. Fulopova received PhD in Medical Studies (Neuroscience) in 2021 at the Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre, University of Tasmania. During her doctoral candidature Dr. Fulopova developed expertise working in preclinical animal models, combining cutting edge in vivo imaging, neuromodulation and behavioural assays to investigate presynaptic axonal pathology, and how this could be ameliorated in dementia associated neurodegeneration. In her current postdoctoral work, Dr. Fulopova studies recovery of neural circuits connectivity following stroke using optical imaging and microelectrode recordings.

Christophe Fumeaux received the Diploma and Ph.D. degrees in physics from the ETH Zurich, Switzerland, in 1992 and 1997, respectively.

From 1998 to 2000, he was a Postdoctoral Researcher with the School of Optics, University of Central Florida, Orlando. In 2000, he joined the Swiss Federal Office of Metrology, Bern, Switzerland, as a Scientific Staff Member. From 2001 to 2008, he was a Research Associate and Lecturer with the Laboratory for Electromagnetic Fields and Microwave Electronics at ETH Zurich. From 2008 to 2023, he has been a Professor with The University of Adelaide, Australia. In 2023, he joined the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at The University of Queensland, as Chair Professor in Optical and Microwave Engineering. His main research interests concern applied electromagnetics, antenna engineering, and the application of RF design principles across the electromagnetic spectrum.

Prof. Fumeaux was the recipient of the ETH Medal for his doctoral dissertation. From 2011 to 2015, he was a Future Fellow of the Australian Research Council. He was the recipient of the 2018 Edward E. Altshuler Prize, the2014 IEEE Sensors Journal and the 2004 ACES Journal best paper awards. He also received best conference paper awards at the 2012 Asia-Pacific International Symposium on Electromagnetic Compatibility (APEMC 2012) and the 17th Colloque International sur la Compatibilité Electromagnétique (CEM 2014). More than ten of his students have received student awards with joint papers at IEEE conferences. He was the recipient of the University of Adelaide Stephen Cole the Elder Award for Excellence in Higher Degree by Research Supervisory Practice in 2018. He served as an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques from 2010 to 2013. From 2013 to 2016 he served as a Senior Associate Editor and later as the Associate Editor-in-Chief for the IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation. From 2017 to early 2023, he served as the Editor-in-Chief for the IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and the 2025 President of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society.

Dr Jenny Fung is a Senior Research Officer in the School of Biomedical Sciences (SBMS). Her research focuses on understanding how multi-omics—including genomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics—and immune mechanisms contribute to complex diseases, with the aim of translating laboratory discoveries into improved patient outcomes.

Dr Fung completed her PhD in Endocrinology at The University of Queensland and undertook postdoctoral training at QIMR Berghofer and the Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB, UQ) in Professor Grant Montgomery’s laboratory. There, she used high-throughput genetic and genomic approaches to uncover key molecular mechanisms underlying endometriosis. In 2019, she joined Professor Trent Woodruff’s laboratory, where she expanded her research to neurodegenerative diseases, including motor neuron disease (MND), Huntington’s disease (HD), and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Her work spans both preclinical and patient-focused studies, including contributions to a Phase Ib clinical trial in MND, the identification of immune and molecular biomarkers in longitudinal patient cohorts, and the evaluation of therapeutic targets using patient-derived cells.

Dr Fung has published over 40 peer-reviewed papers in journals including Nature Genetics, Nature Communications, PNAS, and Brain, Behavior, and Immunity. She is passionate about connecting laboratory discoveries with clinical impact and co-leads projects integrating multi-omics, 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.

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 for woody weed control. 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 parkinsonia, mimosa bush, chinee apple, celtis, prickly acacia, athel pine, mesquite, leucaena, rubber vine, cat's claw creeper, blue thunbergia vine and various cacti.

I have been Deputy Head of School (Gatton) from 2013 to 2025 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.

My most recent projects involve the expanded use of the stem implanted capsule technology developed originally for the implementation of the Parkinsonia bioherbicide for the introduction of insecticides and fungicides into horticultural and ornamental trees and vines.

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.