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Insect host-pathogen interactions

In the evolutionary arm race between insects and their pathogens, insects as hosts continuously evolve traits to inhibit pathogen replication, and in turn pathogens evolve mechanisms to evade their hosts’ immune responses. In the Asgari Lab, we are interested in exploring these evolutionary adaptations, in particular in regards to mosquito-borne viruses such as dengue virus. The major areas of research in the lab are:

1. Exploring pro- and anti-viral factors in mosquitoes using molecular approaches, including next generation sequencing and bioinformatics analyses
2. Investigating the role of non-coding RNAs (including microRNAs) in insect biology and host-pathogen interactions
3. Understanding the effect of insect microbiome on replication of viruses

Dr Melinda Ashcroft is a Research Fellow on Infectious Disease Epidemiology (Climate Change) in the Faculty of Medicine at The University of Queensland (UQ). Her current research focus is on Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) and how NTM infections are associated with climate change and major weather events. Previously Melinda has worked at Monash University as a Research Fellow on the Sero-epidemiology of Klebsiella spp., at the University of Melbourne as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow on the Genomic Epidemiology of Neisseria gonorrhoeae and as a Research Associate at UQ on the genomics and epigenomics of extraintestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli. Melinda was awarded a Bachelor of Applied Science (Biotechnology/Biochemistry) in 2004 from Queensland University of Technology and a Master of Biotechnology in 2013 from UQ. She then switched fields to Microbial Genomics and was awarded a PhD from UQ in 2019 for her thesis: Evolution and function of mobile genetic elements and DNA methyltransferases in extraintestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli.

Neal M. Ashkanasy OAM, PhD is an Emeritus Professor of Management at the UQ Business School at the University of Queensland in Australia. He came to academe in after an 18-year career in water resources engineering. He received his PhD in social/organizational psychology from the same university. His research is in leadership, organizational culture, ethics, and emotions in organizations, and his work has been published in leading journals including the Academy of Management Journal and Review, the Journal of Organizational Behavior, and the Journal of Applied Psychology. He is Associate Editor for Emotion Review and Series Co-Editor of Research on Emotion in Organizations. He has served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Organizational Behavior and Associate Editor for the Academy of Management Review and Academy of Management Learning and Education. Prof. Ashkanasy is a Fellow of the Academy for the Social Sciences in the UK (AcSS) and Australia (ASSA); the Association for Psychological Science (APS); the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP); Southern Management Association (SMA), and the Queensland Academy of Arts and Sciences (QAAS). In 2017, he was awarded a Medal in the Order of Australia.

Cognitive educational psychology, Classroom-based instruction strategy training and problem solving, Intellectual disability, Learning difficulties, Aging and disability, Inclusion, Adolescent reading and writing habit, Issues relating to victimised youth, Creative Writing.

Professor Ashman completed his Bachelor of Arts degree with honours in Applied Psychology. He continued his studies at the University of Alberta, Canada and was granted a Master of Education (Counselling) and a PhD in the area of cognitive educational psychology. He has taught at the universities of Alberta, Regina, and Newcastle and came to the Schonell Special Education Research Centre in 1987. He has published widely in the area of cognitive psychology, special education and disability and has authored or edited over a dozen volumes in these areas. He is past national President of the Australian Society for the Study of Intellectual Disability, and past President of the International Association on Cognitive Education.

Dr. Aditya Ashok is a distinguished early career researcher and expert in flexible inorganic nanoarchitectured devices by precisely engineering the material parameters for energy conversion, optoelectronics, catalysis, and biosensing applications. As a Postdoctoral Fellow at Prof. Yusuke Yamauchi's group, UQ-AIBN, his research focuses on fabricating porous multimodal inorganic heterojunction for opto-catalysis and biosensing applications. His long-term research vision is to bridge the gap between fundamental materials science and real-world biomedical and energy solutions through nanoengineered materials and flexible electronic devices.

Dr. Ashok secured a bachelor's in electrical and electronics engineering in 2016 and a master's in nanotechnology and renewable energy in 2018. In 2024, he graduated with his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Biomedical Engineering under Prof. Yusuke Yamauchi's group from the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN), The University of Queensland, Brisbane. Immediately after his PhD, he was offered to join a postdoctoral research associate at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, at the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering and the Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering. His research at the UNSW focused on developing multimodal flexible electronics and flexible mesoporous 3D buckling electrodes for organoid studies.

Dr Elham Assadi Soumeh is a senior lecturer in Animal Science and Production within the School of Agriculture and Food Science. Her background is in monogastric animal nutrition -poultry and swine. Her PhD research was about branched-chain amino acids requirements and metabolism in pig post weaning and characterization of metabolic profile of high performing pigs when were fed with optimum dietary branched-chain amino acid levels. After conducting her PhD in Aarhus University in Denmark and prior to joining UQ, Dr Soumeh worked as a senior scientist in animal feed industry (Cargill BV, Netherlands) for 2 years, where she managed different customer-focused research portfolios within the area of monogastric animal nutrition and production e.g. nutrient requirements and metabolism, gut health, nutritional strategies and management. Dr Soumeh has completed a BSc in Animal Science, MSc in Animal Nutrition and a PhD in Animal Nutrition and Physiology. The scientific outcomes have been published in high-impact journals and/or presented in conferences and symposiums around the world.

Adrian Athique is Associate Professor and programme leader in Cultural Studies at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities. Adrian is a graduate in Media Arts from the University of Plymouth and holds a PhD in Asia-Pacific Transformation Studies from the University of Wollongong. Prior to joining IASH, Adrian was Chair of the School of Arts at the University of Waikato (2010-2015), a lecturer in Sociology at the University in Essex (2008-2010) a postdoctoral fellow in Cultural Studies at UQ (2006-2007) and a learning technology officer at the UK Open University (2001-2002). Adrian's broad research interests focus on the social, cultural and economic implications of digital technologies and upon the evolution of media cultures in Asia.

Adrian has conducted research projects in collaboration with colleagues in India, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines. He is currently active in extensive networks across the region, notably in events and publications stemming from his two major projects: Digital Transactions in Asia (2017-) and The Indian Media Economy (2013-). Adrian has held grants from the New Zealand India Research Institute (2013), University Grants Commission of India (2014), Asia New Zealand Foundation (2015) and the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India (2019). Along with more than forty journal articles and book chapters, Adrian is the author of several books, including: The Multiplex in India: A Cultural Economy of Urban Leisure (2010, Routledge, with Douglas Hill), Indian Media: Global Approaches (2012, Polity), Digital Media and Society (2013, Polity) and Transnational Audiences: Media Reception on a Global Scale (2016, Polity). Adrian has also edited ground-breaking volumes on media and social change in Asia, including: The Indian Media Economy (2018, 2 Vols, OUP, with Vibodh Parthasarathi and SV Srinivas) and Digital Transactions in Asia: Social, Economic and Informational Exchanges (2019, Routledge, with Emma Baulch). Adrian is editor of the journal Media International Australia and the OUP book series, Media Dynamics in South Asia.

Adrian Athique is keen to receive applications from doctoral candidates in the fields of Asian Cultural Studies, Digital Sociology, Media Industries and Economy, Audience and User Studies, and Transnational Communication.

Associate Professor Victoria Atkinson is both a Senior Medical Oncologist and a Principal Investigator for clinical trials in the adjuvant and metastatic setting at the Princess Alexandra Hospital and Greenslopes Private Hospital (in collaboration with Gallipoli Medical Research Foundation). Additionally, she is an Associate Professor with the University of Queensland, Clinical School of Medicine. Associate Professor Atkinson’s research interests are in the field of Oncology, and she has extensive experience in targeted-therapies and immunotherapies. Her main research interests are melanoma and gastro-intestinal oncology. Associate Professor Atkinson is passionate about trying to improve outcome for all patients with advanced melanoma as well as advanced gastro-intestinal cancers.

Associate Professor Atkinson has been involved in the clinical development of the current targeted and immunotherapies in melanoma over the past decade bringing these therapies into clinical practice. She has been involved in advocating for patient access to these therapies for patients in Queensland and Australia from guidelines through to reimbursement policies. These therapies have revolutionised the lives of patients and brought about the longest median overall survival for advanced melanoma. However there still remains significant work to be done in therapy resistant disease and she continues to work with therapies towards overcoming resistance.

In the past 5 years, Associate Professor Atkinson has been an Invited Speaker at 22 national and international meetings including Medical Oncology Group of Australia ASM Immunotherapy Symposium, New Zealand Society for Medical Oncology meeting and the Society for Melanoma Research congress. A/Prof Atkinson has published 82 publications, 31 oral abstracts and 65 posters. Associate Professor Atkinson is actively involved in the research supervision of her basic and advanced trainees, and resident medical officers who demonstrate interest in a project. She has supervised trainees to complete their research projects and supported 6 Australian research poster presentations, and 10 international research poster presentations.

She is passionate and motivated to continue to change practice by bringing clinically important and relevant trials to Queensland and to mentor trainees and junior consultants to continue this tradition.

Prof Andrej Atrens's research interests are in: the service performance of engineering materials and alloy development.

He received a PhD from the University of Adelaide in 1976, a DEng from the University of Queensland in 1997, and became FHEA in 2018.

His current research projects are in the fields of:

• Mg Corrosion
• SCC
• Hydrogen embrittlement

Dr Stephan Atzert is Senior Lecturer in German Studies in the School of Languages and Cultures. To date Dr Atzert has contributed two monographs to the study of the reception of Schopenhauer's philosophy. His first book Schopenhauer in the works of Thomas Bernhard. The critical appropriation of Schopenhauer's philosophy in Thomas Bernhard's late novels was published in German in 1999 (Rombach). Since then, Dr Atzert contributes to the international scholarship on Schopenhauer with journal articles and book chapters, with a focus on Schopenhauer's role in the development of psychoanalysis and for the understanding of Buddhism in Europe. His second monograph in German In Schopenhauer's Shadow (Königshausen & Neumann 2015, 209 pp) investigates the role of Schopenhauer's philosophy in the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche, Paul Deussen and Sigmund Freud. At present (2019) he is developing a monograph on K.E. Neumann's reception of Schopenhauer in his translations of the Pali discourses into German.

Literary authors on which Dr Atzert possesses specialist expertise include Thomas Bernhard and Heiner Müller. Supervision interests other than those related to the areas of expertise referred to above include the work of Th. W. Adorno and the Frankfurt School, the German student movement and the Red Army Faction.

Dr August is a Registered Nurse, a post-doctoral MRFF Research Fellow at University Queensland, and the Nurse Research Co-ordinator for the Grantley Stable Neonatal Unit at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital. She has over 20 years’ experience in Neonatal and Paediatric critical care settings, including retrieval services in far north Queensland. August is one very few Neonatal Nurses who has training in Skin Integrity, with a number of publications related to neonatal skin assessment. August’s PhD explored neonatal skin injuries from mechanical force (awarded July 2022). Clinical experiences have cultivated Deanne's desire investigate and evaluate clinical practice, with a specific focus on minimizing the sequalae of necessary care such as medical adhesives or vascular access. Her program of research has included systematic reviews, randomised control trials, case control, longitudinal studies, and international practice guidelines. Within studies she considers the effect of clinical workloads, implications on hospital systems including economic evaluation, and especially the neonatal/family experience. Dr August is recognised nationally and internationally as an expert in neonatal skin integrity and injury assessment; with a growing track record with 16 peer reviewed articles published and international confrences invitations in the past 5 years.

Mr Anthony Austin is an associate lecturer at the TC Beirne School of Law, The University of Queensland. Mr Austin’s interests lie in the field of methods of teaching law, teaching business law to non-law students, contracts law and issues of intellectual property law. Mr Austin has also taught business law at Griffith University and contracts law at The University of Queensland and the University of the South Pacific.

Mr Austin graduated with his Bachelor of Laws from the Queensland University of Technology in 1994 and obtained his Masters of Laws from the Queensland University of Technology in 1997. He practiced as a lawyer primarily in commercial and intellectual property law for 8 years before teaching at university.

In my PhD I analysed and modelled biophysical processes (light interception, transpiration and photosynthesis) and their relationships in apple and pear trees during the growing season and at different levels of plant water status. During this time I collaborated in the upgrade of a functional-structural peach model (L-PEACH). Later I focused my research on the effect of carbohydrates on grapevine and berry growth, as well as the effects of light, temperature and VPD on carbon assimilation and transpiration both at leaf and canopy level.

Currently, I am undertaking research on improving management practices in avocado, macadamia and mango. I am focused on studying architecture, vegetative vigour, crop load and light interception using functional-structural plant modelling to understand the interactions between management practices, environmental factors, plant carbon balance and growth.

Dr Avent obtained her Doctor of Pharmacy at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, United States of America. She has also obtained her certification as a board certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist and recently being credentialed as an Advanced Practice Pharmacist.