Stephen is a physiologist with expertise in endocrinology. His laboratory examines the hormonal control of growth, metabolism, appetite, and reproduction. He seeks to unravel how hormones regulate physiological mechanisms in healthy individuals versus those that occur in disease states.
During his academic career Stephen has taught physiology to more than 40,000 students across biomedical science, animal and veterinary sciences, allied health, and medicine. Stephen has received numerous teaching accolades and was honoured with a national Australian Learning and Teaching Council Citation in 2009. From 2019 to 2024 Stephen was Director of Teaching and Learning in the School of Biomedical Sciences. In 2020, Stephen received a UQ excellence commendation for leading his School's teaching response in COVID, and was awarded Academic Leader of the Year within the UQ Faculty of Medicine.
In biomedical education research Stephen is currently investigating how students develop capabilities during their undergraduate studies that support their future professional roles. He has a keen interest in metacognition of learning, self-regulation of learning, and lifelong learning.
Dr Ben Barry is an allied health professional working clinically in aged care with Wesley Mission Queensland.
Dr Barry has a research background in adaptations of the nervous system to exercise and ageing. His research interests have progressed to health professional education, spanning digital health, interprofessional education and workforce development. Dr Barry's clinical work as a physiotherapist and exercise physiologist with a focus on healthy ageing links nicely with his PhD thesis on "Resistance training and movement control in older adults".
Dr Barry has extensive experience teaching allied health (exercise physiology), medical science and medical students. This has included coordinating degree programs and courses, leading teaching teams and discipline-wide curriculum reviews, expanding and enhancing clinical placement programs and student clinics, and innovations in online teaching of health professionals.
Dr Barry completed postdoctoral training in the Neurophysiology of Movement Laboratory at the Department of Integrative Physiology, the University of Colorado - Boulder USA, and subsequently worked for a decade at the School of Medical Sciences, The University of New South Wales, as well as holding an honorary appointment at Neuroscience Research Australia, before returning to The University of Queensland in 2017. He has a track record of external research funding and postgraduate research supervision as well as several teaching awards.
Dr Cuffe is a systems physiologist focused on understanding the complex changes to maternal physiology that occur during pregnancy and the impact of pregnancy dysfunction of programmed cardiovascular, metabolic and renal disease in offspring. Dr Cuffe has a particular focus on understanding the role of the placenta and its hormones in mediating both maternal and offspring disease. He is most recognised for his research investigating how maternal stress, thyroid dysfunction, hypoxia or altered nutrition affect placental development and program disease in the mother after pregnancy as well as her offspring. Dr Cuffe has an exceptional track record and is excited to take new honours and PhD students into his research laboratory.
Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology
Availability:
Available for supervision
Dr. Aleksandr Kakinen is NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, the University of Queensland, Australia. He obtained his Ph.D. degree (2014) at Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia, and worked as a postdoctoral fellow (2016–2020) at Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash University, Australia. His research interests range from nanomedicine and amyloids diseases to structural biology and nanotoxicology. Dr. Kakinen has published over 50 peer-reviewed articles in high impact factor journals e.g. Chemical Society Reviews, Advanced Materials, Nature Communications, Nano Letters and ACS Nano. In addition to his scientific activities, Aleksandr is also passionate about scientific design and has founded a design studio that specialises in scientific illustrations and biomedical animations.
A life-long fascination in sciences provided me with the inspiration to graduate in exercise physiology (University of Sherbrooke, Canada, 2004), complete a PhD in physiology/biophysics (University of Sherbrooke, 2009) and continue in my current role as a postdoctoral researcher at the School of Biomedical Sciences (SBMS) of The University of Queensland. I am a physiologist first and foremost with a particular interest in understanding how skeletal muscle cell normally functions so as to try and elucidate what changes or factors contribute to various forms of muscle weakness with ageing, inactivity or various chronic diseases.
During my previous postdoctoral appointment at La Trobe University (Melbourne, 2010-2017), I have gained considerable experience using the "mechanically skinned muscle fibre" technique in animal muscle. Importantly, I have developed this technique for the first time in human muscle which allows the exciting opportunity to investigate cellular mechanisms of muscle weakness in different clinical population. This is vitally important since most of our existing knowledge on muscle function comes from studies on muscles obtained from animal models. This technical breakthrough has been recognized by editorials of different leading scientific journals in the field of Physiology. I’m now a world recognized expert of this technique which has immense potential for examining any number of physiological questions and even allows for biochemical analyses of any protein of interest in the same cell.
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:
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).
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).
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).
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.
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
Dr. Mehwish Nisar is a distinguished medical practitioner and an exceptionally skilled researcher and educator, possessing a diverse academic and clinical background.
Mehwish has over a decade of experience as a bio-medical lecturer and clinical medical doctor.
Her expertise includes conducting mixed methods studies on chronic diseases and related health behaviours within culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds (CALD) populations.
She was recently honoured with the Health Promotion Early Career Award from the Public Health Association Australia.
She currently serves as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the UQ School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, leading a project focusing on Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) communities. Dr. Nisar holds a Ph.D. in Public Health from the same institution, with her research focusing on chronic diseases and lifestyle risk factors in immigrants.
Her core skills encompass presenting complex information effectively, conducting data analysis, designing research projects, and creating public health awareness materials. Proficient in various research software, Dr. Nisar has a robust academic foundation, having served as an educator at universities in Australia and abroad. She has designed course content and provided mentorship to students in her field.
She is an active member of several professional associations and has received awards, grants, and recognition for her research and contributions to public health. Her work has been cited in a United Nations report, and she has presented her research at numerous conferences. Dr. Nisar stands as a committed, accomplished, and unwavering figure in the realms of research, education, and the promotion of health and well-being within multicultural communities.
The human nervous system is no longer thought of has hard-wired, and is in fact capable of rapid change throughout life. This plasticity is important for learning, memory and recovery from brain injury. I am interested in using emerging brain stimulation and imaging techniques to "artificially" induce plasticity in the human brain, to ultimately improve the treatment outcomes for various neurological conditions, particularly stroke. These stimulation techniques include transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS).
I completed a BSc in 1994 and received a First Class Honours in Physiology in 1995 from the University of Adelaide. I then completed a Bachelor of Physiotherapy Degree at the University of South Australia. Returning to research in 2005, I undertook a PhD at the University of Adelaide, which I completed in 2009. My doctoral studies focussed on a new and exciting area of neuroscience – neuroplasticity. At the time of commencing my PhD, it was becoming clear that various non-invasive brain stimulation techniques (such as TMS) were able to temporarily reorganise the circuitry in the human brain in a similar way to what happens when we learn something new or store a memory. I was interested in trying to understand why some people responded to these stimulation paradigms, and others didn’t. What I discovered was that it an important driver of plasticity in humans was when the stimulation was delivered. In effect, the brain seemed to learn better at night time compared to the morning. This has important clinical implications, as it suggests that rehabilitation might be more effective at a certain time of day.
I was awarded a University of Queensland Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2010, and then a NH&MRC Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in 2011 to investigate more intensely how the brains of stroke patients rewire. I am using state-of-the-art stimulation and imaging techniques such as TMS, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and electroencephalography (EEG) to understand how the brain reorganises when it stores information, and how we can boost this process.
I am currently an Associate Professor and Head of Physiotherapy within the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at UQ. I head my own brain stimulation and imaging laboratory, and am conducting experiments in the following areas:
a) investigating the link between brain oscillations, sleep, plasticity and ageing;
b) improving hazard perception with brain sitmulation;
c) identifying factors that improve neuroplasticity induction in health and disease.
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.
Dr Wheeler is a proud Ngarabal person and Accredited Exercise Scientist (ESSA). Dr Wheeler specilises in implementation science in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities.
Dr Wheeler was the first Aboriginal person to graduate with a PhD from the University of the Sunshine Coast.
Dr Wheeler’s research examines how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities can co-design programs that build community capacity and engage children and young peoples in a broad range of development areas. Dr Wheeler’s research strengths consist co-designing physical movement-based programs, ensuring a trauma informed and culturally-responsive approach towards community engagement and empowerment.
Dr Wheeler has led high performing teams working on education programs that support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families through a strength-based and holistic framework. Extending this work, Dr Wheeler's research focuses on developing the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workforce to better address the complex health needs of community. Dr Wheeler has provided FIrst Nations leadership to a range of projects that have catered for the diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, and through this experience has partnered to deliver diverse governance solutions and educational engagement frameworks.
Dr Wheeler also specialises in biomechanics, sport analytics and performance analysis as well as strength and conditioning research. Dr Wheeler works currently with a range of sporting organisations to implement best-practice sport servicing, testing and athlete management to achieve excellence. Dr Wheeler is the lead researcher in partnership with Indigenous Basketball Australia. Dr Wheeler has worked with a variety of professional sporting organisations and teams such as the Wallabies, Brumbies Rugby and World Rugby as well as the Australian Institute of Sport, Canberra Raiders, Canberra Comets, Canberra Meteors and GWS Giants. Dr Wheeler co-design training programs to promote optimal performance in a range of sports. Dr Wheeler is a passionate about how sport and exercise can be used to enrich community as well as health and wellbeing for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Dr Wheeler is the Chair of the ESSA Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Strategy Working Group for Exercise and Sport Science Australia.
Dr Wheeler is the Director of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Strategy for the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences.
Dr Wheeler is the Program Convenor for Bachelor of Exercise and Sport Sciences, the University of Queensland.
Dr Wheeler was named in the top 52 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people changing the world from COSMOS.
Awards
2022 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Scientist Award from the Australian Academy of Science
2022 LSQ Merck Life Science Rural and Regional Service Award from Life Sciences Queensland
2020 Accredited Exercise Scientist of the Year Award from Exercise and Sport Science Australia
2021 Science Peoples Choice Award from National Science Week
2021 Outreach Award from National Science Week
2020 Science Leadership Excellence Award from National Science Week
2017 NAIDOC Award from Fraser Coast NAIDOC Committee
Dr Melanie White heads the Dynamics of Morphogenesis Lab at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB), University of Queensland and is an ARC Future Fellow. She completed a PhD in Neuroscience at University College London followed by postdoctoral research at The University of Edinburgh. During this time Mel engineered viruses to modulate gene expression in the brain to investigate neuronal function and as a therapeutic approach for neurodegenerative disease. Her work was published in Neuron and PNAS, featured in Nature Reviews Neuroscience and received extensive international media coverage (including the BBC and The Guardian).
In 2012 Mel switched fields to apply quantitative imaging in developmental biology. Her work revealed key mechanisms driving the earliest morphogenetic events in mammalian embryogenesis and was published in Cell, Science, Nature Cell Biology, Developmental Cell and Nature Protocols. Her research was featured on the cover of multiple journals including Cell and she was awarded the inaugural American Society for Cell Biology Porter Prize for Research Excellence (2018).
In 2020, Mel joined the IMB where she will combine her passion for neuroscience and developmental biology to investigate the dynamics of neural tube morphogenesis.
Research overview
The brain and the spinal cord control most of the functions of the body and the mind, yet the dynamics of how they first form is poorly understood. Both structures arise from a common precursor, the neural tube, which forms very early in embryonic development. To generate the forces that sculpt and shape the neural tube, changes in cellular architecture must be tightly coordinated in space and time. These morphological rearrangements occur concurrently with biochemical signalling pathways that specify early neural cell fates.
Our research aims to understand how cellular properties and transcriptional regulators interact with mechanical forces in real time to direct vertebrate neural tube formation and neural cell fate specification. We study the dynamics of neural tube formation by applying advanced imaging technologies in transgenic avian models and human stem cell models.
Wayne Wilson is an Associate Professor in the Discipline of Audiology at the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, The University of Queensland (UQ). He holds a PhD and Post-graduate Diploma in audiology and a BSc(Hons) in auditory physiology. His research interests include listening and listening difficulties in children, the objective assessment of auditory function, and clinical competence in audiology. Wayne has published >100 papers in refereed scientific journals, >10 book chapters and 3 patents; has presented >300 papers at scientific conferences including >15 key-note/opening addresses; and has secured >35 competitive research grants totaling >AUD$4.2 million.
