Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
Availability:
Available for supervision
Dr Lauren Aoude is a research leader at the University of Queensland (UQ) Frazer Institute. Her research program explores barriers to precision oncology, and establishes more accurate prognostics to enhance therapeutic options for oesophageal adenocarcinoma (OAC) and melanoma patients. Her research integrates genomic sequencing data with clinical, pathological and imaging information. Recent work includes the establishment of patient-derived organoid models to enable a personalised medicine approach.
During her PhD (completed Nov 2014, QIMR Berghofer) she was a key member of international collaborations that significantly enhanced the understanding of melanoma susceptibility in at-risk families. Dr Aoude joined UQ as an NHMRC Early Career Fellow (2016-2021), where she led projects exploring precision medicine for metastatic melanoma and oesophageal cancer. In 2021, she was awarded a UQ Amplify fellowship to pursue research while expanding teaching and mentoring opportunities, including an on-going course co-ordinator role in the Master of Medicine Skin Cancer Program.
In 2025, she was awarded an NHMRC (EL2) Emerging Leader Fellowship. Her program vision is to better inform treatment decisions and improve health outcomes for patients through the integration of genomics into the clinic.
Affiliate of Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology
Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology
NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow
UQ Centre for Clinical Research
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
Availability:
Available for supervision
Media expert
Dr Kevin M. Koo is currently a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Investigator Fellow and Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia (PCFA) Future Leader Fellow at The University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research (UQCCR). Dr Koo was awarded his PhD (Dean’s Award for Outstanding Thesis) from the Australian Institute for Bioengineering & Nanotechnology (AIBN), UQ in 2018. His PhD research was on the molecular analysis of nucleic acid biomarkers in prostate cancer liquid biopsies (with a particular interest in fusion genes), and the development of associated nanotechnology-based biosensors to facilitate precision cancer treatment.
Post-PhD, he begun a productive postdoctoral career with dual industry/academia appointments: as the Head of Assay Development/Lab Director in XING Technologies Pty Ltd (a Brisbane-based biotech start-up) to undertake product development projects for commercialization of disease in vitro diagnostics, and as an Honorary Fellow/Principal Research Scientist at UQCCR to continue his academic research in precision cancer nanodiagnostics. His research skills and experiences are honed through dedicated career time spent in both academic research and regulated industry environments.
Dr Koo's research encompasses multi-disciplinary fields of molecular biomarker and nanobiosensor development, translation, and commercialization for precision disease management applications. Presently, he is working on the design and development of integrated multi-bioanalyte sensing technologies to resolve the various challenges around holistic disease pathway understanding and clinical biomarker profiling.
Dr Koo's research endeavours have been recognized by a Metrohm Australia-New Zealand Young Chemist Award (2018), Springer Thesis Award (2019) and Queensland Young Tall Poppy Science Award (2023).
