Accepting HDR students

My career to date has focused on medical research and education in the tertiary sector, developing and managing ongoing relationships with key opinion leaders between academia, industry and community to foster opportunities for correspondence and exchange.

I obtained my B.Sc (Molecular Biotechnology)(2004, Usyd) and M.Sc (Biotechnology)(2006, MQU) under the supervision of Dr. Amit Kapur and Dr. Mark Molloy. During this period, I worked in the private sector at Australian Laboratory Services (ALS) and Laverty Pathology (formerly Mayne Health) which brought various experiences to hone my career. I was awarded an Australian Postgraduate Award Industry (APAI) linking up with GE Healthcare, and earned my Ph.D (2011, MQU) under the supervision of Prof. Nicki Packer and Prof. Mark Baker characterising the proteome effects of colorectal cancer and cachexia and the inflammatory effects on the liver membrane glycoproteome. 

I moved abroad to the US and worked briefly as a Proteomics scientific officer at New York University, School of Medicine under the leadership of Prof. Tom Neubert (Jul 2010-Jun 2011) performing analysis for clients and collaborators in the Protein Analysis Facility. I was awarded a NIH Heart, Lung, Blood Institute (NHLBI) 3-year glycocardio postdoctoral fellowship under the Program Excellence in Glycosciences initiative, and undertook my postdoctoral training (Jun 2011 - Nov 2013) under the supervision of A/Prof Natasha Zachara in the Department of Biological Chemistry at the Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, to characterise the role of intracellular glycosylation O-GlcNAc in cardioprotection and survival.

In March 2014, I was recruited back to MQU by Prof Mark Molloy and Prof Roger Chung to develop an independent research program to bridge the infrastructure capabilities at the Australian Proteome Analysis Facility (APAF) and the clinical and medical research in the MQU Centre for MND Research and clinic.  

My passion is educating, supervising and inspiring students to drive change and their own personal growth. Every student has their own unique and valuable life experiences and my goal is to adapt my techniques to ensure each student achieves a better understanding of scientific and medical research to achieve positive outcomes. I aim to provide and mentor students with a set of tools and principles that allow them to critically think and analyse complex issues to become students and contributors for the community.

I am currently a unit convenor for an equivalent third-year biochemistry and cell biology subject MEDI3200 - Translational Biology and Genomics (formerly known as MEDI304 - Advanced Clinical Science [2016-2019]) which is a compulsory unit in the Bachelor of Clinical Science degree. This subject is designed to bring together concepts in cell biology to highlight the importance of basic sciences to translational research and medicine.

I currently lead the NeuroProteomics Research (NPR) program, as part of the IMaging, PROteomics, and nanodeliVEry (Neuro-IMPROVE) group led by Prof. Roger Chung. I am responsible for developing and driving research projects within the proteomics program as part of the NHMRC Dementia Teams Grant that is focused on MND, FTD and proteostasis dysfunction. My research interests focus on understanding the mechanisms of cellular survival upon stress, and its role in biological processes that manifest into human diseases such as neurological disorders. My research uses proteomics to characterise post-translational modifications (including phosphorylation, ubiquitination, and glycosylation) to understand their role in cellular processes. We perform high-throughput and unbiased analyses to capture a snapshot of a cellular or disease state, and this is becoming more widespread and important when trying to understand the biology of a particular model. Our Neuroproteomics program enables us to understand holistically the dynamic changes that occur during stress and survival to further develop hypotheses and provide depth in knowledge.