The molecular life sciences have experienced considerable growth as a UOW research strength over the past decade. This growth, coupled with the establishment of Health and Wellbeing initiative as a broader strategic direction for the University, catalysed an $80 million UOW investment into Molecular Horizons, a new molecular life sciences research Institute.
Our impact
A message from the Director
"Critical to Molecular Horizon's vision is the systematic integration of cutting-edge visualisation techniques spanning from the molecular to the organismal scale with mechanistic biology and medicinal chemistry. These enabling technologies will allow transformative understanding of the molecular principles of disease and utilisation of that knowledge to identify strategies to develop novel therapeutics and diagnostics.
The 2019-2020 period brought a number of major milestones for Molecular Horizons. With our new, 6,500-m2 world-class research facility having reached completion in January 2020, our teams were eager to recommence their research and put to use the new equipment – including the brand new cryo-EM facility with its state-of-the-art equipment to determine the atomic-level structures of biological macromolecules.
Little did we know that we would be opening our Institute at the brink of a global pandemic. There is no doubt that 2020 was a disruptive and challenging year. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our lives started a process that saw the world changed in many ways. With our colleagues and students living in periods of extended lockdowns, teaching staff facilitating the transition of all UOW’s teaching to online platforms, colleagues feeling the financial realities of the university environment during COVID, adapting to new COVID-safe practices, and juggling the consequential mental pressures, adjusting to the new normal impacted us all.
Despite the new challenges we were facing, Molecular Horizons has demonstrated an excellent few years of impactful research and wonderful highlights, all described in this report. In the 2019-2020 period alone, our researchers have been awarded over 90 grants and have published more than 340 publications. Some other notable achievements include the prestigious fellowships, scientific awards and many other accolades that are a testament to the exceptional talent within our Institute.
Molecular Horizons partners with industry, government, universities and community partners to cultivate highly integrated research programs that transcend traditional, individual project-based efforts, to deliver outcomes of increased scale, scope and impact. Underpinned by a strong institutional culture of creativity, innovation and collegiality our mission is to translate basic molecular understanding into real-world applications and, in doing so, recruit and train the next generation of interdisciplinary life scientists.
In this highly multidisciplinary environment, Molecular Horizons members have provided joint supervision of Honours and HDR students, coordinated exchange programs, co-authored publications and grants, and successfully graduated over 50 postgraduate students in the 2019-2020 period, many with awards, prizes, and first author publications in high-impact journals.
Lastly, I would like to acknowledge and thank all staff and student members for their resilience, endurance and exceptional strength that has been shown in abundance during this time. We should be extremely proud of the quality of our research whilst navigating the obstacles the pandemic created in all aspects of our lives. Also, I would like to thank all our partners for helping us grow as an Institute. In particular, I am grateful for our generous donors joining and supporting us on this exciting journey. It is my pleasure to celebrate with you a wonderful first two years of Molecular Horizons."
Distinguished Professor Antoine van Oijen
Director, Molecular Horizons
The transformational research of Molecular Horizons is underpinned by offering internal and external researchers access to world-class research infrastructure. High-end core facilities are key drivers of the mission of Molecular Horizons, providing opportunities for cutting-edge and collaborative research. In doing so, this state-of-the-art infrastructure lies at the heart of the Molecular Horizons vision “that seeing is believing".
Our impact
Developing anti-cancer drugs with industry
Molecular Horizons researcher Dr Carolyn Dillon and her research team have entered a joint venture licencing agreement with the Australian Pharmaceutical Company, Phebra. The agreement stems from an ongoing UOW/Phebra relationship that was established in 2016 following Dr Dillon’s conception of a class of arsenic compounds that selectively target specific cancers.
The concept was patented internationally in 2019 and Phebra has funded further patents across the Americas, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. The collaboration utilises the expertise of Dr Dillon’s research group in the areas of synthesis, characterisation, purification and in vitro biological testing to design and identify candidates for in vivo assessment. The most promising compound, to date, targets and kills leukemia cells over healthy blood cells with one thousand times greater selectivity.
The collaboration provides invaluable insight into the development and manufacturing of drugs by the pharmaceutical industry for postgraduate and undergraduate medicinal chemistry students at UOW.
Microprobe XRF imaging showing arsenic uptake and distribution throughout both the cytoplasm and nucleus of a leukemia cell following treatment with the potential arsenic drug.
Industry projects
- Grünenthal (through Uniquest): $1.2M (2019-2020) to D/Prof David Adams
Development of peptide therapeutics
- GenieUs Genomics: $511k (2019-2020) to A/Prof Lezanne Ooi
Tarantino Project – Reprogramming fibroblasts into induced pluripotent stem cells
- Phebra Pharmaceutical Development and Manufacturing: $213k to Dr Carolyn Dillon
Synthesis and biological assessment of Arsenic-based leukemia and pancreatic homing complexes
- US Army Medical Research: $118k to S/Prof Mark Wilson and Prof Heath Ecroyd
Rapid Flow Cytometry Screen for Identifying Novel ALS Drug Leads
- DSM Nutritional Products: $100k (2019) to Prof Barbara Meyer
Can Omega3 and/or Multivitamins & Mineral Supplementation Enhance Behavioural Self-control
We gratefully acknowledge the individuals and organisations that donated to Molecular Horizons in 2019 and 2020. COVID-19 made 2020 a challenging year, but it is in large part due to our meaningful community connections that we were able to continue to empower and support our researchers. Those donations have allowed us to provide our junior researchers with the extra support that has proven so critical in times of uncertainty and reduced government funding. It demonstrates the power of working together with the community to do high-impact research and fuel the breakthroughs that can change lives.
In appreciation
A special thank you to the following individuals for their generosity:
- Madeline Tynan and family ($66,000)
- Professor Bruce Warren ($38,000)
- And our anonymous donors ($300,000)
Michael Tynan Challenge
The Michael Tynan Challenge (MTC) was created in dedication of Michael Tynan, OAM, who sadly passed away in February 2016 after a two-year fight with cancer. It was Michael’s dedication to community and family that inspired his daughter, Tynan Motors Group Director Madeline Tynan, to establish the MTC in 2016. The MTC’s goal is to raise funds that contribute to medical health research that will save lives and create better health outcomes within the community.
We are incredibly honoured and grateful to be invited to participate in the various fundraiser activities set out by the MTC throughout the year, including the Race Day Luncheon and the Coastal Walk Challenge. The funds raised from these activities have enabled us to establish scholarships supporting undergraduate students during their fourth-year honours projects. Embedded in the research groups in Molecular Horizons, these students use the final year of their studies to conduct impact-driven research that contributes to solving global health challenges such as motor neurone disease, Alzheimer’s, cancer therapeutics, molecular neuroscience and protein aggregation related diseases. During 2019 and 2020, we have been able to support 11 students with a Tynan Family Molecular Horizons Honours Scholarship.
"As a family, we are passionate about giving back to the community that supports our family business."
"We are delighted to support the development taking place in the medical research facilities at UOW, which is assisting not only the local but broader community, especially at a time when the importance of medical research is so evident today, during this epidemic, for both physical and mental health." - Madeline Tynan
The Centre for Oncology Education & Research Translation (CONCERT)
CONCERT was established in 2014 as part of the Cancer Institute NSW (CINSW) initiative for Translational Cancer Research Centres (TCRC). CONCERT brought together the knowledge and expertise of cancer health professionals & researchers from 10 institutions and 3 local health districts hospitals across Sydney and the Illawarra/Shoalhaven to facilitate translation of cancer research to achieve better outcomes for those affected by cancer. CONCERT has recently transitioned into a new larger entity called the Sydney Partnership for Health, Education, Research and Enterprise (SPHERE) Cancer Clinical Academic Group (CAG), which was recently awarded a $7million Translational Cancer Research Capacity Building Grant from Cancer Institute NSW. During its 7 years of operation CONCERT became a 370 member strong cancer research network with overarching Targets and Therapeutics (coordinated by Prof Ranson from MH/IHMRI who has also acted as Deputy Director of CONCERT) and Policy and Practice flagship programmes. This includes the ongoing CONCERT Biobank which has collected over 35,000 samples for over 40 research projects to date. There is now a fully developed process for routine patient sample collection and analysis within the Illawarra and across the CONCERT network, with firm research links established to other clinical and academic institutes in NSW. The access to patient samples with linked clinical data is informing biomarker discovery for diagnostic, prognostic and/or predictive (e.g., drug responsiveness) analyses. For example, we established patient-derived cultures from gastric cancer circulating tumour cells as avatars for drug responsiveness studies in this disease.
Fluorescence microscopy image of patient-derived gastric cancer circulating tumour cells showing staining for DNA (DAPI, blue) and the cellular structural component Actin (red). These cells are also highly positive for the cell surface growth factor receptor EGFR (green), whose overexpression is often a feature of rapidly growing and invasive cancer cells. Drugs blocking EGFR can be used to limit gastric cancer spread.
- Australian Research Council Industrial Transformation Training Centre for Cryo-EM on Membrane Proteins (CCeMMP): Monash University, University of Melbourne, WEHI, University of Wollongong (2020)
- Wollongong Antimicrobial Resistance Research Alliance (WARRA): Illawarra Shoalhaven Health District, NSW Health Pathology, Southern.IML/Sonic, University of Wollongong (2019-2020)
- Centre for Oncology Education & Research Translation (CONCERT): UNSW, Western Sydney University, Ingham Institute for Applied Medical Research, South Western Sydney Local Health District, Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District, Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute, Health Directorate ACT Government, Australian National University, University of Canberra, University of Wollongong (2019-2020)
- The Australian Characterisation Commons at Scale (ACCS): Monash University: AARNet, Bioplatforms Australia, Flinders University, EMBL Australia, Microscopy Australia, National Imaging Facility, Pawsey Supercomputing Centre, QCIF, RMIT University, Swinburne University, The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, The University of Melbourne, University of New South Wales, University of Queensland, University of South Australia, University of Sydney, University of Western Australia, University of Wollongong (2020)
Hand sanitiser to protect local healthcare workers
Molecular Horizons and Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District join forces to bolster local hand sanitiser stocks Critical shortages of medical supplies have been a worldwide problem in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. But experts in the Illawarra have come up with their own solution.
Read more
Where are they now?
Our students and their journeys
Dr San Gil was awarded a PhD from the University of Wollongong in 2018. Her PhD research was done in Molecular Horizons under the primary supervision of Prof Heath Ecroyd and co-supervised by A/Prof Lezanne Ooi and Prof Justin Yerbury. Together, they discovered that neurodegenerative disease-associated stresses escape the detection of protective responses in brain cells, leaving them susceptible to cell death. Dr San Gil travelled to London in 2016 to undertake an Endeavour Research Fellowship at the Institute of Neurology, University College London. Recently, she was appointed as the inaugural Fight MND Early Career Research Fellow at the Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland, where Dr San Gil works in Dr Adam Walker’s laboratory. In this position, she is working towards advancing our understanding of the genes and biological processes driving protein aggregation and neurodegeneration in motor neuron disease.
Dr Kimberley Davis completed her PhD in 2015 in what was then the UOW School of Chemistry, under the supervision of Molecular Horizons researchers Prof Stephen Ralph, Prof Jenny Beck and Dr Chris Richardson. Although a chemist by background, Dr Davis was able to branch out into the biomolecular sphere, investigating how a range of nickel Schiff base complexes she synthesised interacted with Quadruplex DNA, a structure which is implicated in tumour immortality.
Since then, Dr Davis has worked in a diverse range of areas – science communication, academic teaching, lab-based work, and community engagement. Dr Davis: ‘Some of these appear to have no relation to my PhD! However, I can safely say that a PhD isn’t just about domain knowledge; you learn a great many more things, but most of all how to adapt and how to continuously learn.’
Dr Davis has now moved into the Clinical Research sphere, as part of the Research Operations team for the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District, joining in mid-2020. Despite having no clinical background, she has been able to readily transition into this space, working with clinicians in a range of disciplines and assisting with their projects – very much like an all-areas Clinical Post-Doc. She has already published with ISLHD clinicians in both General and Orthopaedic surgery, and is currently working on papers for Aged Care and Emergency Stroke assessment, as well as being involved in projects in areas such as Health Information Management, Pharmacy, Cardiology, Cancer prognostics, and much more.
Dr Sandeep Satapathy received his PhD based on work with Molecular Horizons researcher Prof Mark Wilson. His research project was based on understanding the structure-function relationship of secreted chaperones, proteins that guard the folding and stability of other proteins. During his PhD he has successfully established the first rapid and high-yield mammalian expression system of the very difficult to express protein clusterin and establish a detailed understanding of the role of clusterin in intracellular protein quality control. Subsequently, he was awarded a Harvard Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship, allowing Dr Satapathy to work in world-class labs in the Blavatnik Institute of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School and The Broad Institute. Expanding on his research interests in understanding the biological roles of the secretome, his current work is focused on the role of secretory proteins in the molecular regulation of pancreatic beta cells. As a trained cell and molecular biologist, Dr Satapathy enjoys asking questions and finding meaningful answers to the signaling and molecular crosstalk of proteins associated with serious human diseases like Alzheimer’s disease and diabetes.
Noteable achievements
- 2019 NSW Tall Poppy Award: Dr Natalie Matosin
- 2019 Wollongong Citizen of the Year: Prof Justin Yerbury
- 2020 Rebecca L Cooper Memorial Award: Dr Natalie Matosin
- 2020 UOW Vice-Chancellor’s Research Excellence Award for Emerging Researcher: Dr Yee Lian Chew
- 2020 Margaret Sheil Leadership Award (Royal Australian Chemical Institute): A/Prof Danielle Skropeta
- 2020 NSW Premier’s Prize for Science and Engineering (Medical Biological Sciences): D/Prof Antoine van Oijen
- 2020 Order of Australia: Prof Justin Yerbury
- 2020 NSW Master Builder Award (Excellence in Construction): Paul Wellings Building
- 2019 National Institutes of Health (USA) Program Grant to D/Prof Antoine van Oijen, Dr Andrew Robinson and Dr Harshad Ghodke (in collaboration with University of Wisconsin, Madison and University of Southern California) ($1.5M to Molecular Horizons)
‘Creation and Repair of Postreplicative DNA Gaps’ - 2019 ARC Future Fellowship to Dr Shane Ellis ($734k)
‘Mapping dynamic lipid biochemistry with high spatial and molecular detail’ - 2019 Cancer Council project grant to Dr Debbie Watson ($448k)
‘Immune Cell Depletion and P2X7 Receptor Blockade to Prevent Graft-versus-host Disease in Blood Cancer Treatment’ - 2019 MRFF Frontier Stage 1 funding to multi-organisation consortium co-led by D/Prof Antoine van Oijen ($1M)
‘Use of disruptive technologies to trace, track and tackle antibiotic resistance’ - 2019 Department of Defense (USA) Idea Award to S/Prof Mark Wilson and Prof Heath Ecroyd (in collaboration with University of Queensalnd and Macquarie University) ($339k to Molecular Horizons)
‘Rapid Flow Cytometry Screen for Identifying Novel ALS Drug Leads’
- 2020 ARC Discovery Project to Prof Adam Trevitt ($420k)
‘New laser and mass spectrometry methods for detecting protonation isomers’
- 2020 NHMRC Investigator grant to D/Prof Xu-Feng Huang ($1.5M)
‘Neurite deficits, obesity and cortical thinning: Prevention and treatment in schizophrenia’
- 2020 NHMRC Investigator grant to Dr Yee-Lian Chew ($640k)
‘Investigating neuroendocrine dysregulation as new targets for chronic pain management’
- 2020 NHMRC Ideas grant to Dr Gokhan Tolun ($636k)
‘Revealing the molecular mechanistic details of viral DNA recombination towards developing novel anti-viral drugs’ - 2020 ARC Industrial Transformation Training Centre funding to D/Prof David Adams and D/Prof Antoine van Oijen (in collaboration with Monash University, University of Melbourne and WEHI) ($809k to Molecular Horizons)
‘ARC Training Centre for Cryo-electron microscopy of membrane proteins for drug discovery – CCEMMP’
2019 ARC Future Fellowship - Dr Shane Ellis
‘Mapping dynamic lipid biochemistry with high spatial and molecular detail’
Dr Shane Ellis was awarded the 2019 ARC Future Fellowship for his project on ‘Mapping dynamic lipid biochemistry with high spatial and molecular detail‘. The project aims to develop cutting edge mass spectrometry imaging techniques to spatially map lipid metabolism in tissues and cells at a level of detail not previously possible. Dr Ellis has established the mass spectrometry imaging laboratory within Molecular Horizons and the first imaging system is now operational. This included the first laser-post-ionisation capabilities in the southern hemisphere that improves sensitivity by up to 100-fold and is a key enabler of the ultra-high spatial resolution imaging techniques we are developing. Studies are already underway to apply imaging technologies to a variety of biological questions, including mapping the lipid environment of prostate cancer tissues, understanding the role of lipids in Parkinson’s disease, age-related changes leading to cataract formation and imaging of individual neuronal cells. The Future Fellowship projects will continue to develop these technologies and applications and complement them with both kinetic information (using isotope labelling strategies) and the isomer-resolved identification and imaging of lipids. Dr Ellis` vision is to ensure UOW becomes the place to perform mass spectrometry imaging in Australia.
2019
- Angewandte Chemie – International Edition (2019) 58: 6492-6501
Reshaping Lipid Biochemistry by Pushing Barriers in Structural Lipidomics
Tiffany Porta Siegel; Kim Ekroos; Shane Ellis - Angewandte Chemie – International Edition (2019) 58: 2114-2119
Dual Gold‐Catalyzed Cycloaromatization of Unconjugated (E)‐Enediynes
Farzad Zamani; Rasool Babaahmadi; Brian Yates; Michael Gardiner; Alireza Ariafard; Stephen Pyne; Christopher Hyland - Chemical Science (2019) 10: 8083-8093
The partial dehydrogenation of aluminium dihydrides
Thomas Hooper; Samantha Lau; Wenyi Chen; Ryan Brown; Marti Garcon; Karen Luong; Nathan Barrow; Andrew Tatton; George Sackman; Christopher Richardson
- Chemical Science (2019) 10: 9051-9056
Divergent Pd-catalyzed cross-coupling of allenyloxazolidinones to give chiral 1,3-dienes and vinyloxazolidinones
Ronald Brown; Farzad Zamani; Michael Gardiner; Haibo Yu; Stephen Pyne; Christopher Hyland - Nucleic Acids Research (2019) 47: 2946-2965
RecFOR epistasis group: RecF and RecO have distinct localizations and functions in Escherichia coli
Sarah Henrikus; Camille Henry; Harshad Ghodke; Elizabeth Wood; Neema Mbele; Roopashi Saxena; Upasana Basu; Antoine van Oijen; Michael Cox; Andrew Robinson
- Nucleic Acids Research (2019) 47: 4111-4123
Recycling of single-stranded DNA-binding protein by the bacterial replisome
Lisanne Spenkelink; Jacob Lewis; Slobodan Jergic; Zhi-Qiang Xu; Andrew Robinson; Nicholas Dixon; Antoine van Oijen
2020
- Chemical Science (2020) 11: 10945-10950
Rhodium-catalysed tetradehydro-Diels-Alder reactions of enediynes: Via a rhodium-stabilized cyclic allene
Srinivas Thadkapally; Kaveh Farshadfar; Melanie Drew; Christopher Richardson; Alireza Ariafard; Stephen Pyne; Christopher Hyland
- Molecular Cell (2020) 77: 17-25
Tunability of DNA Polymerase Stability during Eukaryotic DNA Replication
Jacob Lewis; Lisanne Spenkelink; Grant Schauer; Olga Yurieva; Stefan Mueller; Varsha Natarajan; Gurleen Kaur; Claire Maher; Callum Kay; Michael O'Donnell; Antoine van Oijen - Molecular Cell (2020) 79: 140-154
A Primase-Induced Conformational Switch Controls the Stability of the Bacterial Replisome
Enrico Monachino; Slobodan Jergic; Jacob Lewis; Zhi-Qiang Xu; Allen Lo; Valerie O'Shea; James Berger; Nicholas Dixon; Antoine van Oijen - Nature (2020) 579: 141-145
Selective loading and processing of prespacers for precise CRISPR adaptation
Sungchul Kim; Luuk Loeff; Sabina Colombo; Slobodan Jergic; Stan Brouns; Chirlmin Joo
- Nature Communications (2020) 11: 1477
Single-molecule live-cell imaging visualizes parallel pathways of prokaryotic nucleotide excision repair
Harshad Ghodke; Han Ho; Antoine van Oijen - Nature Communications (2020) 11: 1478
Single-molecule imaging reveals molecular coupling between transcription and DNA repair machinery in live cells
Han Ho; Antoine van Oijen; Harshad Ghodke - Nature Communications (2020) 11: 1519
CHD4 slides nucleosomes by decoupling entry- and exit-side DNA translocation
Yichen Zhong; Bishnu Paudel; Daniel Ryan; Jason Low; Charlotte Franck; Karishma Patel; Max Bedward; Mario Torrado; Richard Payne; Antoine van Oijen; Joel Mackay
Timothy Ablott, School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience
Supervisor: Doctor Christopher Richardson
Thesis title: Advancing Underexplored Post-Synthetic Chemistry in Metal-Organic Frameworks
Sam Adhikary, School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience
Supervisor: Doctor Debbie Watson
Thesis title: Therapeutic Strategies to Prevent Graft-Versus-Host Disease
Ayedh Alqarni, School of Medicine
Supervisor: Professor Barbara Meyer
Thesis title: Investigation of alteration in erythrocyte lipids in people at ultra-high risk of developing psychosis
Umar Ali, School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience
Supervisor: Professor Marie Ranson
Thesis title: Characterisation of the Urokinase Plasminogen Activation (uPA) System in the Rat Collagen Induced Arthritis Model: Pharmacological Investigations of Methotrexate and uPA Inhibition
Bruce Ashford, School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience
Supervisor: Professor Marie Ranson
Thesis title: The mutational landscape of metastatic cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma
Monique Bax, School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience
Supervisor: Associate Professor Lezanne Ooi
Thesis title: Examination of the Ubiquitin Proteasome System in Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Derived Motor Neurons, and Related Cell Types in the Context of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Lisa Belfiore, School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience
Supervisor: Doctor Kara Perrow
Thesis title: Development of Ligand-Directed Drug-Loaded Liposomes to Target Heterogeneous Tumour Cell Populations in Metastatic Breast Cancer
Ronald Brown, School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience
Supervisor: Associate Professor Christopher Hyland
Thesis title: Drug Development for Neglected Diseases and Palladium Catalysis in Reaction Development
Daniel Brungs, School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience
Supervisor: Professor Marie Ranson
Thesis title: Molecular and clinical biomarkers in gastrointestinal cancer
Macguire Bryant, School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience
Supervisor: Doctor Christopher Richardson
Thesis title: Post-Synthetic Reactivity in Metal-Organic Frameworks
Nicholas Butler, School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience
Supervisor: Professor Paul Keller
Thesis title: Old Dye, New Tricks? Diversity-Oriented Synthesis of Heterocycles from Cascade Reactions of Indigo
Judith Carrall, School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience
Supervisor: Doctor Carolyn Dillon
Thesis Title: Designing tumour-targeting arsenic anti-cancer agents
Anthony Carroll, School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience
Supervisor: Senior Professor Stephen Pyne
Thesis title: Total synthesis of eleven hyacinthacine C-type analogues and the correction of the structures of natural hyacinthacine C1 and C5
Christiana Dawurung, School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience
Supervisor: Senior Professor Stephen Pyne
Thesis title: Phytochemical and Biological Studies of Selected Nigerian Traditional Medicinal Plants Used in the Treatment of Diarrhea
Christopher Dobie, School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience
Supervisor: Associate Professor Danielle Skropeta
Thesis title: Rational Design, Synthesis, and Biological Evaluation of Human Sialyltransferase Inhibitors
Melanie Drew, School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience
Supervisor: Associate Professor Christopher Hyland
Thesis title: Gold(I)-Catalysed Reactions of Cyclopropenyl Carbinol Derivatives
Peng Gao, School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience
Supervisor: Associate Professor Haibo Yu
Thesis title: Computer-aided Hydrogen Storage Materials Design: Accurate Predictions of NMR Chemical Shifts and MD Simulation of Nitrogen and Boron Containing Compounds
Jayden Gaston, School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience
Supervisor: Professor Paul Keller
Thesis title: Swimming In Chiral Pnictogen Pools - The Exploration of 3-Membered Bicyclic Chiral Pool Intermediates for the Synthesis of Libraries of Chiral 1,2-Dipnictogens
Nicholas Geraghty, School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience
Supervisor: Professor Ronald Sluyter
Thesis title: The Role of Purinergic Signalling in Inflammatory Disorders
Julian Harrison, School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience
Supervisor: Professor Jenny Beck
Thesis title: An Investigation into the Structure of Protein Toxins of Australian Snake Venoms
Sarah Henrikus, School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience
Supervisor: Doctor Andrew Robinson
Thesis title: Following the DNA damage response in Escherichia coli: Single-molecule studies of proteins in live cells
Han Ngoc Ho, School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience
Supervisor: Distinguished Professor Antoine van Oijen
Thesis title: Visualisation of Transcription-coupled Repair in Live Eschericha Coli
Venkatasaisandeep Inakollu, School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience
Supervisor: Associate Professor Haibo Yu
Thesis title: Computational vibrational spectroscopic studies for condensed phase systems
Jeremy Lum, School of Medicine
Supervisor: Associate Professor Kelly Newell
Thesis title: Exploring group 1 metabotropic glutamate receptors in the pathology and treatment of schizophrenia
School: School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience
Supervisor: Senior Professor Stephen Pyne
Student: Muni Mahadari
Thesis title: Development of New Anti-Bacterial Agents
School: School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience
Supervisor: Professor Michael Kelso
Student: Hiwa Majed
Thesis title: Synthesis and Structure-Activity Relationships of New Antibacterials Against Methicillin- Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus and Mycobacterium Tuberculosis
School: School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience
Supervisor: Professor Paul Keller
Student: Patrick McCosker
Thesis title: Cascade Reactions of Indigo: Synthesis and Physicochemical Studies
School: School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience
Supervisor: Professor Paul Keller
Student: Mohamed Metwaly
Thesis title: Drug design and development of antivirals and fluorescent anion transporters
School: School of Medicine
Supervisor: Associate Professor Kelly Newell
Student: Samuel Millard
Thesis title: The effects of perinatal Fluoxetine treatment on offspring behaviour and neurobiology
School: School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience
Supervisor: Distinguished Professor Antoine van Oijen
Student: Enrico Monachino
Thesis title: Dynamics of the bacterial replisome
School: School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience
Supervisor: Associate Professor Danielle Skropeta
Student: Andrew Montgomery
Thesis title: Rational Design of Inhibitors Targeting Human Sialyltransferases
School: School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience
Supervisor: Associate Professor Lezanne Ooi
Student: Sonia Sanz Munoz
Thesis title: Modelling the neurobiology of Alzheimer’s disease in vitro
School: School of Medicine
Supervisor: Doctor Katrina Green
Student: Ashleigh Osborne
Thesis title: To CBD or Not to CBD? Understanding the Therapeutic Potential of Cannabidiol, a Component of Cannabis, for Schizophrenia
School: School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience
Supervisor: Professor Stephen Ralph
Student: Quynh Thai Son Pham
Thesis title: Synthesis and Quadruplex DNA Binding Properties of Novel Nickel Schiff Base Complexes
School: School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience
Supervisor: Professor Marie Ranson
Student: Jay Perry
Thesis title: Understanding the biology of metastatic cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma
School: School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience
Supervisor: Associate Professor Christopher Hyland
Student: Daniel Rivinoja
Thesis title: Cycloaddition Reactions with 1,3-Dipoles for the Formation of Complex Heterocycles
School: School of Medicine
Supervisor: Professor Barbara Meyer
Student: Lauren Roach
Thesis title: The effect of a seaweed sulfated xylorhamnoglucuronan extract on gut, metabolic and skin health outcomes
School: School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience
Supervisor: Senior Professor Stephen Pyne
Student: Greg Ryder
Thesis title: Latent Bis-Nucleophilic Additions to α-Cyclopropyl N-Acyliminium Ions
School: School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience
Supervisor: Senior Professor Mark Wilson
Student: Sandeep Satapathy
Thesis title: Clusterin Enigma: Structure and Function Studies of the First Known Mammalian Secreted Chaperone
School: School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience
Supervisor: Professor Michael Kelso
Student: Geraud Sansom
Thesis title: Anticancer Mutual Prodrugs Activated by Hypoxia
School: School of Medicine
Supervisor: Associate Professor Todd Mitchell
Student: Jo Ann Seng
Thesis title: Distribution of lipids in the human lens and the affect of ageing
School: School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience
Supervisor: Professor Ronald Sluyter
Student: Reece Sophocleous
Thesis title: Characterisation of canine P2X and P2Y receptors
School: School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience
Supervisor: Doctor Kara Perrow
Student: Sepehr Talebian
Thesis title: Coaxial hydrogel structures for drug delivery to tumors
School: School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience
Supervisor: Associate Professor Christopher Hyland
Student: Srinivas Thadkapally
Thesis title: Transition Metal Catalyzed [4+2]-Cycloaromatization Reactions of Unconjugated Enediynes
School: School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience
Supervisor: Associate Professor Martina Sanderson-Smith,
Student: Heema Vyas
Thesis title: Characterising the Role of Pharyngeal Cell Surface Glycans in Group A Streptococcus Biofilm Formation
School: School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience
Supervisor: Doctor Kara Perrow
Student: Samantha Wade
Thesis title: Fabrication and Preclinical Assessment of Drug Eluting Wet Spun Fibres for Pancreatic Cancer Treatment
School: School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience
Supervisor: Senior Professor Mark Wilson
Student: Jennifer West
Thesis title: Extracellular Chaperones and their Cell Surface Receptor
School: School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience
Supervisor: Associate Professor Martina Sanderson-Smith
Student: Jonathan Williams
Thesis title: Characterising the Neutrophil Response to Group A Streptococcus
School: School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience
Supervisor: Professor Paul Keller
Student: Hendris Wongso
Thesis title: The Development of Novel Fluorescent and Radiopharmaceutical Probes for Imaging Neurodegenerative Diseases
School: School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience
Supervisor: Associate Professor Christopher Hyland
Student: Farzad Zamani
Thesis title: Synthesis and Transition Metal-catalysed Reactivity of Enantioenriched, Allenes and Enynes
School: School of Medicine
Supervisor: Distinguished Professor Xu-Feng Huang
Student: Peng Zheng
Thesis title: The Mechanism of D2R Overactivation in Neurite Impairment and Oxidative Stress
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