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 | Biography |  |
Glycosylation is the addition of sugars to proteins, and is important in cancer, human development and infectious disease. We aim to understand the mechanisms controlling glycosylation in these systems to develop therapies, vaccines and applications in biotechnology. I graduated with a degree in Chemical Engineering and Science (Hons I) in 2000 from The University of Queensland, after which I joined Proteome Systems, an innovative Australian biotechnology company. At Proteome Systems I developed analytical methods for use in clinical glycoproteomics. Largely based around gel electrophoresis and mass spectrometry, these were used for several projects that identified novel prognostic markers for cystic fibrosis and other inflammatory pulmonary diseases.
In 2005 I moved to the lab of Professor Markus Aebi at the ETH Zürich in Switzerland for my doctoral studies. Here I developed mass spectrometry-based methods for quantification of protein posttranslational modifications. I used these techniques together with yeast genetics, in vitro biochemistry and structural biology to characterize the regulatory components of the multiprotein complex oligosaccharyltransferase involved in protein N-glycosylation.
As a University of Queensland Postdoctoral Research Fellow, I joined the lab of Professor Michael Jennings in the School of Chemistry & Molecular Biosciences in 2008 to investigate O-glycosylation in the pathogenic bacteria Neisseria meningitidis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae.
In 2009 I started my own research group, focussing on various aspects of molecular systems glycobiology. We work on glycosylation in the pathogenic Neisseria (in collaboration with Professor Jennings, Institute for Glycomics, Griffith University), the role of regulation of N-glycosylation in human development and cancer, and other aspects of analytical and applied glycobiology.
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