Events

A/Prof Benjamin Schwessinger from ANU will be presenting 'Sex, death, and disease in cereal rust fungi'.

Professor Eddie Holmes from the University of Sydney will be presenting "Redefining Virus Ecology and Evolution Using Metagenomics"

Dr Thomas Fallon of The University of Newcastle will be presenting "Substituted Shape-Shifters and 8π/6π Synthesis". This seminar will present the general toolbox for the easy synthesis of bullvalenes, an exploration of their dynamic nature, and will also discuss the endidiandric acids - the most famous of the bicyclo[4.2.0]octadiene derived natural products.

Prof Johnson Mak, Griffith University will be presenting "A three-decade odyssey in HIV assembly, from transfer RNA to calcium sparks in virological synapse – a potential general principle in protein trafficking".

A/Prof Joanne Macdonald will be presenting "Revolutionizing sample preparation for low-resource molecular testing".

Prof Luke Henderson will present 'Designing hard-soft interfaces in composite materials for enhanced functionality and performance', and provide an overview of their efforts in the manipulation of carbon fibre surface chemistry to improve their functionality and performance.

Dr Jessica Allen of The University of Newcastle will be presenting "Electrochemical technologies: A paradigm shift in energy and manufacturing". In this talk, the potential application of a number of electrochemical systems powered by renewable energy inputs is discussed including molten salt electrolysis for carbon capture and transformation, electrochemical ammonia, green methanol and green steel. The sustainable manufacture of materials for electrochemical systems will also be discussed since these are essential for meaningful movement towards truly zero, or even negative, emission systems.

Prof F. Peter Guengerich of Vanderbilt University (USA) will be presenting "Kinetics of multi-step reactions: insights into the mechanisms of P450 enzymes"

In this session, Dr Padmanabhan will describe our mathematical frameworks that have quantified the molecular determinants of hepatitis C virus (HCV) and SARS-CoV-2 virus entry into host cells, identified systems-level mechanisms underlying interferon-based HCV treatment failure, elucidated new drug synergy mechanisms, and examined the workings of COVID-19 vaccines.

A/Prof. Ginger Shultz, from the University of Michigan, will present Insights Into The Development of NMR interpretation Ability.

Prof. Nathaniel Szymczak's, from the University of Michigan, presentation will emphasize how Lewis acids can be used to augment metal-based reactivity, as well as to show how incorporation of these units within a ligand scaffold can provide access to unique activation/functionalization processes.

A/Prof Daniel Cozzolino from the Centre for Nutrition and Food Sciences (QAAFI) will present "A brief introduction to Chemometrics and Applications". This presentation will discuss how the combination of chemometrics with rapid analytical methods to reveal the complexity of agro-food systems.

Associate Professor Marjolaine Roche from the Infectious Process in Tropical Insular Territories lab (Reunion Island, France) will be presenting "Comprehensive study on NS1 diversity among contemporary epidemic DENV strains in Indian ocean territories".

Dr Mariusz Skwarczynski from the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences will be presenting "Polymer-based Vaccine Delivery Nano-platforms".

Dr Joshua Powell from Texas A&M University will describe the carbonization of several zirconium-based MOFs and structural analysis of the metal species present in the resulting MOF-derived carbons.

Professor Wuhan Xiao from the Institute of Hydrobiology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences will be presenting "Oxygen potentiates antiviral innate immunity by sustaining EGLN1-catalyzed proline hydroxylation of IFR3."

Associate Professor Liraz Chai from the Institute of Chemistry at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem,
Israel, will share the soft matter and biological perspectives of biofilms, focusing on the properties of water, ECM, and metal ions.

Associate Professor Joanne Jamie and Dr Ian Jamie from the School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, will share how research that started with looking at the chemistry of bush medicines in partnership with Yaegl Country Elders, progressed to the multi-award-winning National Indigenous Science Education Program (NISEP)

Professor Michelle L Coote from the Flinders Institute for Nanoscale Science & Technology, Flinders University, will present some of her group's recent progress in both electrochemical and electrostatic catalysis of organic reactions.

Prof Jason McLellan, Welch Chair in Chemistry and Professor of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, will discuss his and his colleagues' work on designing key proteins that form the basis of several vaccines now in clinical trials against the coronavirus, as well as separate proteins used in vaccines against respiratory syncytial virus, a virus especially dangerous for young children and seniors.

Assoc Prof Max Cryle from Monash University's Biomedicine Discovery Institute will present the results of his group's investigations into the utility of peptide crosslinking P450 enzymes from biarylitide biosynthesis to generate a range of cyclic tripeptide species.

Associate Professor Cryle from the Biomedicine Discovery Institute at Monash University will report the recent discoveries of his group that provide fundamental insights into non-ribosomal peptide synthesis (NRPS). This includes understanding the mechanism and selectivity of key peptide synthesis and amino acid selection domains, which are common to all NRPS assembly lines and central to their function. He will also detail our efforts to reconstitute enzymatic crosslinking during glycopeptide antibiotic maturation, which is a highly challenging chemical transformation that limits our ability to produce new members of this important class of clinical antibiotics through chemical synthesis. Throughout this presentation, he will further discuss the importance of integrating chemical synthesis into engineering strategies for these complex biosynthetic pathways.

Dr Nasim Amiralian, leader of the Bio-inspired Materials research group at UQ will give an overview of the fundamental aspects of nanocellulose production and applications in several different industries including nanocomposites, biomedical technologies, water treatment, and flexible electronics. 

Dr Benjamin Dalton from the Department of Physics, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, will present his groups work on understanding how the local activity of molecular motors enable coherent spindle-scale microtubule flows and organisation.

The 18th Annual Symposium is organised by and for SCMB's research (HDR, PGCW and Honours) students. Other UQ research students of all levels and staff are welcome to attend the oral and poster presentations, equipment displays and listen to talks presented by some of SCMB top researchers.