School research seminars

The SCMB Molecular Biosciences Seminar Series welcomes A/Prof Yann Gambin, UNSW/EMBL Australia, who will be presenting 'Immunity, neurodegeneration and phase transition: molecular biology at the single molecule resolution'.

The Chemistry Seminar Series welcomes Dr Tristan Reekie from the University of New South Wales Canberra, who will be presenting 'Organic chemistry for drug discovery and back again'.

Molecular Biosciences Seminar Series welcomes Prof Mark Schembri (SCMB/IMB), who will be presenting 'Antibiotic resistant superbugs: it’s all about the clones.'

The SCMB Chemistry Seminar Series Welcomes Prof Stephen Moggach (UWA), who will present 'Why squeeze MOFs? The Effect of Pressure, Guest Uptake and Structural Flexibility on Porous Materials'.

MBS Seminar Series welcomes Prof Mathew G Lewsey of La Trobe Institute for Sustainable Agriculture and Food, and the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space. Prof Lewsey will be presenting 'What happens when a genome wakes up: gene regulation during seed germination'.

SCMB Seminar Series welcomes guest speaker A/Prof Nicholas Furnham (London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine). Nicholas will be presenting 'Developing and applying AI/XAI methods in hit drug discovery & in understanding antimicrobial drug resistance'.

SCMB will host an an extra Chemistry Seminar this Friday, 4 October. It is my pleasure to announce a presentation by Prof Colette Boskovic, who will present 'Australia, Women and Rare Earth Chemistry'. In this lecture she will present her own journey as a woman in chemistry and discuss some of the challenges that remain for the full participation of women in science.

The next MBS seminar will be presented by A/Prof Paul Dawson (Mater Research Institute), entitled 'Neuroprotective benefit of magnesium sulfate therapy in preterm infants: is it magnesium or is it sulfate?'

Please join us for the next chemistry seminar on September 30th by Prof. Alex Bissember. Prof Bissember will be presenting 'Synthesis and Reactivity of N-Heterocycles and Photoactive Copper(I) Complexes'. This presentation describes his team's efforts to prepare and study of original classes of photoactive copper(I) complexes bearing tetradentate, phenanthroline-based supporting ligands with a view to better understanding the subtle interplay between structure and function. Also, the presentation will outline their progress exploring the fundamental properties and synthetic applications of various classes of N-heterocycles.

The next Chemistry seminar will be presented by Prof Shang-Cheng Hung from the Genomics Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei. Prof Hung will be presenting 'Probing Specific Interactions of Synthetic Cell-Surface Carbohydrates with Disease-Related Proteins'.

The SCMB - Molecular Bioscience Seminar Series Welcomes Dr Miloš Tanurdžić (SCMB), who will be presenting 'Chromatin-based gene regulatory mechanisms controlling plant architecture'.

Dr Carol Hua, University of Melbourne, will be presenting 'Chiral Chemical Sensors and Stimuli Responsive Materials'.

Please join us at the next chemistry seminar on August 12th by Dr. Laura Burchill (University of Melbourne), who will be presenting 'Charting Metabolic Pathways in Ocean Ecosystems'.

Dr Joel Hooper from Monash University as our next speaker in the SCMB chemistry seminar series with his presentation 'Catalytic solutions for the synthesis of molecules big and small'.

Professor Alexandra (Sasha) Zhernakova, University Medical Center Groningen, Department of Genetics, The Netherlands, will be presenting a special MBS Seminar entitled 'Host and environmental determinants of gut microbiome: lessons from Dutch population studies'. In this seminar she will be presenting the initial results of the gut microbiome and virome analysis, highlighting significant findings and their implications.

Prof Kathryn E Fairfull-Smith will be presenting 'Synthetic Strategies to Combat Bacterial Biofilms'. In this presentation, she will discuss two of their recent approaches to target bacterial biofilms: modification of oxazolidinones and the design and synthesis of LasR inhibitors.

The SCMB Chemistry Seminar Series welcomes Associate Professor Luke Hunter (UNSW), who will present 'On the hunt for an elusive telomerase inhibitor'.

Dr Stefan Oehlers (A*STAR Infectious Diseases) will be presenting 'Studying ageing-related susceptibility to mycobacterial infection with zebrafish embryos'. In this presentation he will be discussing the mechanisms by which loss of telomerase expression impairs immunity and his approach to dissecting the mechanism by which prior TB infection increases the risk of infection with superinfecting mycobacteria.

Dr Jeffrey Mak, IMB, will be presenting 'Bacterially-derived heterocyclic immunostimulants'. His talk will describe the discovery of 5-OP-RU, its rationally described synthesis via kinetic control, its vaccination and immunotherapeutic properties, as well as its systematic modification leading to the creation of stable analogues and chemical tools for studying MAIT cell biology.

The SCMB- Molecular Biosciences Seminar Series Welcomes Assistant Professor Leen Delang (KU Leuven) who will be presenting 'Antiviral strategies for mosquito-borne viruses: a ‘buzzing’ role for the mosquito vector?'

Dr Anne-Sophie Bergot (Frazer Institute) will be presenting 'The interplay of myeloid cells and autoreactive T lymphocytes activated by gut-derived bacteria in spondyloarthropathy'.

The SCMB Chemistry Seminar Series will next host Associate Professor Nicholas White from the Australian National University next Monday (13th May). His talk, "Using charge-assisted hydrogen bonds for supramolecular chemistry in water" will be held in the AIBN Lecture Room at 1 pm. Please do join us for another exciting seminar!

A/Prof Marina Fortes, SCMB, will be presenting "Lessons from the LESTR project: measuring cattle methane emissions under grazing conditions".

Prof Curt Wentrup, SCMB, will be presenting 'Glauber and Dippel. Alchemy, Gold-making, animal oil, and Prussian blue'.

Professor Keith Chappell, SCMB/AIBN, will be presenting 'Second Generation Molecular Clamp Platform for the Development of Subunit Vaccines for Viral Pathogens'.

A/Prof Tom Rufford, School of Chemical Engineering, will be presenting 'Fabricating stable, selective catalyst layers on gas diffusion electrodes for high current density CO2 electrolysis'. In this seminar, Tom will highlight their recent work on electrode fabrication to improve the efficiency and stability of gas diffusion electrodes (GDE) in CO2 electrolysers. The key examples he will share are studies on (1) wettability and flooding of electrolytes in the GDE and (2) optimizing the catalyst ink formation to prepare highly selective catalyst layers for C2+ production. He will conclude the presentation with a summary of research approaches in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Green Electrochemical Transformation of CO2 (GETCO2) to address some of the future challenges in CO2 electrolysis and related technologies.

Ruirui Qiao, Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, will be presenting 'Polymer/inorganic Nanohybrids in Biomedical Applications: From Nanoparticle-Based Therapeutics to 3D-Printed Soft Robots'.

Dr Rosemary Cater (IMB) will be presenting "Structural and Mechanistic Insights into Nutrient Transport at the Blood Brain Barrier"

Dr Mathew Jones, SCMB/Frazer Institute, will be presenting "Understanding cell cycle regulation and DNA replication with high content imaging and nanopore sequencing".

Ruirui Qiao, of AIBN, will be presenting 'Polymer/inorganic Nanohybrids in Biomedical Applications: From Nanoparticle-Based Therapeutics to 3D-Printed Soft Robots'.

Dr David Cantillo, of SCMB, will be presenting "lectrochemical Synthesis of an Axitinib Intermediate – A Pharma Case Study".

Dr Kylie Agnew-Francis will be presenting "Bioactive secondary metabolites from Australian macrofungi", and in this presentation she will discuss preliminary findings from two genus of Australian fungi, Hericium and Kretzschmaria, collected from Tasmanian and Queensland rainforests, and how they are able to leverage these findings to engage with government, community organisations and other industries.

A/Prof John Dearnaley, the University of Southern Queensland, will be presenting 'Plant fungal endophytes – hidden immune systems in plants?'

Dr Anthony Verderosa, from IMB, will present 'Hybrid Drugs to Kill Nasty Bugs: Combining antibiotics to fight antimicrobial resistance'

Dr. Michelle Wille, University of Melbourne, will be presenting 'Evolutionary ecology of avian influenza viruses in Australia, and how this may inform our preparation for HPAI'

Prof. Debabrata Maiti of the Department of Chemistry, IIT Bombay, Mumbai, India, will be presenting 'En-Light-ening C-H functionalization'.

Dr Zhian (Anthony) Chen of the UQ Frazer Institute will be presenting 'Unlocking the biochemical “secrets” that control T cell-mediated antibody response'

Prof Johnson Mak, of the Institute for Glycomics at Griffith University (Gold Coast) will be presenting 'A journey in understanding HIV assembly - implications on protein trafficking'.

A/Prof Fernando Guimaraes will be presenting 'The emergence of natural killer cells as a major target for immunotherapy'.

Professor Gareth Denyer will be presenting 'Teaching Innovations in Biochemistry: the ‘triumphs’ and the disasters'.

Prof Dee Carter will be presenting 'Using drug synergy to combat fungal infections'.

Prof. Qianqian Lin of the School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, China will be presenting 'Optoelectronic Characterization and Device Considerations of Next-generation Semiconductors'.

A/Prof Marloes Dekker will be presenting 'Diet, metabolism and gut microbiome in pregnancy'. In this seminar she will talk about her studies into the relationship between dietary fibre, the gut microbiome and metabolites in pregnancy.

Dr. Maria Ikonomopoulou, a Senior Research TALENTO Fellow and Head of the Translational Venomics Group at IMDEA-Food Institute in Madrid, will be presenting 'Venom-Senolytics: A new class of senolytics with applications in cancer and other aging-related diseases'.

Prof. Ben Hankamer of the Centre for Solar Biotechnology at IMB will present 'Design and Development of Next-Generation Light Driven Biotechnologies'.

Prof. Ulrike Kappler (SCMB) will be presenting 'Should you care what your favourite pathogen likes to eat? – Insights into the role of metabolism for virulence of Haemophilus influenzae strains'.

Dr Stefan A. Pieczonka of Technical University of Munich will be presenting 'Comprehensive molecular characterization of Beer: Unveiling a complex biochemical system'.

Dr Jessica Neil of the Doherty Institute will be presenting 'Using stem cell models to study SARS-CoV-2 infection'

Dr Ramunas Stepanauskas, Senior Research Scientist and Director of the Single Cell Genomics Center, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in Maine (USA) will be presenting "Genomes and phenomes of individual cells in the ocean". In this presentation, presentation Dr Stepanauskas will review recent work performed by his group on the genome and phenome analyses of individual cells and extracellular genetic elements in the ocean, where unicellular microorganisms dominate ecosystem’s processes, biomass and biodiversity.

Dr. Tim Wells will be presenting.

Dr David Aragao, of Diamond Light Source Limited - Diamond House, will present "Latest news from structural Biology at Diamond Light Source from the instruments to the support laboratories"

Prof Birthe Kragelund of the University of Copenhagen will be presenting "Context matters – order and disorder in cellular signalling".

Dr Pâmela Alexandre will be presenting "Understanding Host-Microbiome interactions for improved immune competence in beef cattle"

Prof. Kazuhiro Yabana of the Center for Computational Sciences, University of Tsukuba (Japan) will be presenting "Computational Optical Science at the Atomic Scale: First-Principles Approach "

A/Prof Anastasios Polyzos from the University of Melbourne will be presenting "Harnessing Potent Reductants via Multiphoton Tandem Photoredox Catalysis"

Paul Clarke will present "Mitotic cell death: a mechanism to prevent and treat cancer".

Prof. Lena Daumann, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München in Germany will be presenting "Inspired by Nature: Separation of Lanthanides and Actinides Using Bacteria and their Biomolecules".

Dr Marianniz Díaz, Centre for Molecular Immunology (CIM), Havana will be presenting "The Cuban fight against COVID-19".

Dr Priyankar Paira, Department of Chemistry, School of Advanced Sciences, VIT, Tamilnadu, India, will be presenting "A scope of synthetic approaches for the development of Mitochondria targeting Ru(II)/Ir(III)/Re(I) based mono metallic and bimetallic complexes for cancer therapy"

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.

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.

Dr Deborah Burnett's, from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, presentation will focus on using sophisticated humanised mouse models, next-generation sequencing and antibody repertoire exploration to better evaluate vaccines at the pre-clinical stage, allowing for enhanced selection of vaccine candidates resulting in translational and commercial success.

Associate Professor Veysel Kayser from the University of Sydney will provide a summary of the current state-of-play of the development of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) as well as other antibody-based therapies and provide new advancements mainly from the group's lab.

Dr Illing from the Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University, will present her team's success on applying mass spectrometry-based epitope discovery workflow to characterise peptides naturally presented by HLA-I on the surface of influenza and SARS-CoV-2 infected cells.

Professor Heidi Drummer, Program Director Program Director for Disease Elimination at the Burnet Institute in Melbourne, will present her latest work on developing a universal prophylactic vaccine against HCV.

Associate Professor Jessica Mar from AIBN, UQ, will discuss her group's studies which focus on the shape of gene expression distributions, specifically shape diversity, and how they reveal new insights into biology.

Dr Kathryn Kemper, a quantitative geneticist from The Institute of Molecular Biosciences, will discuss her work on estimating the genetic influence on within-person variability for traits such as height and weight; and the relationships between longitudinal trait change and outcomes including musculoskeletal disease and all-cause mortality.

This Women in Science event focuses on the career progression of Level A and B female academics in STEM. Panellists include Professor Tilley form the Bio21 Institute, University of Melbourne, Professor Melissa Brown, the Executive Dean of the Faculty of Science, and a range of early- and mid-career researchers from a variety of disciplines, regarding how they have risen to the challenges of pursuing a research career in science

This is a mini-symposium and Q&A event where Prof Maree Toombs and Dr Jeremy Tarry, two of UQ's Indigenous academics, will discuss their experiences of being Aboriginal academics.

Dr Julie Pearce from the UQ Centre for Natural Gas will discuss the feasibility of CO2 geological storage in the Surat Basin, QLD.

Dr Claudia Simm from Monash University will present results from conducting a phenotypic screen against Candida species using compounds of the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) Pathogen box.

Dr Laura McKemmish from the School of Chemistry, UNSW, will discuss teaching computational chemistry and programming for chemists.

This seminar featuring Dr Freda Jen from The Institute of Glycomics, Griffith University, will focus on the discovery of gonococcal vaccine antigens and drug candidates.

Professor Steven Bull from the Department of Chemistry, University of Bath, will describe efforts to use a biorefinery based approach to catalytically upgrade biorenewable monoterpene feedstocks into a variety of sustainable commodity chemicals, bioplastics and drugs that are currently derived from non-renewable petrochemical feedstocks. In the second half of the presentation, efforts into developing fluorescent chemical sensors as investigational tools for probing complex biological processes in cellular systems, including for the real-time detection of osteocyte bone resorbing activity in deep bone cavities, imaging of amyloid-beta plaques in mice brains and visualisation of drug induced liver damage will be described.

Professor Lisa Ng, the Executive Director of A*STAR’s Infectious Diseases Labs, will provide an overview of the pathophysiology of SARS-CoV-2 infection. She will describe its interaction with the immune system and the subsequent contribution of dysfunctional immune responses to disease progression that provided useful insights in the successful development of vaccines and booster strategies.

Professor Benjamin Schulz from the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences will present work on the development and use of glyco/proteomic analytical approaches for measuring the complexity of glycosylation and other post-translational modifications at systems levels to understand their dynamics and roles in fundamental biology, virology, and fermented beverages. 

Dr. Charlotte Oskam, Centre for Biosecurity and One Health, Harry Butler Institute, Murdoch University, will discuss the methodology used to characterise the bacterial communities found within Australian ticks and the search for novel candidate pathogens, as well as bacterial genera of known tick borne pathogens and endosymbionts. Her team's findings show that without the use of molecular advances, such as next-generation sequencing, many bacteria of potential medical and veterinary interest could go undetected.

Join us to learn about SCMB's research collaboration with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples - from traditional medicine and novel phage therapeutics to natural hot springs

Professor Tuba Esatbeyoglu form the Institute of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University Hannover, Germany, will present her team's semisynthetic approach to the preparative formation of eight dimeric procyanidins from B-type, their isolation and elucidation of their structure.

Dr Mark Davies from the Doherty Institute, The University of Melbourne, will discuss the application of population genomics to advance vaccine design through to tracking the evolution and transmission of pathogenic clones of Streptococcus pyogenes.

Professor Debbie Silvester Dean from the School of Molecular and Life Sciences, Curtin University, will discuss her team's recent work elucidating reactions at the ionic liquid–solid electrode interface

Assoc Prof Tom Williams from the University of Bristol will present some recently published and new (unpublished) results on the phylogeny of Bacteria, the nature of the last bacterial common ancestor, the timescale of bacterial evolution, and the impact of the Great Oxidation Event (GOE) on bacterial genomes >2Ga.

Dr Keitos Sokratous from OMass Therapeutics, Oxford, UK, will present a general overview of structural mass spectrometry (MS) approaches in studying proteins and protein assemblies, with a particular focus in native MS.

Prof. Huw M. L. Davies from the Department of Chemistry, Emory University, USA will describe a series of new bowl-shaped catalysts, which are capable of distinguishing between very similar C-H bonds in a highly selective manner. Please contact Prof Craig Williams (c.williams@uq.edu.au) if you wish to meet the speaker afterwards.

Prof. Varinder K. Aggarwal from the School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, UK reactivity will discuss selectivity in various ylide reactions, reactivity of highly strained molecules and C-H borylation reactions. Please contact Prof Craig Williams (c.williams@uq.edu.au) if you wish to meet Prof Aggarwal afterwards.

Prof. Nidhi Jain from the UQ Centre for Natural Gas and Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, will discuss his groups recently developed strategies to construct C-C, C-N, C-O and C-S bonds assisted by palladium and copper catalysts, hypervalent iodine reagents and photocatalysts in visible light. Please contact Dr Paul Shaw (p.shaw3@uq.edu.au) if you wish to meet the speaker afterwards.

This seminar will not feature any Western blots, ELISAs, immuno-fluorescent microscopy or immuno-assays. Instead, Dr Jason Leung from Pricewaterhouse Coopers will talk about: I) The skills and experiences gained through research and academia and their value when transferred to other sectors; and ii) The lessons learned from other sectors and how these are relevant to research and academia

Dr Julie Pearce from the UQ Centre for Natural Gas, will discuss experiments performed at reservoir pressure and temperature conditions to react pure and impure CO2 with formation water and the rock cores, and modelling to understand potential impacts of CO2 storage. 

Associate Professor Emma Hamilton-Williams from UQDI will present the findings from her team's recent clinical trial using a prebiotic fibre supplement to target the gut microbiota in adults with type 1 diabetes to remodel the microbiota functional response as well as systemic immunity.

Molecular basis of auto-inhibition, activation and substrate recognition of SARM1, the executioner of axon degeneration presented by Dr Weixu Gu and Co-encapsulation of Ancestral P450 and its redox partner Cytochrome P450 reductase in VLP (P22) presented by Loic Bourdon

Scientia Associate Professor Rona Chandrawati from the School of Chemical Engineering and Australian Centre for Nanomedicine, UNSW, will discuss the design, synthesis, and applications of nanoparticles for sensing and drug delivery.

Tess Hick from Wageningen University and Research, The Netherlands will present work that addresses the hypothetical risk of RNA recombination between self-replicating alphavirus replicon and circulating wild-type viruses.

Dr Ruth Knibbe from the School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering, UQ, will discuss two main areas her group has been working on – in-operando liquid electrochemical transmission electron microscopy and the development of solid-state batteries.

A/Prof Katharina Ronacher from the Mater Research Institute will present data demonstrating that oxidised cholesterols, or so called oxysterols, that are produced produced in the lung in response to both bacterial (M. tuberculosis) and viral respiratory infections (influenza, SARS-CoV-2), facilitate the chemotactic recruitment of immune cells expressing the oxysterol-sensing receptor GPR183 to lung.

Dr Rebecca O. Fuller from Chemistry – School of Natural Sciences, University of Tasmania, will present a talk highlighting three very different magnetic materials that her team is developing.

Dr Daniel Rawle, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, will describe a serendipitous discovery that, in the course of investigating the physiological role of granzyme A, has revealed the significance of the Nnt gene mutation in the inflammatory responses in mouse models. Remarkably, k-mer mining of the Sequence Read Archive illustrated that ≈27% of Run Accessions and ≈38% of BioProjects listing C57BL/6J as the mouse strain had Nnt sequencing reads inconsistent with a C57BL/6J genetic background. Nnt and mouse background issues have clearly complicated our understanding of granzyme A and may similarly have influenced studies across a broad range of fields. We also show that Nnt genotype and mouse backgrounds can affect SARS-CoV-2 mouse models. I will end the talk by outlining the SARS-CoV-2 mouse models in our lab, and another serendipitous discovery; ACE2-independent SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Dr Stephanie Schweiker from the Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine at Bond University will present on the student-led feedback and modifications made to improve our virtual laboratory experiments developed for multimodal (hybrid) teaching.

Dr Anne Sayer from QAAFI/SCMB will present recent research into the effectiveness of using RNA interference (RNAi)-based plant protection as an environmentally sustainable disease control strategy against fungal pathogens.

Prof Steven L. Castle from the Chemistry & Biochemistry Department, Brigham Young University / Provo, UTAH, USA, will present results from his teams synthetic efforts targeting the peptide yaku’amide A and related analogs, and the anticancer activity of these compounds will be discussed. In addition, efforts to use the methodology developed in this endeavor to evaluate the ability of dehydroamino acids to increase the proteolytic stability of peptides will be described.

Associate Professor David Anderson from the Burnet Institute will provide an update on the development of point-of-care tests for CD4 T-cells (Visitect CD4), syphilis, liver disease and cirrhosis, and dimeric IgA and neutralising antibodies in COVID-19.

EMCRs and HDR students from the Infection and Immunity theme will present their latest research.

Dr Ali Zaid from the Menzies Health Institute, Griffith University, present recent work based on animal models of arthritogenic alphaviruses Ross River virus (RRV) and chikungunya virus (CHIKV), with a focus on immune responses and the role of distinct immune compartments in inflammation, disease, and resolution.

Dr Fengwang Li from the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Sydney, will talk about recent advances in CO2RR to ethylene, a chemical used to produce plastics and the basis of a US$160B global industry. Specifically, molecular tuning catalyst design strategy, membrane electrode assembly (MEA) based electrolyser, and carbon balance in CO2RR will be discussed.

Associate Professor Kirsty Short from the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, University of Queensland, presents research demonstrating that compared to other wild waterfowl, black swans have not expanded their immune gene repertoire, lack a key viral pattern-recognition receptor and mount a poorly controlled inflammatory response to HPAI.

Dr William Gee, Senior Lecturer at the School of Environment and Science, Griffith University, presents the latest challenge faced by iodine alpha-napthoflavone fingerprint development.

Dr Craig Miller, Director of the Immunopathology Core Laboratory in the Oklahoma Center for Respiratory and Infectious Diseases (OCRID) at Oklahoma State University will present his latest research on infection kinetics in a feline model of natural SARS-CoV-2 infection that results in clinical disease and histopathologic lesions consistent with acute COVID-19 in humans.

Prof Paul Hergenrother from the Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois, will describe his teams creation of close to 1000 bioactive compounds and their application in discovering rules for Gram-negative penetrance, and the use of this information to create a number of novel classes of antibiotics with activity against Gram-negative bacteria. The lecture will also discuss some of his team's latest advances in anticancer drug discovery.

A/Prof Catherine Satzke, who leads the Translational Microbiology Group at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Melbourne, will present her lab's recent data from their pneumococcal vaccine impact studies in low and middle-income settings in the Asia Pacific.

Professor Stephanie Gras, the head of the Viral and Structural Immunology lab at La Trobe University, will present her lab latest research into the T cell response to COVID-19 infection.

Dr Johanna Fraser from the Institute of Vector-borne Diseases at Monash University will present recent findings on the changes to mosquito gene expression profiles that may contribute to the antiviral state following the introduction of the endosymbiotic bacterium Wolbachia into Aedes aegyptii, the main vector of dengue and Zika.

Dr Cadhla Firth, Senior Research Scientist and Program Coordinator at EcoHealth Alliance and Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at the College of Public Health, Medical & Vet Sciences, Australian Institute of Tropical Health & Medicine, James Cook University will present her research on the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of emerging zoonoses at the human-animal interface, with a focus on rapidly changing environments.

Dr Karishma Mody from the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation will discuss her research into exploiting nanotechnology to improve animal health.

Associate Professor Ivan Kassal from the School of Chemistry, University of Sydney, will explain the power of quantum computers for problems in chemistry and survey the range of possible applications. He will also discuss his group’s work on fully nonadiabatic simulations of chemical dynamics using existing trapped-ion quantum computers, which exploits the otherwise-unused motion of the trapped ions to represent the motion of the nuclei.

Presented by Andreas Kupz who is an NHMRC Career Development Fellow and leads the Tuberculosis Immunology group at the Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine (AITHM) at James Cook University.

Presented by Dr Natasha Hungerford from the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, The University of Queensland

Asst. Prof. Ming Joo (MJ) Koh from the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, National University of Singapore, will describe his team's recent developments in iron- and nickel-catalyzed processes that leverage alkene isomerization as a key step to promote regio- and stereoselective synthesis of various molecules of interest.

Dr Alain Wuethrick from the Centre of Personalised Nanomedicine at the Australian Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, University of Queensland, will discuss his research that focuses on developing liquid biopsy nanodiagnostics for monitoring cancer and the human immune system.

Dr Rebeca Kawahara from the Glycoimmunology group in the Department of Molecular Sciences, Macquarie University, will discuss how new mass spectrometry-based strategies helped uncover the glycan remodelling associated with monocyte-to-macrophage differentiation and present recent data of the immunoglycopeptides derived from SARS-CoV-2 spike protein presented by human leukocyte antigen class II (HLA-II) on monocyte-derived dendritic cells.

Dr Angelo Izzo from the Centenary Institute will present the work done in his lab that has led to a better understanding of how BCG confers protective immunity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Professor Elizabeth New from the School of Chemistry, University Sydney will discuss how her team's development of selective fluorescent sensors increases our understanding of how the chemotherapeutic drug cisplatin affects the chemistry of the cell.

A/Prof Megan O'Mara from the Research School of Chemistry, Australian National University will discuss recent work in understanding the role of lipid chemical diversity in complex tissue-specific mammalian and bacterial membranes.

Dr John Atack from The Institute of Glycomics, Griffith University, will present an overview of his lab's work to characterise both phase-variable gene expression and the role of phasevarions in several host-adapted pathogens, with a view to directing and informing development of new and/or improved vaccines and treatments against the bacteria encoding them.

Professor Chibale from The Drug Discovery and Development (H3D) Centre, Department of Chemistry and Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, University of Cape Town, South Africa will describe a phenotypic-based drug discovery process which led to the identification of a clinical candidate, mechanism of action studies to identify the Plasmodium falciparum phosphatidylinositol 4-kinase (PfPI4K) as the target and establishment of a kinase-focused malaria drug discovery programme.

Key findings arising from studies in symptomatic dengue mouse models will be presented by Associate Professor Sylvie Alonso from the Department of Microbiology, The National University of Singapore.

Dr Munkhbayar Batmunkh from the School of Environment and Science - Chemical Sciences at Griffith University will present recent research on two-dimensional layered nanomaterials such as black phosphorus and metal carbide MXene and their use in a wide range of energy-related application including solar cells.

Conventionally, the approach to defining the host responses to viral infection is to study patients presenting with acute illness. During this seminar, Professor Ooi from Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore, describes the insights gained regarding the immune response during the pre-symptomatic incubation period by studying the response to the live yellow fever vaccine in healthy volunteers.

Mosquito-borne alphaviruses circulate worldwide, frequently causing outbreaks of arthritic disease in humans. During this seminar, Associate Professor Lara Herrero from Griffith University will discuss recent developments in the quest for potential treatment strategies.

The Role of Viral Immunology in Development of Vaccines and Immunotherapy for HIV Herpesviruses and COVID-19
presented by Professor Tony Cunningham, Director, Centre for Virus Research at The Westmead Institute for Medical Research; Director, Australian Centre for HIV and Hepatitis Virology Research and Professor in the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney.

Lipid droplets (LDs) are increasingly becoming recognized as critical organelles in signaling events, transient protein sequestration and inter-organelle interactions in multiple signalling pathways. However, the role LDs play in anti-viral innate immune pathways remains largely unknown.  We believe that LDs play vital roles in facilitating the magnitude of the early anti-viral immune response, in particular the production of IFN following viral infection, and control of viral replication. Our group has characterised the the lipidome, proteome and trafficking patterns of LDs during an early antiviral response, and can demonstrate that these critical organelles play a vital role in the control of viral replication.

Presenter Professor Ala Tabor leads the Animal BioTICKnology group at the Centre for Animal Science in QAAFI at UQ since 2010. She did her undergraduate BSc at the Department of Microbiology, UQ (1981-1984), Honours in Virology at UQ (1986) after a year working at JCU. After short term contracts at the Bureau of Sugar Experiment Stations (Sugar Research Australia Ltd) and the Tropical Health Program (UQ’s Faculty of Medicine) from 1991-2010 she was employed as a Molecular Microbiologist with Queensland’s Department of Primary Industries (currently Qld Dept of Agriculture & Fisheries). Ala completed her PhD part-time from 1989-1995 through the Faculty of Medicine’s Tropical Health program researching Burkholderia pseudomallei the causative agent of human melioidosis. She is a research focussed academic with a strong background in industry engagement associated with animal health and agricultural biotechnologies. Her research interests are associated with the application of omics to: 1) develop molecular diagnostic and genotyping methods; 2) study gene function in relation to virulence and host pathogenicity of infectious diseases, to develop new effective vaccines and 3) identify biomarkers and study microbiomes associated with improving animal health. She has >100 publications with 3 full pending patents for 2 different anti-tick vaccines and commercialised diagnostic assays and tools. Research areas includes bovine reproductive diseases, Australian paralysis tick (Ixodes holocyclus), cattle tick (Rhipicephalus microplus species complex), and tick-borne diseases (babesiosis and anaplasmosis). Prof Tabor has attained and completed ~$12 million in competitive grants in the last 10 years including the ARC, pharma and industry. Together with the SCMB Biotechnology Program and SAFS she developed UQ's 'Agricultural Biotechnology-Field of Study’ within the Masters of Biotechnology in 2020. Her international recognition is exemplified by her membership of the BMGF International Cattle Tick Vaccine Consortium (CATVAC, est. 2015), specialist tick editor for the International Journal for Parasitology, Chair for the 9th International Tick and Tick-borne Pathogen (TTP9) conference (2017), and the Australian node leader for the 1000x Ixodes genome project.

Assoc. Prof. Evan Moore, SCMB, The University of Queensland
After completing my postgraduate studies at The University of Queensland in 2004, I undertook postdoctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley, with Prof. Ken Raymond. I returned to Australia in mid-2008, after being awarded an ARC Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Melbourne. In 2011, I was appointed as an Adjunct Lecturer at UQ, and was also awarded a Marie-Curie International Fellowship, undertaken in the Photochemical Nanosciences Laboratory at the Università di Bologna, Italy. In May 2012, I returned to Brisbane, rejoining the University of Queensland as an ARC Future Fellow, and was recently promoted to Associate Professor in 2021.

Global microplastic (MP) contamination is now well described, with clear detrimental effects on the environment. The potential for MPs to affect human health remains a matter of speculation (https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01143-3), with limited compelling evidence in mammalian systems. We show that 80 µg/kg/day consumption of 1 µm MP beads in mice generated a low grade colon inflammation that was associated with an exacerbation of chikungunya virus arthritis. No MPs crossed the gut wall, and there was no effect on the microbiome. Together with RNA-Seq-derived mechanistic insights, we provide evidence that at levels of MP consumption seen in humans, MP can exacerbate proinflammatory immunopathology.

David Ascher is an NHMRC Investigator, Head of the Computational Biology and Clinical Informatics group at the Baker Institute and the Structural Biology and Bioinformatics Laboratory at the University of Melbourne. He is also the Academic Lead of the Systems and Computational Biology Platform at Bio21 Institute. He is an Associate Editor of Progress in Biophysics & Molecular Biology and Frontiers in Bioinformatics, and holds positions at Cambridge University (UK), FIOCRUZ (Brazil), and the Tuscany University Network (Italy). His research focuses on unravelling the link between genotype and phenotype, using computational and experimental approaches to understand the effects of mutations on protein structure and function. He has developed a platform of 32 widely used programs for assessing the molecular consequences of coding variants (>500,000 hits per month). These methods have been implemented into industry pipelines and translated to guide diagnosis, management and treatment of a number of hereditary diseases, rare cancers and drug resistant infections.

Associate Professor Christopher J. T. Hyland, School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience, The University of Wollongong

Presenter: Professor Timothy Schmidt, School of Chemistry, UNSW