We offer a busy calendar of events, which are variously available to the public, our graduates, future and current students, and staff.

Phase-variable gene regulation in bacteria: a gambling strategy to generate diversity

25 August 2021 12:00pm1:00pm
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.

From phenotypic- to target-based malaria drug discovery

23 August 2021 4:00pm5:00pm
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.

Development of animal models to address key paradigms in dengue research

18 August 2021 12:00pm1:00pm
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.

Two-dimensional layered materials as hole transporting materials for solar cells

9 August 2021 1:00pm2:00pm
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.

Human host response to viral infection: Learning from the live yellow fever vaccine

4 August 2021 12:00pm1:00pm
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.

The fight against alphaviral arthritis

14 July 2021 12:00pm1:00pm
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

25 June 2021 12:00pm1:00pm
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.

The lipid droplet is a key organelle in the early innate immune response to viral infection

16 June 2021 12:00pm1:00pm
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.

A journey through virology, bacteriology, protozoology to ‘omics’ and commercialising anti-tick vaccines

2 June 2021 12:00pm1:00pm
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.

Adventures with Photoactive Metal Complexes: Sensitised Lathanide Luminescence, Photoredox Catalysis and Photoactive Supramolecular Cages

24 May 2021 1:00pm2:00pm
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.

Dietary microplastics promote gut inflammation leading to prolonged viral arthritis

19 May 2021 12:00pm1:00pm
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.

Unravelling the molecular mechanisms behind mutations and their link to phenotypes using graph-based signatures

28 April 2021 12:00pm1:00pm
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.

Completing the Cycle: Ring Opening and Ring Closing Reactions for Complex Heterocycle Synthesis

23 March 2021 3:00pm4:00pm
Associate Professor Christopher J. T. Hyland, School of Chemistry and Molecular Bioscience, The University of Wollongong

Manipulating Light with Molecular Excitons

8 March 2021 1:00pm2:00pm
Presenter: Professor Timothy Schmidt, School of Chemistry, UNSW

2020 SCMB Research Students Symposium

26 November 2020 9:00am
The 16th annual symposium organised by and for SCMB's research (HDR, PGCW project and Honours) students and open to other UQ research students and staff to attend as audience members.

Novel technologies for discovery, design and development of new and effective vaccines

26 November 2019 4:30pm
Presenter: Professor Mariagrazia Pizza, Senior Scientific Director for Bacterial Vaccines at GSK Vaccines

The beauty of gold: from small molecules to supramolecular complexes for biomedical applications and activity in aqueous environment

14 November 2019 4:00pm6:00pm
Presenter: Professor Angela Casini, Chair of Medicinal and Bioinorganic Chemistry, Technical University of Munich (TUM)

Discovery and development of antiviral nucleosides: The story of Remdesivir (GS-5734), a broad spectrum antiviral agent for the treatment of Ebola

30 September 2019 1:00pm3:00pm
Presenter: Dr Richard Mackman, Vice President of Medicinal Chemistry, Gilead Sciences

Biobased Building Blocks for the chemical industry - Opportunities and Challenges for (bio)chemical reaction routes

28 June 2019 4:00pm6:00pm
Presenter: Professor Volker Sieber, Technical University of Munich

Genetics, Genomics and Biochemistry of Innate Immunity

12 September 2018 3:00pm5:00pm
Presenter: Professor David Hume, Mater Research Institute/University of Queensland

Alumni reunion 2018

1 August 2018 1:00pm24 September 2018 3:30pm
Presenter: Professor Edward Holmes, University of Sydney

Adventures in the Virosphere

1 August 2018 1:00pm3:30pm
Presenter: Professor Edward Holmes, University of Sydney

The Chemical Sciences and a Sustainable Future

16 July 2018 4:00pm6:00pm
Presenter: Professor Stephen Matlin, Institute of Global Health Innovation/Imperial College, London

Cryo-electron Microscopy of Helical Protein and Nucleoprotein Polymers: Insights into Evolutionary Divergence.

15 November 2017 5:30pm8:30pm
Presenter: Professor Edward Egelman, University of Virginia

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