Meet our Discovery Program heads
Director Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Professor John Carroll
John's research is focused on understanding the mechanisms of oocyte and early embryo development. The meiotic cell divisions in oocytes are prone to errors that lead to aneuploid embryos and a resultant increase in infertility, early embryo loss, miscarriage and genetic problems such as Down Syndrome. John's laboratory uses molecular biology and live-cell imaging techniques to investigate the dynamics of the meiotic cell divisions in living oocytes. His lab is also investigating the role of mitochondrial activity and localisation in controlling the fidelity of meiosis and why it goes awry, particularly in the case of maternal ageing.
John obtained his PhD from the University of Adelaide before moving to the MRC Experimental Embryology Unit in London. John moved to University College London (UCL) in 1996 where he held an MRC Fellowship and Lectureship in Cell Physiology. In 2004, John was appointed Professor and Head of Department of Physiology. From 2007 he became the Director of the UCL Division of Biosciences. Impressed with Monash's strength and depth in biomedical research, he joined Monash University in 2012 as the Head of School of Biomedical Sciences. In 2015, John has led the formation of the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute and very much looks forward to leading one of the region's most energetic biomedical research institutes.
Deputy Director Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Professor Dena Lyras
Dena is a world-leading researcher in infectious disease. Her research is focused on enteric pathogens, particularly those involved in antibiotic-associated diarrhoea. Through the use of animal infection models her laboratory examines how these pathogens interact with the host and cause disease. Dena’s laboratory uses genetic approaches to understand how these micro-organisms harness regulatory and virulence factors in disease, and they are developing immunotherapeutics and small molecules to prevent and treat these infections in collaboration with industry partners.
Dena completed her PhD at LaTrobe University, specialising in microbial genetics and antimicrobial resistance. She continued studies in this area after joining Monash University, and has expanded her work to encompass the broad areas described above. She has also been inspiring students for more than 20 years, with active teaching roles in both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
She was appointed the President of the Australian Society of Microbiology in 2018, and serves as Chair of the Monash BDI Equity Committee. She believes strongly in inclusion and diversity, which aligns with the value of the Monash BDI ad Monash University more broadly. She was appointed as Deputy Director of the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute in 2018.
Cancer Discovery Program Co-Heads, Professor Roger Daly and Professor Renea Taylor
Professor Roger Daly
Roger's research focus is on mechanisms of growth factor receptor signal transduction and how they are dysregulated in cancer. Perturbations in cellular signalling play a fundamental role in human cancer and provide the rationale for many targeted therapies. Roger's group uses cutting-edge mass spectrometry-based proteomics to provide systems-level insights into cellular signalling networks and to identify novel therapeutic targets and biomarkers for poor prognosis cancers.
Roger was awarded his PhD from the University of Liverpool, UK before taking up positions as a postdoctoral fellow at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, London, UK, followed by New York University Medical Centre, New York, US. Roger established theSignal Transduction Group at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in 1993, and in 2013 he joined Monash University as the Head of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
Professor Renea Taylor
Renea co-leads a world class translational program in prostate cancer research, and her research team is recognised for their expertise in pre-clinical cancer research models, including patient-derived xenografts from prostate cancer specimens that underpin discovery biology and drug testing. She is a founding member of the Melbourne Urological Research Alliance (MURAL), governing the sharing and distribution of these models for collaborative and pharmaceutical research. In 2020, she was awarded the MPCCC Outstanding Researcher Mid-Career Award for her scientific achievements.
Renea has a broad external profile, involving roles with multiple scientific organisations such as the Cancer Council of Victoria, Melbourne Health Expert Scientific Review Panel (Biogrid), and is a Senior handling Editor for Endocrine Connections as well as several other editorial boards. She is also the Co-Chair of Australian Prostate Cancer BioResource where she manages “best practice” biobanking of prostate cancer specimens across Australia, and is a member of the Advisory Committee of Monash Partners Comprehensive Cancer Consortium.
Cardiovascular Disease Discovery Program Head, Professor Kate Denton
Kate is an NHMRC Senior Research Fellow whose research focuses on improving the cardiovascular health of people across their lifespan. She’s building a strong interdisciplinary and translational research program focused on understanding integrative control of arterial pressure, with an emphasis on the role of the kidney. Kate’s current research aims to understand the long-term determinants of arterial pressure, including identifying the causes of hypertension to enable early disease prevention and reduce the devastating consequences of end-organ damage. Her studies encompass issues of sex-differences and age in blood pressure control. Kate’s research interrogates the natural history of disease progression, rather than that of accelerated disease models in young adults, to obtain clinically relevant results.
Following completion of her PhD studies at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute in Melbourne, Kate spent five years in Singapore. She worked in the Department of Pathology at the National University Hospital to understand how vasoactive factors control kidney function. After returning to Australia, she was awarded a High Blood Pressure Research Council of Australia Fellowship. She received the Harry Goldblatt Award in Cardiovascular Research from the American Heart Association in 2004 for the best original research in that year. Her research demonstrated that hypertension of non-genetic origins can be passed across generations by the mother. She established an independent research laboratory in the Department of Physiology at Monash University in 2007. In 2008, she was awarded an NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship, Level A, and was promoted to Level B in 2013. Currently, she leads a 20-strong research team, with expertise in renal and cardiovascular physiology.
Development and Stem Cells Discovery Program Co-Heads, Professor Helen Abud and Associate Professor Karla Hutt
Professor Helen Abud
Helen’s research is centred on understanding the molecular mechanisms and environmental influences that regulate stem cells within normal tissues and tumours. She has a particular interest in molecules that promote intestinal development, regulate stem cells during regeneration following damage, and how these factors may be altered during degenerative diseases, aging and colon cancer. Helen’s group utilises cutting-edge human organoid models and genetic mouse models for a variety of biological studies including response to drug treatments and environment.
Following her undergraduate degree at the University of Melbourne, Helen trained at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute before undertaking her doctorate at Oxford University, United Kingdom in Cell and Developmental Biology. This was followed by postdoctoral training in the Department of Anatomy (Oxford), Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (Melbourne). She obtained her academic appointment at Monash in 2007 and combines teaching with research. Helen is the Director of the Monash BDI Organoid Program and Vice President of the Australian Society for Stem Cell Research.
Associate Professor Karla Hutt
Karla heads the Ovarian Biology lab, and her research investigates the role of DNA repair and apoptosis in determining oocyte number and quality, with the aim of i) improving women’s health and fertility during maternal aging and ii) developing new therapeutic strategies to protect female fertility during anti-cancer therapy.
Karla obtained her PhD from the Australian National University in 2006, where her studies focussed on the establishment and maintenance of the primordial follicle pool during ovarian development. She then undertook her postdoctoral studies at the University of Kansas Medical Center (USA), where she investigated the impact of environmental toxicants on oocyte and embryo quality. In 2008 she returned to Australia and to join Professor Jock Findlay's laboratory at Prince Henrys Institute (now the Hudson Institute of Medical Research). In 2015 she relocated to Monash University and leads the Ovarian Biology Laboratory.
Infection Discovery Program Co-Heads, Professor Diana Hansen and Associate Professor Fasséli Coulibaly
Professor Diana Hansen
Diana’s research focuses on finding solutions to tackle two devastating mosquito-borne infectious diseases, malaria and dengue fever, which together account for 600 million clinical cases worldwide annually. In 2020, Diana also focused on COVID-19 research, setting up clinical studies in Australia and overseas. Her main interests include understanding mechanisms regulating pathogenesis and induction of immunity to these infectious diseases and she is pursuing those goals using pre-clinical infection models as well as applying systems immunology approaches to clinical studies in endemic areas in the Asia-Pacific region.
Diana completed her PhD studies at the University of Buenos Aires in the context of a collaborative program between the National Institute of Parasitology in Argentina and the National Veterinary Institute in Uppsala, Sweden. She turned to malaria research during her postdoctoral training at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, Melbourne, Australia, where she established an internationally-recognised program to investigate inflammatory responses responsible for the induction of severe malaria. Diana has received funding from the NHMRC, e-ASIA, and the Australian Academy of Science. Diana’s passion to propel women to leadership roles has driven her to participate in various gender equity forums.She was appointed Chair of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion of the Australia and New Zealand Society of Immunology in 2021.
Associate Professor Fasséli Coulibaly
Fasséli’s research program focuses on understanding viruses at a molecular level. He uses this knowledge to develop virus-inspired technologies to combat viral infection and antimicrobial resistance. Fasséli is recognised for his use of integrative approaches in structural biology to elucidate the biology of beneficial viruses. Over his career he has revealed the organisation of microbial megastructures that had been elusive for decades, including spore-like viral crystals, Strep pili and immature particles of flaviviruses and poxviruses.
Fasséli trained in molecular virology at the Pasteur Institute and structural biology at the University of Paris-Sud in France. After a research fellow position at the University of Auckland, he was recruited by Monash University in 2009 to establish the Structural Virology laboratory. Fasséli has led high impact research as an NHMRC Career Development and ARC Future Fellow funded by grants from the NHMRC, ARC and the B&M Gates Foundation. As an academic in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, he also aims to inspire the next generation of biomedical scientists taking advantage of Monash’s modern, research-like teaching environment.
Immunity Discovery Program Co-Heads, Professor Stephen Turner and Professor Kim Good-Jacobson
Professor Stephen Turner
Stephen is a NHMRC Principal Research Fellow and Head of the Department of Microbiology at the Monash BDI. He was awarded his PhD in viral immunology from Monash University in 1997. Stephen worked with Professor Janet Ruby at the University of Melbourne (1997-2002) studying poxvirus pathogenesis. He then joined the laboratory of Nobel Laureate, Professor Peter Doherty (St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, USA) to work on influenza virus-specific T cell immunity. He returned to the University of Melbourne in 2002, was awarded an NHMRC RD Wright Fellowship in 2005 establishing his own research group.
Stephen was awarded a Pfizer Australia Senior Research Fellowship in 2007 and an ARC Future Fellowship in 2012. His research interests use a combination of structural biology, genomics, systems biology, recombinant viral technology and cellular immunology to examine molecular factors that impact T cell responses to virus infection.
Professor Kim Good-Jacobson
Kim’s research studies the ability of the immune system to clear pathogens and form immunity through the production of antibody and B cell memory. Memory immune cells are the foundation of vaccine success. They are trained to rapidly clear a reinfection before it can do harm. Yet, chronic infections disrupt formation of protective immune memory. Kim’s work focuses on discovering the unique molecular regulators that drive effective memory B cell responses, to identify new therapeutic targets for B cell-mediated disease and for future vaccine design. Kim’s laboratory uses state-of-the-art epigenomic and single-cell capabilities, pre-clinical models and new tools to track rare memory cells to understand how immunity is formed, and to identify how this process goes awry in chronic infectious disease or in autoimmunity.
Kim’s contribution to research has been recognised by a Bellberry-Viertel Fellowship, GSK Fast Track Challenge win, and a Victorian Young Tall Poppy Science Award. Kim completed her PhD at the Centenary and Garvan Institutes in Sydney. As a CJ Martin Fellow, Kim undertook postdoctoral fellow positions at Yale University in the US, followed by WEHI upon her return to Australia. In 2015 she joined Monash University to establish the B cells, Antibody, Memory laboratory in the Biomedicine Discovery Institute. She has previously served as Treasurer of the Australian and New Zealand Society for Immunology, founded Career Development Committee within the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and has written for The Conversation.
Metabolism, Diabetes & Obesity Discovery Program Head, Professor Tony Tiganis
Tony is an NHMRC Principal Research Fellow whose international reputation is built around his expertise in the cell communication networks referred to as cellular signalling. His specific focus is on the roles of protein tyrosine phosphatases in tyrosine phosphorylation-dependent signalling pathways. He is the foremost authority on protein tyrosine phosphatases in Australia and an international leader in the field. His overall goal is to define the capacity of phosphatases to function as critical regulatory elements in signalling networks and tissue crosstalk. He leads a multidisciplinary research program with a focus on metabolism, obesity and type 2 diabetes, but his work also crosses into other health issues including autoimmunity and cancer.
Tony was educated at The University of Melbourne. He completed his PhD with Professor Bruce E. Kemp, St Vincent's Institute, Melbourne. In 1995 he was awarded an NHMRC C.J. Martin Fellowship and undertook post-doctoral training with Professor Nicholas K. Tonks at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, NY. He established an independent laboratory in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Monash University in 2000 as an NHMRC RD. Wright Fellow and Monash University Logan Fellow. He was awarded an NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship (Level A) in 2005 and a NHMRC Principal Research Fellowship in 2010 that was subsequently renewed in 2015.
Neuroscience Discovery Program Head, Professor Marcello Rosa
Marcello's research is aimed at understanding how many subdivisions of the brain are responsible for vision, and what roles they play in this process. One area of focus is to identify how neurones function in different parts of the visual cortex, and how electrical activity influences perception. Recently, this line of investigation has expanded to include work on interactions between visual and auditory sensory processing, the use of visual information for controlling movement, and the development of brain-computer interfaces. Marcello also studies the consequences of brain lesions such as stroke, which impact on the ability of the brain to process information.
Marcello was awarded his PhD from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, and was an NHMRC Research Fellow working with Professor Jack Pettigrew FRS and Professor Mike Calford at theUniversity of Queensland. He is currently the leader of the preclinical validation program in the ARC Special Research Initiative in Bionic Vision and Technology, which aims to develop a bionic eye based on direct brain stimulation, and Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence forIntegrative Brain Function (CIBF). Marcello is also the Deputy Head of the Department of Physiology and is involved in collaborative research with leading international laboratories in Europe, where he is a Fellow of the University of Bologna Institute of Advanced Studies; at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in theUS; and in Japan, where he was recently appointed as a Senior Visiting Scientist in the Riken Brain Sciences Institute.