Germs within our cells: how bacteria evolved to power the human body
Professor Trevor Lithgow
ARC Laureate Fellow
Department of Microbiology, School of Biomedical Sciences
Monash University
Trevor is an ARC Australian Laureate Fellow in the School of Biomedical Sciences at Monash University. Professor Lithgow is a molecular biologist who has made fundamental contributions to several research fields. He is best known for his work on protein targeting and membrane biogenesis. Using the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model system his lab identified several of the components of the mitochondrial protein transport pathway, particularly focussed on the pathway driving integral membrane protein assembly into the mitochondrial outer membrane.
His lab was the first to derive a complete model for the evolution of the molecular machines that drive protein transport into mitochondria, showing their development from simple component parts present in the bacterial ancestors that gave rise to mitochondria. He currently leads the Bacterial Cell Biology lab at Monash, and is the author of more than 100 research articles including papers in Nature and Science.