PI with longstanding interests in gene regulation, structural biology, statistics/data analysis, bike touring, rogaining, trail running – and cats.

PI with personal chair – hooping name “Alpha Helix” and recent past President of the ASBMB.

Honorary Professor with a ton of experience (at CSIRO) in insect transcription factor structure and function – hoping to do some fundamental biochemistry and drug discovery.

Newly minted lab manager for the Structural Biology collective. After BSc Hons with Joel, a PhD with Margie and a school teaching sabbatical in Japan, and postdoctoral time with Joel learning (well, teaching herself) CRISPR gene editing (and with more diverse hair colours than before), she has decided that she wants to be running the show.

Research assistant working with Joel to design safer and more selective insecticides by targeting an essential ligand-binding transcription factor. Hoping these proteins will be more amenable than the methyltransferases she cut her teeth on in a collaboration with Alyson Ashe over the last couple of years. Those were ornery proteins…

Recently completed PhD student with Joel  who worked on the structure, function and inhibition of bromodomains. Bravely ventured across the Tasman for her PhD, doubling the number of people in the lab who know what jandals are. Currently juggling numerous diverse projects.

Austrian postdoc working collaboratively with Rich Payne in Chemistry. Came to us via Katja Petzold’s lab in Sweden and has retained his interest in doing NMR on challenging targets. Oh, and makes a mean sourdough!

PhD student with Joel following on from TSP project. Wants to rebuild protein NMR data analysis from the bottom up – and build his own plane.

BSc Hons and PhD student (thesis awarded!) now working with Joel and Jason to examine preferences held by certain enzymes for post-translational modifications in endogenous nucleosomes. Also flirting with RaPID screening – and now cryoEM!

Postdoc arrived fresh from a structural biology PhD at Charles Sturt University with Jade Forwood (with a short detour to tool up in cryoEM at UNSW!) to work with Joel pursuing the design of selective insecticides targeting essential transcription factors.

PhD student working with Joel and Chandrika – bravely making her way across the Tasman to work on early phase drug discovery.

Research Assistant with Jacqui – continuing the family tradition of working in the lab here after her partner Cuong completed his PhD with Joel a few years ago.

PhD student working with Joel (after BSc Hons work in 2021) on a couple of different projects to keep her on her toes – both focused on the design of molecules to modulate gene transcription for therapeutic or agricultural outcomes.

PhD student working with Joel to investigate the use of monobodies as reagents to modify the function of human transcription factors. Has come to the lab via China Pharmaceutical University and the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow – though he doesn’t seem to have picked up a Glaswegian accent (thank goodness!).

BSc Hons student with Joel in 2022 who wasn’t deterred by the 200+ kDa of the CHD4 chromatin remodelling enzyme and has stayed on as a research assistant to look further under the hood at CHD4 activity. After dabbling in amber stop codon suppression technology, his eyes have (understandably) lit up at the prospect of real-time single-molecule exploration of CHD4 activity in live cells.

PhD student working with Joel (following Hons in 2023) – focused on uncovering the mysteries of how CHD4 activity is regulated and well on her way to becoming the lab’s first genuine cryoEM practitioner.

2023 BSc Hons student wh worked with Joel (and Lucien and Clement) to try to unravel the mysteries of the (appallingly named) transcriptional regulator PWWP2A and its partners. Has stayed on as an RA prior to heading off overseas to expand his horizons!

PhD student working with Joel. Coming to us all the way from Bangladesh to unravel the mysteries of gene regulation – and to modulate gene expression for useful outcomes!

PhD student working with Joel – has arrived in Sydney from Iran via Canada to battle the Varroa mite using an structure based insecticide discovery approach.

PhD student working with Joel to design inhibitors of transcriptional regulators. Comes from industry with experience in expressing proteins in 8000-L vessels – so tempting to try making one of our proteins on that scale… 🙂

BSc Hons student working with Joel and Lihua. Leaving her finance major behind to plunge into the worlds of gene regulation and mRNA display.

BSc Honours student working with Joel on the design of safer and more selective insecticides. Watch out if you’re a green peach aphid!

BSc Hons student working with Joel to peer under the hood of CHD4 and figure out how it works… Haven’t seen her companion in the lab yet though.

Undergraduate intern from Techniek College Rotterdam, here for the better part of a year to get a taste of academic research down under. Working with Lihua to explore the newly accessible world of AI-guided protein design! Like any good Dutchman, the first thing he’s done is buy a bike… (good to see).

Lab web site consultant – and simultaneously research associate with Dr Yu Heng Lau in the School of Chemistry