MACKAY & MATTHEWS LAB

Protein structure, function and engineering

Dr Karishma Patel

Dr Karishma Patel

Completed her (enormously productive) PhD with Joel in 2022 and, as of August 2024, has a postdoctoral position at Oxford with Prof Ivan Ahel. She still seems to know more about lab goings-on than Joel (you still hear “ask Karishma” fairly often…),...
Dr Anjumara Shaik

Dr Anjumara Shaik

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...
Dr Jordan Pederick

Dr Jordan Pederick

Fresh from a PhD at the University of Adelaide, where he solved a crystal structure every few weeks, it seems, Jordan is working with Joel (and Rich Payne and the local biotech INSAMO) to design a new class of protein degraders. Perhaps the first South Australian to...
Dr Milad Ghafoori

Dr Milad Ghafoori

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.
Dr Karol Sanches

Dr Karol Sanches

Following a PhD in Brazil and postdoctoral time with Ray Norton at Monash, Karol has joined Joel’s lab – bring expertise in protein biochemistry and structural biology (NMR even!) to dive into the mechanisms underlying transcriptional regulation. She also...
Dr Ingrid MacIndoe

Dr Ingrid MacIndoe

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...