Past Lab Members
Maryam Sana
2016-20. Recently finished PhD student with Joel. Amazingly managed to successfully juggle a PhD with motherhood – mighty impressive…
James Woodmansey
2016-2019. PhD student working with Jacqui *and* Joel. Tricky position but handled it with aplomb!
Cameron Taylor
2021-22. An intern studying in Southampton who came to Sydney for a stint working with Joel and Ingrid (mostly Ingrid!) before finishing off his degree in the UK. Had a chance to explore the wonderful world of BET bromodomain proteins – and to actually get into the lab after a frustrating lab-less time during COVID.
Marcus Johnson
2021. BSc Hons student working with Joel, Ron and Emily Remnant – a crossover project where we merged our interest in transcription factors with Ron’s expertise in insecticide development and Emily’s deep knowledge of honeybees! Discovered a love of AlphaFold and computation in general.
Dr Petr Pachl
Crystallographer from Prague who has joined Jacqui for a postdoctoral stint. Has an eye for a photo.
Dr Mohammadreza Nassiri
Sabbatical visitor from Ferdowsi University of Mashhad in Iran – here to learn some protein structure and design in Joel’s lab.
Angus Hawken
2021-2. Undergraduate student who worked with Jason and Joel to explore the use of cyclic peptides derived from mRNA display screens as intracellular modulators of protein function.
Nuren Tasneem
2021. Intrepid MSc student who worked with Yu Heng Lau in Chemistry on the very cool encapsulin family of proteins and spent some time in Joel’s lab to see the other side (of City Rd). Now forging a career in Biotech!
Aaron Misquitta
2020. Undergraduate student who dug into the mechanism of chromatin remodelling under Jessica’s watchful eye.
Peyman Dolati
2020.
Volunteer in Joel’s lab.
A/Prof. David Segal
Recent sabbatical visitor (and honorary ongoing lab member) from deep in the agricultural heart of the US. Is very proud of this fish.
Dr Ann Kwan
PI and NMR Facility Manager, with her own unique style. Is delving into the mysterious world of solid-state protein NMR.
Find her at www.kwanlabusyd.com
Erica Goh
2018/2019. Undergraduate student who worked with Ann.
Anthony Yammine
2016-… BSc Hons student who worked with Ann in 2016.
Sanjay Yapabandara
2018-2019. Undergraduate summer/TSP student who got a taste of lab life working with Ann.
Patrick Wang
2018-2020. Undergraduate volunteer working with Ann.
Vaishnavi Veeraraghava
2019. Undergraduate student volunteer working with Ann.
Carlotta Wills
2019. Undergraduate student in the Dalyell program – working with Joel, under the tutelage of Xavier and Jessica.
Sibel Alca
2019. Second-year BMedSci student in the Dalyell program – working with Jason.
Dr Ana Silva
2012-2019. Postdoc with Joel. Crystallographer from Portugal via the UK. Has stepped away from the lab bench to the coding bench – out there in the big wide world with web design company Hypothesis! We’ll miss you Ana – but go get ’em!
Antonia Darragh
2017. Visiting PhD student all the way from sunny San Diego (Scott Rifkin’s lab at UCSD). Here to measure some numbers!
Ashley Lee
2017. BSc Hons student who worked with Ingrid and Joel on Angelman Syndrome.
Max Bedward
2017. BSc Hons student with Joel who was inspired to return after 2014 summer scholarship with Jason.
Grace Mackie
2017. BSc Hons student working with Jacqui. That’s Mack-e, not Mack-i…
Jack Zeng
2016-7. Undergraduate TSP student with Ann in 2017 who worked with Joel/Mario/Ana in 2016. Possibly one of the most productive TSP projects we’ve seen.
Henry (Qikui) Xu
2017-8. TSP student who worked with Taylor, Mario and Jason. A keen structural biologist.
Dr Poker Chen
2017-8. Computational structural biologist who quietly sneaked into the lab on a six-month visit from his postdoctoral position at EMBL.
Florine Chrétien
2018. French intern engineering student from Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Agronomie et des Industries Alimentaires (you asked) working for with Ann. Bienvenue!
Betsy Chen
2018. BSc Hons student working with Ann.
Kevork Mouradian
2018. Undergraduate TSP student who solved crystal structures (see evidence in background) with Karishma. Capitalized on her green crystallization fingers …
Gabrielle McClymont
2017-8. MSc + Hons student with Jacqui. Now off overseas to persue her PhD. Bon voyage!
Vania Caldas
2016-7. Hons and MSc student with Jacqui. Now entered the nobel profession of teaching!
James Walshe
2018. PhD student with Sandro Ataide who helped out mightily with some bromodomain crystallography – not to mention keeping the lab running. Now postdocing with Alastair Stewart.
Mehdi Sharifitabar
2015-8. PhD student with Joel. Came to us from the Royan Institute in Tehran with a *lot* of experience in the lab. Has moved a few minutes down the road to postdoc with John Rasko at Centenary.
Steph Helder
2014-2018. BSc Hons and PhD student with Joel. Showed extraordinary poise in the face of the difficult proteins that she had to wrestle with.
Jia Wang
PhD student who visited Joel’s lab from Qingdao Institute for Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology – part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Helped Jessica keep her Mandarin up to scratch.
Dr Lorna Wilkinson-White
2008-2017. Long-time postdoc with Jacqui and now manager of our new and exciting fragment-based drug discovery (FBDD) facility that is part of Sydney Analytical.
Dr Mario Torrado del Rey
2014-2018. Protein biochemist and guitarist from Madrid who postdoc-ed with Joel. Now a staff scientist in the USyd Protein Production Facility that is part of Sydney Analytical – making bespoke proteins to order with consummate skill!
Taylor Szyszka
2015-2018. PhD student with Joel – all the way from the US of A (and proud of it – well, maybe less so lately…). Need some science communicated? She’s now your person!
Athina Manakas
2015-2019. BSC Hons + PhD student who worked with Jacqui. Did a good job working on a challenging collaborative project with another lab and has moved on to greater things!
Lisa Cecchi
2015. Intern from INSA in France, working with Ann. She didn’t provide the fresh croissants for morning tea we were hoping for…
Mégane Petitmangin
2015. Masters student at AgroParisTech – here for an internship with Jacqui. That’s la Tour Eiffel in the background…
Samantha Walker
2015. Undergraduate exchange student from the University of Edinburgh, all the way over in bonny Scotland.
Dr Jason Schmidberger
2015-6. Postdoc with Joel. Stepped into Ana’ shoes – with the EM, rather than the baby rearing – and now has returned to his WA homeland.
Paul Solomon
2016. Undergraduate TSP student working with Joel and Taylor (and previously in 2015 with Ana). Was thrown into structure determination at the deep end!
Ninnie Wybrands
Masters student from Sweden working with Joel and Mario. Following in Mattias, Manar and Ida’s footsteps from Lund to Sydney.
Jennifer Ting
2016. BSc Hons student working with Jacqui.
Hadrien Chereau
2016. Intern student from France working with Ann.
Ivan Nisevic
2008-16. PhD student with Jacqui. From Serbia – Joel’s Croatian heritage made lab soccer interesting. Did it tough for a while at the end but got there!
Paul Setiyaputra
2008-… PhD student with Joel. Definitely had the tidiest desk in the lab…and a mean bass guitar. Chose another path mid-way through and doing well.
Jake Saunders
2016. Summer student with Joel and Mario – all the way from sunny Brisbane.
Shirley Lam
2016. Summer student with Ann.
Diren Reddy
2016. Summer student with Jacqui and Ngaio.
Matt Majoub
2016-7. BSc Hons student working with Ann in 2016. Staying on for a few months in 2017.
Alain André
2017. MSc student working with Joel and Jason – coming all the way to us from Radboud University in the Netherlands.
Dr Biswa Mohanty
2015-6. Visiting long-distance postdoctoral collaboratorand NMR whizz from Monash. Came to get some instruction from Ingrid on wet lab work.
Javaid Jabbar
2017. Visiting undergraduate student from Bilkent University in Turkey. Worked with Joel and Maryam (well, Maryam, really).
Dr Philippa Stokes
2002-17. Über-postdoc with Jacqui. No longer sponsored by Donut King…
Dorothy Wai
2011-17. Hons and PhD student with Joel. Was chief lab photographer and occasional arsonist. Sense of humour so dry it needed a drink… Postdoc now at MIPS with Ray Norton.
Neil Robertson
2012-18.Hons and PhD student with Jacqui. Had the best (binding) curves… Currently a postdoc at UNSW with Paul Curmi.
Cherry Kwong
2014. BSc Hons student with Joel. Had the best first name in the lab.
Tamia Nguyen
2014. Third year undergraduate student working with Jason. A summer scholarship addict (she had two last summer…)!
Soumya Joseph
2008-14. BSc Hons and PhD student with Jacqui. Chief mischief-maker and Bjork impersonator. Now working in sunny Canberra.
Sarah Webb
2009-14. BSc Hons PhD student with Joel. Spent half of her Hons year held together with sports tape. EM pioneer.
Armando Alcazar
2014. Second year PhD student at Guanajuato University in Mexico. Came for 6 months to work with Joel – and make lots of friends!
Priya Thaivalappil
2014. Research assistant with Joel – moved all the way from Level 7 to join the lab!
Kyle Webster
2014-5. Summer visitor from NZ working with Joel. Was lured from finance to biotech.
Manan Shah
2014-5. Summer student with Jacqui. Bravely came over from UNSW for his summer research experience!
Dr Nick Shepherd
2011-4. PI (ARC DECRA Fellow) – came by way of the IMB and Tokyo U. A real, live chemist! Knew things like which end of a rotovap you put the sample in… Now returned to UQ.
Gabrielle York
2014-5. Undergraduate student who worked with Joel and Mario on the mammalian cell expression work.
Krystal Lester
2011-2015. PhD student with Jacqui. Netball queen. Liked Hons so much, she decided to stay. Joined a scientific supplier.
Ida Lindström
2015. Swedish Masters student who worked with Joel and Jason.
Efe Isilak
2015. Undergraduate student from Bilkent University in Ankara working in Joel’s lab. A real young Turk.
Courtney Winning
2015. BSc Hons student with Joel and Mario. Bravely came up from Canberra for Hons.
Chayenne Ghazi
2015-6.Dutch student studying to be a lab technician. Had one-year placement with Joel/Jason and made herself indispensible!
Queenie Cat
2002-2016. Technical assistant [small animal handling].
Jack Stewart
2015. Undergraduate summer student in Jacqui’s lab.
Mahli Kumarasinhe
2015. Undergraduate summer student who worked with Joel and Steph.
Anna Gotis-Graham
2015. Undergraduate summer student who worked with Joel and Jason.
Dr Eija Lehtomäki
2007-13. PhD student and postdoc with Joel (and Sandro). The Finn with the killer spike on the volleyball court! Now handed in and back from a rest in Tahiti…to take up the zinc finger gauntlet again.
Saad Alqarni
2009-13. PhD student with Joel. Came, played great indoor football, nailed some crystal structures and left us for an academic position in Saudi Arabia. We are hoping for some ongoing collaboration.
Michael Webster
2012-3. BSc Hons student + RA with Joel. Won ‘longest commute’ award by quite some distance…! Moved on to a PhD in Cambridge with Lori Passmore.
Herman Fung
2012-3. BSc Hons student + RA with Jacqui. A year of being looked after by Flyp didn’t put him off! Moved on to a PhD with Fred Antson in York.
Amanda Blythe
2013. PhD student from Alice Vrielink’s lab way over in Perth. Left her husband – temporarily at least – to get some SELEX and protein characterization work done over here. Things went pretty well and she is now writing up (having just solved a crystal structure too!).
Clare Cullen
2013. BSc Hons student with Jacqui. Showing off our new line in off-the-shoulder labcoats.
Tanya Estephan
2013. BSc Hons student with Jacqui. Wase subjected to Flyp’s rigorous Hons student training program (although I think she’s eased back on the waterboarding these days).
Reece Adler
2013. BSc Hons student with Joel. Navigated with Katschi the labyrinth of deep sequencing data output (and provided us with cost-price plumbing supplies).
Jesse Wark
2013. BSc Hons student with Nick. Survived being a summer student with Dorothy – that’s something to put on your CV.
Annika Majoros
2013. Undergraduate student who did a TSP project with Joel and Jason. Took the first steps in a new project in the lab and did well.
Dylan Rausch
2013-4. Visited Australia for a year and wanted to do some science – who can blame him?!
Antonia Zech
2013-4. Masters student from Hamburg. Came for some surfing and science (not necessarily in that order).
Dr Marylène Vandevenne
2010-14. Postdoc with Joel – our first Belgian! Her optimism is sorely missed. Now starting her own group back in Belgium.
Dr Katerina Bendak
2010-14. PhD student and postdoc with Joel. Made a huge contribution to the biology side of the lab. Now postdocing in a cancer lab at UNSW, putting those new skills to some good.
Andy Law
2013-4. BSc Hons student with Nick over in fume hood world.
Sam Choi
2013-4. BSc Hons student with Ann. Also a jazz piano aficionado – fitted right in!
Manar Shahib
2014. Masters student from Lund in Sweden. Came on a recommendation from Mattias!
Isabella Gurgel
2014. Undergraduate from Brazil in Joel’s lab who came to further boost the Portuguese-speaking community in the Struct. Biol. division.
Stephen Phan
2014. Second year TSP student working with Katschi – becoming a qPCR expert.
Dr Blanka Pekarova
2014. Sabbatical visitor from the Central European Institute of Technology in teh Czech Republic.
Dr Liza Cubeddu
2005-2010. PI and Sydney Protein Group dynamo! Now installed at UWS.
Dr Roland “The Mummy” Gamsjaeger
2004-2010. Postdoc with Joel – brought a taste of Austria to the lab. Gone to the wild west (UWS).
Dr Kaavya Krishna Kumar
2007-12. PhD student with Dave – with Joel as surrogate supervisor. Wicked cross-court forehand (as Joel can attest – note to self: must hit more to her backhand…). Now taking the plunge into the membrane with Jacqui Gulbis at WEHI.
Dr David Jacques
2011-12. Postdoc with Jacqui. Worked his way up to the NMR lab via the X-ray lab. Gone to sunny Cambridge – to the hallowed LMB – on a CJ Martin Fellowship for more crystallography.
Dr Carsten Minten
2012. Postdoc with Joel. Came on a brief but very productive mouse-related mission.
Mattias Brofelth
2012. Swedish Masters student with Joel. Nailed those NuRD pulldowns!
Cuong Nguyen
2008-12. PhD student with Joel. Pipetted for three. Postdocing with Paul Curmi at UNSW.
Tom Drury
2011-2. BSc Hons and RA with Jacqui. Never has anyone been so pleased to see a gel shift work! Off to Cambridge for a PhD with Ernest Laue.
Elise Laming
2012. RA with Joel. Added extra cheer to the lab. Now doing a PhD with Daniela Stock at the VCCRI.
Dr Margie Sunde
2002-2011. PI. Queen of amyloid. Now taken up a full academic position in the Dept of Pharmacology (which seems to require scuba gear on a regular basis!).
Vanessa Morris
2008-11. PhD student with Margie. Justin <3 Ness. Finished (2012) and departed for Germany for a postdoc with Bernd Reif on solid-state NMR.
Jane Ren
2009-11. MSc student with Margie – another amyloid convert. Also gone to Pharmacology.
Dr Paula Vaz
2006-12. Postdoc and PhD student with Joel. Liable to knock you down (if you’re a splicing factor, that is). One of our few ESFJs…
Jack Sheppard
2012. Undergrad student from Oxford who spent a couple of months with Jacqui.
Morgan Gadd
2007-2013. PhD student with Jacqui. “The Interceptor” on the basketball court! Headed off to Dundee for a structural postdoc (after a brief sojourn in Cambridge) with Alessio Ciulli.
Alexii Ilinykh
2012-3. Hons and RA with Sue Clark and Joel. Heading off to Monash for a PhD with Nadia Rosenthal.
Mitch O’Connell
PhD student with Joel. Drumming for the Zinc Fingers. Handed in, and headed off – to Berkeley to work with Jennifer Doudna on RNA-binding proteins (for a change).
Hinnerk Saathoff
2013. Hockey playing Master’s student from Germany who came and made huge progress on the NuRD complex work. Are hoping Germany will send us some more like him!
James Wong
2012-3. Undergrad technical assistant for 2012. Following the path started by Paul many years ago…
Craig Coorey
2013. Undergrad TSP student in Joel’s lab – also entrusted to Ana’s care.
Ruvini Fernando
2010. BSc Hons student with Liza. Went out to the wild west (UWS) with Liza to do a PhD.
Ivan Cheung
2010. BSc Hons student with Margie.
Line Bang
2009 and 2010. Danish postgraduate student. Came in 2009 and liked it so much she came back for more! Main job was to keep Sarah out of mischief.
Oscar Ljungqvist
2010. Undergraduate from Lund University working with Liza. We had quite a Scandanavian collection while he and Line were here!
Kylie Loh
2009-10. Hons with Jacqui and RA with Margie. Headed to Jamie R’s lab at Monash.
Dr Robyn Mansfield
2005-10. Hons and PhD with Joel. After a period in Pharmacology at USyd, has moved to Nick Dixon’s lab in Wollongong (with a fellowship!).
Dr Mugda Bhati
2005-10. Hons and PhD with Jacqui. Moved to Melbourne to be closer to the synchrotron.
Tony Rey
2009-10. Undergrad. from France – the French connection in Margie’s lab.
Sarah Carman
2010. USyd undergrad on a summer scholarship with Liza. One of those chemist types we wish we had more of!
Dr Sock Yue Thong
2006-11. BSc Hons and PhD student with Joel. Has undying devotion to Singapore Airlines, a liking for new kits and an unhealthy fascination with seamonkeys. Now with Gijsbert Grotenbreg at National University of Singapore.
Nina Ripin
2011. Undergraduate from Germany in Jacqui’s lab. Worked like a demon – and was justly rewarded!
Vince Cheung
2011. BSc Hons student with Joel. Off learning how to fix your teeth now!
Tristan Ocampo
2011. BSc Hons student with Liza.
Christine Touma
2011. BSc Hons student with Liza.
Matthew Hampsey
2011. BSc Hons student with Margie.
Sidika Kirmizi
2011. Undergraduate from Germany working with Margie.
Bianca Varney
2011. Undergraduate lab assistant.
Fiona Naughton
2011. USyd undergrad who stayed on for more after a summer scholarship with Joel. Closet kiwi (don’t tell anyone she supports the ABs).
Xingzhou Liu
2011. Second year summer student with Jacqui.
Clara Shen
2011. Second year summer student with Joel. Our Pebblepad professional.
Dr Dave Gell
2000-2009. Wellcome Postdoc Fellow, ARC Postdoc Fellow (with Joel), ARC Research Fellow. Set records at Lorne for fastest fun run and smallest poster. Now introducing PIs at U. Tasmania to the joys of protein science and structural biology. Sorely missed…
Claire Dickson
2009. BSc Hons student with Dave. Has headed for UTas to help start up Dave’s lab as a PhD student.
Ki Lim Kim
2009/10. Undergrad. summer student working with Joel and Siavoush.
Caroline Traill
2009/10. Undergrad. summer student working with Liza.
A/Prof. Kylie Walters
2010. Sabbactical visitor from the University of Minnesota (bbrrr….)
A/Prof. Hiroshi Matsuo
2010. Sabbactical visitor from the University of Minnesota (bbrrr….)
Beeke Weinert
2009/10. Undergrad. from Germany working with Jacqui. Already in on the lab football!
Edward Chan
2009/10. Undergrad. TSP student working with Jacqui, under Flyp and Sandra’s able guidance.
A/Prof. Siavoush Dastmalchi
2009-10. Sabbactical visitor from the Tabriz University of Medical Sciences in Iran – here for some serious structural biology.
Dr Marc Jones
Research associate with Jacqui, by way of Brisbane, Cleveland and Glasgow.
Arwen Cross
2007-10. PhD student with Jacqui. Bushwalker extraordinaire.
Yvanka de Soysa
2010. Undergraduate from Smith College in the US who worked with Jacqui.
A/Prof. David Segal
2010. Collaborator visiting from deep in the agricultural heart of the US – UC Davis (note wheat in background). We are hoping to get him back…
Maryam Hamzehee
2010. PhD student with Siavoush Dastmalchi in Iran. On a six-month visit to sample Mackay lab life in Sydney.
Dr Josep Font-Sadurni
2007-10. Postdoctoral associate with Joel and adventure racer. Now a membrane crystallographer with Mika Jormakka.
Dr Sandra Wissmueller
2008-10. Postdoctoral associate with Jacqui. Has moved up in the world (to the 7th floor).
Paula Watson
2010. BSc Hons student with Jacqui. Banana bender.
Catherine Shehadie
2010. BSc Hons student with Joel. Surfing scientist.
Stace Weisbrodt
2010. BSc Hons student with Joel. Ultimate frisbee afficianado.
Dr Chu Wai Liew
2001-9. PhD student with Joel and postdoctoral associate with Jacqui. Likes jelly rolls. Now postdoc-ing in Dunedin (Brrr!) with Catherine Day.
Dr Tony Blake
2009. Research assistant – worked in our lab as part of his world tour!
Dr Molly Clifton
2004-9. PhD student with Joel. Call me Imelda (or Jeannie – or mom x 2).
Antoine Hocher
2009. Undergrad. from France getting a taste of life in the Sunde lab.
Anne Trinh
2007-8.
summer student with Joel and general livewire.
Gonzalo Durante
2007.
Visiting PhD student from Spain, with Joel.
Dr Jason Lowry
2004-7.
Postdoc with Joel. The weatherman.
Dr Chu Kong Liew
1998-2002, 2006-8.
PhD student with Joel. Postdoc-ed with Rob Clubb at UCLA, came back, went to VCCRI – like a yo-yo…
Laura Glockner
2007-8.
Undergraduate from Germany; worked with Margie and contracted appendicitis (not related).
Dr Chris Lee
2003-2008.
Ex. PhD student with Jacqui. Acronymic – NMR, SAXS…
Dr Sally Eaton
2002, 2007-8.
Hons student (with Joel and Dave) and postdoctoral associate (with Jacqui). Off to Old Blighty… Now back in Sydney in Cath Suter’s lab at the Victor Chang.
Dr Fionna Loughlin
2004-8.
PhD student with Joel. Now postdocing in Zurich with Fred Allain.
Kim Tieu
2008.
BSc Honours student with Jacqui.
Doug Beattie
2008.
BSc Hons student with Margie and Ann.
Nandini Ragothaman
2008.
Undergraduate working with Dave.
Paul Vukašin
2007-8.
BSc Hons. student and research assistant with Margie/Ann. Working hard on unicycle juggling (and hydrophobins) – and now dentistry.
Juliane Fischer
2008-9.
Undergraduate from Germany with Joel.
Dr Richard Grant
2006-9. Postdoctoral associate with Joel. Shady, and undisputed master of dad jokes. Now working for Faculty of 1000.
Kate Grant
2006-9. Inaugural Lab Manager. Made good cakes (valuable)!
Dr Janet Deane
2000-2005.
BSc Hons and PhD with Jacqui. Thoughtful. Now running a lab in Cambridge.
Dr Michael Swanton
2000-2005.
PhD student with Joel. Now working at Apollo Life Sciences.
Amy Nancarrow
2003-5.
BSc Hons and Research Assistant with Jacqui. Hairy. Working for a volunteer agency in Edinburgh.
Dr Sharon Pursglove
2003-5.
Post-doctoral fellow with Joel. Multitasking as a mother and a researcher at the Victor Chang Cardiac Res. Inst.
Gustav Karlberg
2005.
Visiting scholar with Jacqui from Sweden.
Yun-Si Lim
2005.
Honours student with Dave. Now working at the Garvan.
Thilo Schroeder
2006.
Visiting scholar from Germany with Jacqui. Deja vu.
Dr Belinda Westman
1999-2003,2006.
PhD student and postdoc with Joel. Part of the lab basketball phase. Briefly institutionalized (VCCRI) – now recovered. Had a few years eating haggis at U. Dundee and now working for NHMRC in Canberra.
Dr Daniel Ryan
2001-6.
PhD student with Jacqui. Part of the lab basketball phase. Postdoced in Dundee and now at ANU in Canberra (can you see a link?) – and collaborating with Joel!
Cy Jeffries
2003-6.
PhD student with Jacqui. Mysterious. Now working in France at the synchrotron in Grenoble.
Victoria Mitchell
2006.
BSc Honours student witih Jacqui. Paintballer – watch out… Now working as a research assistant at the Kolling Institute.
Will D’Avigdor
2006.
BSc Honours student with Dave. Mad scientist in the making.
Christoph Leidig
2007.
Visiting scholar from Germany with Joel. Deja deja vu.
Jaimee Duncan
2005-6.
BSc Honours student + research assistant with Jacqui. Nutbush specialist.
Vanessa Craig
2006.
BSc Honours student with Jacqui. Call me Paris.
Mats Gurkansson
2007.
Undergraduate from Sweden, worked with Joel. Another one for our Scandanavian collection!
Alex Djamirze
2007.
BSc Honours student with Jacqui. Ice hockey master (a bit unseasonal for Sydney, normally).
Melinda Tan
2007.
BSc Honours student with Joel. Helping to look after Chu Kong.
Wilfred Leung
2007.
BSc Honours student with Joel. Worked in two labs at the same time!
Sheng Hua
2007.
BSc Honours student with Dave.
Kayesh Fairley
1999.
Honours student with Joel. Fishy character from Chemistry. Went to do Medicine.
Craig Plambeck
2000.
Medical student with undying interest in RNA-binding proteins.
Manu Dubin
2002.
Honours student with Jacqui. Please disregard Chu surfing the web in background.
Elmer Ker
2003.
Honours student with Joel and martial dancer (capoeira). After the army in Singapore, started a PhD in the US.
Melissa Williams
2003.
Honours student with Jacqui. Became a clinical research associate.
Nicki Norris
2003.
Honours student with Joel. Did PhD with Jenny Potts in York.
Fiona Power
2003.
Research Assistant with Joel – seems to like the Irish rugby team.
Dr Lyndal Thompson
200.3
Research assistant with Jacqui.
Wendy Yung
2001-2003.
Masters student with Joel. HRH. Now working for Questacon.
Cow
1997-2004.
Experiment in mammalian dessication.
Dr Jason Kahn
2003-2004.
Sabbatical visitor. Prof. at U. Maryland.
Belinda Sharpe
1998-2004.
PhD student with Joel. Gone to places afar. Now works for Wellcome in London.
Dr Neelan Marianayagam
2003-2004.
Post-doctoral fellow with Jacqui (pretending to work).
Dr Ed Cram
1999-2004.
PhD student with Jacqui. Remarkable hair transformations a specialty. Now with regulatory body in Canberra.
Daniel Gorman
2004.
Honours student with Dave/Joel (generally appears more 3-dimensional). Went on to do medicine.
Eva Chen
2004.
Honours student with Joel. Quiet (very).
Priscilla Foo
2004.
Honours student with Jacqui.
Dr Rachel Vandenhoven
2004.
Post-doctoral fellow with Jacqui. Now a lecturer in Queensland.
Dr Raina Simpson
2000-2005.
BSc Hons and PhD student with Joel. Worked as a scientist in industry and now with a scientific supplier.
Dr Felix Kobus
2003-4.
Postdoctoral fellow with Joel, troublemaker. Now involved in science education.
Jessica Carter
2022-3. Research assistant working with Joel to make safer and more selective insecticides.
Aston Buffier
2023. Research assistant working with Joel on safer insecticides (*and* kept the lab stocks up to scratch). Left to embark on a PhD with Ann.
Natasha Jones
2019-2023. Hons student and then research assistant working with Joel on a collaborative project with Alyson Ashe – on transgenerational epigenetic inheritance. Also had a partner who was handy with a 3D printer (thank you for my CHD4-bound nucleosome!). Now showing them how it’s done at Monash, working with Qi Zhang and Chen Davidovich on the PRC2 complex.
Kim Woollett
2019-2023. PhD student with Joel who made the jump from membrane proteins to transcription factors (and their PTMs) – very sensible! Now with CRISPR experience up her sleeve and looking to unleash it on other labs! Starting nearby with Mark White at USyd.
Charlotte Franck
2018-2022. PhD student and then postdoc working with Richard Payne in Chemistry and partly in collaboration with Joel. Key member of the Payne lab outpost that we’ve established in our lab space. Skillfully walked the line between being a chemist and a biochemist! Now in the real world of biotech, just down the road at AbCellera!
Dr Chandrika Deshpande
2018-22. Membrane protein crystallography aficionado who worked with Joel on a collaboration with Prof Michael Kassiou to design new modulators of P2X proteins.
Dr Ngaio Smith
2014-2022. Hons and PhD student and then postdoc with Jacqui. Has finally managed to escape – across the road to work in the synthetic biology space (very hip!) with Peter Rutledge.
Dr Hakimeh Moghaddas Sani
2015-2022. First visiting PhD student, then visitor, then research assistant working on numerous projects, from the design of new insecticides that are safer and more selective to mechanisms of chromatin remodelling. Now moved one floor down, so nice to still see her around!
Dr Jason Low
3013-2022. Longtime postdoc in the Mackay lab – frequently consulted as the oracle of cloning, not to mention mass spectrometry… Some would say he ran the joint. Now spreading his biotech wings with Insamo – an mRNA display startup co-started up by collaborator Toby Passioura.
Angela Nikolic
2009-2024. Structural biology lab manager (the person who *really* runs the lab), confidante, hustler (watch out if you are a sales rep) and more. After doing a fantastic job for 15 years, and seeing several hundred lab members pass through, she has moved across the railway tracks to give a local startup company (Gelion) the benefit of her expertise and experience.
Manu Dubin
2002.
Honours student with Jacqui. Please disregard Chu surfing the web in background.
Craig Plambeck
2000.
Medical student with undying interest in RNA-binding proteins.
Kayesh Fairley
1999.
Honours student with Joel. Fishy character from Chemistry. Went to do Medicine.
Dr Kasper Kowalski (and his chicken, Gwyneth Poultry)
1997-2001.
Ex. PhD student with Joel. Was an ARC Postdoctoral Fellow at U. Adelaide with Dr Grant Booker. Now a businessman.
Eve Borbilas
Hons student working in Joel’s lab on transcription factor PTMs – ably supervised by Ingrid and Kim.
Jessica Zhong
2017-20. Just-finished PhD student with Joel who pioneered chromatin remodelling assays and was chief nucleosome wrangler. Now postdocing with Sandro.