Members

Grant Drummond is a Professor of Physiology and Co-director of the Centre for Cardiovascular Biology and Disease Research (CCBDR) at La Trobe University. He also serves as Associate Dean Partnerships for the School of Agriculture, Biomedicine and Environment. Grant's research is in the area of cardiovascular and chronic kidney disease with a specific focus on understanding the roles of oxidative stress, the immune system and the gut microbiome in promoting the vascular, cardiac and renal inflammation that contributes to these conditions. Grant's work has provided novel insights into the roles of NADPH oxidase-derived reactive oxygen species as signalling molecules under physiological conditions, and mediators of oxidative damage in vascular disease. His studies have also shed new light on the involvement of both innate (e.g. NLRP3 inflammasome, interleukin-18), and adaptive (B cells, autoantibodies) immune signalling pathways in the development of hypertension and kidney damage. More recently, Grant's team have been exploring the relationship between gut health and cardiovascular disease, with a particular focus on the gut virome. His work is funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia and the Heart Foundation of Australia.

Find out more about Professor Drummond's research.

Professor Chris Sobey obtained his PhD in 1991 in the Department of Physiology at the University of Melbourne, studying the role of endothelium in the coronary circulation. In 1994 he was awarded an NHMRC CJ Martin Fellowship to conduct postdoctoral research work at the University of Iowa (USA) where he gained expertise in studies of the cerebral circulation.

In 1996 he returned to Australia where he established the Cerebrovascular Reactivity Laboratory in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Melbourne. In 2002 he was awarded an NHMRC RD Wright Career Development Award, and in 2005 he was appointed an NHMRC Senior Research Fellow. In 2006 he was recruited to the Department of Pharmacology at Monash University where, together with Grant Drummond, he established the Vascular Biology and Immunopharmacology Group (VBIG) which has now published more than 80 research articles. In 2015 Professor Sobey was appointed as Program Lead of the Cardiovascular Disease program in the new Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute. Then in 2017, both he and Grant Drummond were recruited to the School of Life Sciences at La Trobe University where they are now Professors in Physiology. Their VBIG research team comprises approximately 15 members.

Professor Sobey is also a Senior Editor of the British Journal of Pharmacology, a current or past member of numerous Editorial Boards of International Journals, and is an elected Fellow of the American Heart Association (FAHA) and British Pharmacological Society (FBPhS). He has served as a member of the Assigner's Academy and several Grant Review Panels for the NHMRC. He has held continuous Fellowship support from the NHMRC since 2002 and has been Chief Investigator on 18 NHMRC-funded Project Grants (including 3 current and a total of 10 as CIA).

He has a career total of more than 270 publications with over 26,000 citations, and his research has examined numerous signalling mechanisms regulating the coronary and cerebral circulations, showing that vascular function is substantially altered in a range of diseases including hypertension, subarachnoid haemorrhage, sepsis, ischaemia-reperfusion and hypercholesterolaemia, and that gender differences often exist. A major part of his current research is investigating the oxidative and inflammatory mechanisms occurring in the brain after stroke in order to identify and develop novel approaches to treat stroke patients.  One facet of this work involves his co-leadership of a Phase I Clinical Trial to assess the safety of Amnion Cell Therapy in Ischemic stroke (I-ACT) to provide a platform for a Phase II Trial. The Trial was registered with the Australian & New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ACTRN12618000076279p), has been successfully completed and is published (Front Neurosci. 2023 May 9;17:1153231. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1153231). A future Phase 1b/2a is planned for 2025.

In 2022 and 2023, Professor Sobey was named Top Australian researcher in the field of Pharmacology & Pharmacy (Discipline area: Health & Medical Sciences).

Find out more about Professor Sobey's research.

Associate Professor Alex Pinto is the head of the Cardiac Cellular Systems laboratory based at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, and is co-appointed by the Baker Institute and La Trobe University. His research aims to understand how the network of cells that form the heart contribute to the development of heart failure, and how extra-cardiac tissues and factors in the blood regulate this network. A major area of focus for A. Prof. Pinto’s laboratory is to understand how hypertension, obesity and diabetes alter the heart, and whether these alterations are reversible.

To achieve his research goals, A. Prof. Pinto uses cutting-edge computational biology, single-cell omics, 3D imaging, and mouse genetic technologies. A. Prof. Pinto’s team collaborates with multiple labs within Australia and the United States.

Find out more about Professor Pinto's work here.

My research focuses on understanding the causes of chronic kidney disease. Specifically, I am interested in how to stop the progression of kidney disease. Current therapies only slow the progression of kidney disease, but how can we regenerate the kidney so that patients no longer need dialysis or a kidney transplant? The aim of my research is to investigate the contributions of the immune system to the progression of kidney disease, and create novel therapies that target the immune system to regenerate the kidney.

Find out more about Dr Huuskes's research.

My area of research is neurophysiology/pharmacology. I have studied neural networks within the retina and investigated the relationships between mutually inhibitory circuits and the implications on the plasticity of dopaminergic receptive mechanisms under normal physiological conditions. Currently our lab examines the underlying neurobiology and neurochemistry that underlies the physiology of metabolism. In 2009 our understanding of metabolism in humans was transformed by the discovery that a significant amount of brown adipose tissue is found in adult humans. Brown adipose tissue is important as it is specialized for wasting stored energy (body fat) as heat. There is an inverse correlation between the amount of brown adipose tissue a person has and the likelihood of the development of obesity. Further, activation of brown adipose has been shown to have positive effects on glucose sensitivity (i.e. an anti-diabetic effect).

Brown adipose tissue activation has also been implicated in cancer cachexia and stress and anxiety, suggesting that understanding the regulatory mechanism that underlies brown adipose tissue has significant impact on the health care of individuals with these conditions.

We are currently developing techniques for measuring brown adipose tissue activity in humans to complement our basic research.

Find out about Dr Kettle's research.

Colleen is a teaching and research academic.  She is an Associate Professor in Physiology and Head, Cardiovascular Physiology Laboratory in the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Microbiology. She is also a Division Head in the Centre for Cardiovascular Biology and Disease Research at the University. Colleen obtained her PhD from the Faculty of Medicine, Monash University, examining the influence of natriuretic peptides on cardiac reflexes in normal health, cardiovascular disease models and aging. She has expertise in instrumenting small and large animals for integrated cardiovascular physiological recordings in acute and chronic study settings (eg., blood pressure, heart rate, regional (organ) blood flow). She uses biochemical and molecular analyses to elucidate mechanisms of action.  A significant post-doctoral research interest has been to develop novel strategies and therapies to treat myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury.  Functional components of diet to prevent / reverse chronic disease (especially CVD/ diabetes) are also a significant recent focus of her lab (anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant mechanisms of action; role of the gut microbiome). Colleen’s research is evidenced by multi-disciplinary collaborations to translate findings from basic research through to clinical trials and successful industry partnerships.

Find out about Associate Professor Thomas's research.

Dr Cristina Keightley's laboratory studies the transcriptional regulation of myeloid development and disease using zebrafish and mouse models to discover and understand molecular pathways in haematopoietic development. Within this context, we examine the role of transcription factors and mRNA splicing regulators, employing a multi-disciplinary approach integrating molecular genetics, biochemistry, genomics, and proteomics.

Find out more about Dr Keightley's research.

Extracellular vesicles are sophisticated signalling mediators, transporting select RNA and protein cargo. As secreted vesicles they have the capacity to enable intercellular communication and have become the focus of exponentially growing interest, both to study their functions and to understand ways to use them in the development of minimally invasive diagnostics. Importantly, extracellular vesicles are released into biological fluids including blood, urine, uterine fluid, and protect their cargo against degradation and denaturation in the extracellular environment.

With various sub-types of secreted vesicles, including exosomes, are comprised of a lipid bilayer containing various proteins, RNAs and bio-active lipids. They act as intercellular messengers that give the ability to communicate between both cells of the same type and other cell types in distant organs. They are released by healthy cells, both constitutively and upon cell activation and play an important role in immune system function. Exosomes are essential for healthy physiological conditions, however under pathological circumstances, they act to potentiate cellular stress and damage. We aim to gain a better understanding on the definitive molecular mechanisms of function of extracellular vesicles, as well as investigating their capacity to target and reprogram the extracellular milieu (or in recipient cell). The advanced-nano approaches developed in our lab have identified novel regulators of secretome and extracellular vesicle biology and have utilised this knowledge for commercial and translational potential.

The Molecular Proteomics laboratory has utilised quantitative high-resolution mass spectrometry (Q Exactive HF-X Orbitrap) to deliver a superior combination of acquisition speed, resolving power, mass accuracy, spectral quality, and sensitivity. Our pipeline is focused on the rapid identification using chemical labelling and isotopic labelling strategies, in addition to label-free quantitation. We focus on utilising this technology to understanding the secreted and extracellular vesicles molecular drivers of intercellular communication and metabolism, and also defining proteome changes and key pathways involved in tissue health during cardiovascular disease.

Find out more about Associate Professor Greening's research.

Professor Arumugam obtained his Bachelor’s Degree in Medical Science with Honors from the University of Sydney in 1998 and a Doctor of Philosophy in Pharmacology from the University of Queensland in 2003. He completed post-doctoral training at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in Shreveport, USA, under Professor Neil Granger, and at the National Institute of Health, Baltimore, USA, under Professor Mark Mattson. Establishing his independent laboratory at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in 2007, he later transitioned to The University of Queensland (UQ) as a Senior Lecturer, focusing on CNS neurodegeneration and ischemic stroke. In 2011, he was honored with the UQ Foundation Research Excellence Award and an Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellowship. He was appointed Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore in 2013 and subsequently joined La Trobe University in March 2020.

Professor Arumugam’s research is primarily dedicated to unraveling neuronal cell death mechanisms in stroke and vascular dementia, with an emphasis on identifying novel therapeutic targets. Furthermore, his investigations extend to exploring the impact of intermittent metabolic switching on brain aging and related diseases. His contributions have appeared in journals such as Nature Medicine, Nature Neuroscience, Circulation, PNAS, Molecular Psychiatry, Theranostics, Cell Metabolism, and Nature Communications. With over 195 articles and three book chapters, his work has garnered over 22,000 citations (Google Scholar) and he maintains an h-index of 78.

Find out more about Professor Arumugam's research.

Associate Professor Hayder Al-Aubaidy is the Anatomy Discipline Head at the Department of Microbiology, Anatomy, Physiology & Pharmacology.  His research interest is in the field of early detection and prevention of prediabetes and type 2 diabetes. He is investigating the anti-inflammatory, lipid lowering and glucose lowering  effects of several nutraceutical compounds which can be used in prediabetes and /or early stage type 2 diabetes to control (and revert) diabetes complications. He is also looking into the interplay of several biochemical markers associated with poor diabetes outcome which may precipitate the development of diabetes complications including cardiovascular disease.

Dr Al-Aubaidy has been researching in this field for the last 16 years and he published over 70 research papers in peer-reviewed journals. He is collaborating with both national and international research teams and he supervised several research high degree students on multiple relevant research topics.

Find out more about Associate Professor Al-Aubaidy's research.

Helen Irving is a Professor in Biomedical Sciences and is a member of the La Trobe Institute for Molecular Sciences (LIMS). Helen's current research centres on understanding inflammatory signals at the molecular level to develop new and improved approaches to managing inflammatory conditions.

Helen obtained her PhD in Biochemistry from The University of Melbourne and conducted post-doctoral work at Vanderbilt University (USA) and The University of Kentucky (USA) before returning to Australia to take up an ARC Post-Doctoral Fellowship at La Trobe University. For most of her career, she has been a teaching/research academic based at the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Monash University. Helen moved to the La Trobe Institute for Molecular Sciences (LIMS) at La Trobe University in 2017.

Find out more about Professor Irving's research.

We are interested in understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms which drive heart diseases. We examine the underlying causes and pathological consequences of cardiac rhythm and relaxation irregularities (arrhythmias and diastolic dysfunction respectively) and heart attacks (myocardial infarction), and how these may differ in men and women. The overall goal is to validate novel molecular targets that advance sex-specific preventative therapies for aged and obese populations at risk of developing heart disease.

Find out more about Dr Bell's research.

Jency Thomas is a senior lecturer and researcher at Latrobe University with a doctorate from the University of Newcastle.

Her doctoral research focused on the effect of type 2 diabetes on brain functions in particular the hippocampus, which is critical for memory consolidation and cognitive functions. Jency has also explored how nutraceuticals like omega-3 and polyphenols benefit memory and cognition in both healthy and disease conditions. With expertise in animal models of diabetes and genetic mechanisms of cognitive impairment, she is now translating her research into clinical studies to examine the impact of diabetes on mental health, including cognitive impairment, depression, anxiety, dementia and Alzheimer's Disease.
Jency collaborates with colleagues in Public Health to study self-medication practices and management of type-2 diabetes among South Asians and migrant communities in Australia. She has numerous publications in reputable journals and has presented at various national and international conferences.

Currently, Jency supervises multiple PhD students, with five having successfully completed their doctoral thesis and 3 completing Master's thesis under her guidance. She is the Academic Program Director for the La Trobe University-JSS University Joint PhD Program and has received research grants through the SPARC program an initiative of Government of India to promote research in collaboration with IIT-K (India).

In 2019, Jency received a fellowship from the Australian Academy of Science for her Metabolic syndrome Influencing Neurodegenerative Disorder (MIND) project. In 2020, her team earned the Vice-Chancellor's Teaching Award for implementing an employability module into science subjects, guiding undergraduate students in career planning. She also received the Vice-Chancellor's Award for Teacher of the Year for the same initiative.

In 2022, Jency and her team received the prestigious award from the Australian Award for University Teaching (AAUT).

Find out more about Dr Thomas's research.

Professor Joseph Tucci is a registered practicing pharmacist and Pharmacy Discipline Lead, in the La Trobe Rural Health School, La Trobe University, Bendigo. Professor Tucci has a background in developmental biology, having completed his PhD at the Howard Florey Institute of Experimental Physiology and Medicine, Melbourne, and subsequently taken up a post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Biochemistry, University of Leicester, U.K.

His past research work has included the generation of transgenic animal models for the study of homeobox genes and other developmental factors. Some of his current research interests include:
a)The genetic influences on pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of medicinal drugs, especially in relation to traditional and indigenous populations  
b)The use of bacteriophage as alternatives to antibiotics
c)Genomic applications in the elucidation of microbial ecology in waste water treatment

Find out more about Professor Tucci's research.

Dr. Katrina Binger is a Lecturer in the Department of Biochemistry and Genetics. She completed her biochemical PhD training in protein chemistry and biophysics in 2009, before changing research fields to undertake postdoctoral positions investigating chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and inflammation. In 2012 she was awarded a prestigious NHMRC CJ Martin Fellowship to continue her research at the Max-Delbruck Centre for Molecular Medicine in Berlin, Germany. Here, she demonstrated that high dietary salt (sodium chloride, NaCl) has diverse effects on the activation of macrophages: pro-inflammatory "M1" responses were increased by high salt, while anti-inflammatory "M2" mechanisms were suppressed (Binger et al JCI 2015; Jantsch et al Cell Metab 2015). This work provided evidence that high dietary salt may lead to an overall imbalance in immune homeostasis. Since returning to Australia, Dr. Binger has been establishing an independent, collaborative and multidisciplinary scientific program to investigate the metabolic programming of immune cells. Dr. Binger's research uses animal models of disease combined with primary in vitro cell cultures in 2D and 3D, together with expert analyses of cellular metabolism including Seahorse Extracellular Flux assays, biochemical assays, and metabolomics approaches (GC- and LC-MS) to uncover perturbations in specific metabolic pathways. Overall, Dr. Binger's research aims to enhance knowledge of the fundamental biology of immunometabolism, with impact and relevance to clinical settings of infection, inflammation, diabetes and hypertension.

Find out more about Dr Binger's research.

Dr Lakshmi Wijeyewickrema received a Bachelors of Science degree in Biochemistry from the University of Greenwich, London, U.K in 1995. In 2000, she completed her Masters studies in the laboratory of Ian Mackay and Merrill Rowley at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. Her thesis focused on the screening of collagen antibodies in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Following three years of teaching, travelling and working as a research assistant, she began a PhD in the laboratory of Micheal Berndt and Robert Andrews at Monash University in 2003. Her thesis project examined the effect of snake venom proteases on platelet receptors, which she completed and was awarded her doctorate degree in 2007. She continued her interest in the biochemistry of blood in the laboratory of Robert Pike, then located also at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Monash University, as a post-doctoral fellow. Her expertise in protein production and enzymology has helped establish her international profile in serine protease biochemistry with a particular emphasis on the Complement system.

Find out more about Dr Wijeyewickrema's research.

Dr Lisa Mielke is a Victorian Cancer Agency Fellow and Head of the Mucosal Immunity and Cancer laboratory at the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute and School of Cancer Medicine La Trobe University. Dr Mielke is an expert in immune cell biology in intestinal homeostasis and gastrointestinal cancers. She completed her PhD in 2009 at the National Institutes of Health, USA. She performed her postdoctoral studies at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland and the Walter & Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, Australia. During this time, she led numerous studies revealing new and exciting cross-talk between our diet and transcriptional regulation of intestinal innate lymphoid cells (ILC) and gamma delta T cell populations. These studies opened an exciting frontier of research in the field of mucosal immunology that underpin her current work, studying these cells in maintaining homeostasis of the gut, their role in gastrointestinal infection and cancers.

My research is centered on understanding the interplay of pathogens with their hosts. This includes pathogens affecting humans and plants as well as those affecting animals. We examine the way how key effector molecules from pathogen and host engage with each other, and how this molecular dance shapes disease trajectory and outcomes. We use imaging methods to understand how these events occur at the atomic level, including cryo electron microscopy and x-ray crystallography. Ultimately we aim to deliver insights into molecular mechanisms that inform strategies for treatment and prevention of pathogen induced disease.

1. We are interested in how small proteins called defensins act as first line of defence against microbial threats such as fungal infections. We have shown that defensins recognize specific phospholipid markers in the membranes of pathogens, and often assemble oligomeric assemblies that destroy pathogen membranes.

2. Cell polarity enables cells to determine direction and thus is pivotal for assembling complex 3D tissue architecture. Scribble is a master regulator of this process, and we are interested in understanding how Scribble is regulated, and how Scribble interacts with other effectors to control tissue architecture. Many viruses hijack Scribble signalling, and this impacts viral infection and proliferation, and we are interested in exploring this for the development of novel antiviral therapeutics.

3. Viruses such as Epstein-Barr virus and Kaposi sarcoma herpesvirus use proteins belonging to the family of Bcl-2 to subvert host cell suicide signalling programs. Dysfunction of these pathways in virus infected cells can give rise to cancer, and we study how virus encoded Bcl-2 proteins contribute to tumourigenesis. Ultimately we aim to develop new therapeutics to treat Epstein-Barr virus associated tumours such as Burkitt lymphoma or nasopharyngeal carcinoma, or Kaposi sarcoma which is caused by Kaposi sarcoma herpesvirus.

Find out about Professor Kvansakul's research.

Hypertension, obesity and diabetes are leading causes of cardiovascular disease. Dr Maria Jelinic hopes to make this a problem of the past. Since completing her PhD in vascular physiology, Maria's research has focused on elucidating mechanisms that drive cardiac, vascular and renal complications in cardiometabolic disease. Her research investigates novel inflammatory mechanisms that drive renal and vascular complications in these disease states. Maria specializes in using pharmacological interventions and genetic modifications in rodent models of cardiovascular disease to test new therapeutic strategies that target immune cells to reduce end organ-damage in these disease settings.

In her short career to date, she has produced 34 publications (with over 1000 citations), and secured over $3.7M in competitive funding. She is also passionate about training the next generation of scientists to build on Australia’s capacity in biomedical research and has over 12 years’ experience training both undergraduate and HDR students in physiology and pharmacology.

Find out about Dr Jelinic's research.

Prof Hulett completed his doctoral studies in 1994 at The University of Melbourne in on immune cell receptors in inflammation and allergy. He was awarded an NHMRC Peter Doherty Postdoctoral Fellowship (1995-1998) to continue his work on immune receptors at the Austin Research Institute. Prof Hulett moved to the John Curtin School of Medical Research (JCSMR) at The Australian National University in 1999 where he cloned the heparan sulphate-degrading enzyme heparanase and described its important role in inflammatory disease and cancer. Following the awarding of a Viertel Senior Medical Research Fellowship in 2002, Prof Hulett established an independent laboratory at the JCSMR to study molecular aspects of immune and tumour cell migration. In 2008 Prof Hulett moved his research group to the Department of Biochemistry at La Trobe University. His current research interests include inflammation and the tumour microenvironment, as well as the mechanism of action and therapeutic application of host defense peptides. Prof Hulett’s research has a strong translational focus and he has collaborated with a number of biotechnology companies including Progen Industries Ltd and Hexima Ltd. He has published over 150 peer-reviewed papers that have attracted 10,000+ citations, as well being lead inventor on 6 patents, and his research has been recognized with a number of awards including the Howard Florey Medal and the inaugural ACT Tall Poppy Science Award. Prof Hulett is a passionate advocate for science and medical research having been a Past-president of the Australian Society of Medical Research (ASMR) (2008) and is a current member of the ASMR National Policy Advisory Committee (2009-). He has previously held the positions of Research Director (2015-2016) and Deputy Director (2017-2019) of the La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science at La Trobe University. Prof Hulett is the current Head of Department of Biochemistry and Chemistry at La Trobe University (2019-).

Find out about Proessor Hulett's research.

Dr Michael De Silva completed his PhD in 2011 in the Department of Pharmacology at Monash University. In 2012, he was awarded an NHMRC CJ Martin Early Career Fellowship to conduct postdoctoral research at the University of Iowa (USA). There he gained expertise in the study of the cerebral microcirculation. In 2015, he returned to Australia and joined the Vascular Biology and Immunopharmacology Group (VBIG) headed by Professor’s Chris Sobey and Grant Drummond. In 2019, he took up a teaching a research position at La Trobe University.

Michael has published a number of papers in prestigious journals including Hypertension, Stroke and The British Journal of Pharmacology. He has also received recognition for his work including awards from the American Heart Association, American Physiological Society and the Australian Foundation for High Blood Pressure Research.

His current research interests include examining the effect of cardiovascular diseases (such as stroke and hypertension) on the regulation of cerebral microvascular function and cognitive function. The ultimate goal of Michael's research is to develop new therapies for cardiovascular diseases, stroke and dementia.

Find out about Dr De Silva's research.

A/Prof. Seb Dworkin completed his PhD in 2008 at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, investigating the mechanisms governing neural development in both zebrafish and mouse, as well as the transcriptional control of neural stem cells. He then joined Prof. Stephen Jane's group at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, investigating developmental processes regulated by the highly conserved Grainyhead-like family of transcription factors. Dr. Dworkin moved to Monash University to continue his work under Prof. Jane's mentorship in 2011. He was awarded an Australian Research Council Early Career Fellowship (DECRA), and was successful in obtaining a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) project grant, both in 2014, to fund his work on mechanisms of gastrulation, craniofacial development, and neurulation/neural morphogenesis. In 2016, A/Prof. Dworkin took up a Lecturer/Group Leader position at La Trobe University, in the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Microbiology. His group's current work is focused on identifying conserved transcription factor function in both mouse and zebrafish in order to best provide prognostic indicators for how these factors may regulate human development. In 2023 he was awarded the Vice-Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Graduate Supervision, and in 2024, he was appointed as the Discipline lead for Physiology and Pharmacology.

Find out about Associate Professor Dworkin's research.