I am an ARC Industry Senior Research Fellow in Molecular and Computational Biology in the School of Molecular Sciences.

I studied process engineering and medical biotechnology (MBt, 2005) at the University of Technology in Berlin, Germany. I completed my PhD (2011) in molecular biology at the University of Western Australia researching underlying genetic mechanisms of childhood brain cancers. I have been working as a Research Fellow in plant computational biology at UWA since 2012.

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ARC Industry Linkage: Climate-resilient urban green spaces

My research focuses on unraveling the genetic diversity and visual traits of Kangaroo paw (Anigozanthos) varieties to improve climate-resilient urban green spaces. A key aspect is developing the first Anigozanthos pan-plastome to explore genetic diversity, cytoplasmic inheritance, and trait relationships to enhance horticultural breeding strategies for more predictable and marketable plant varieties.

Additionally, my work investigates the molecular basis of variegation in the A. flavidus "Stripie" variety. Using genomic and metabolic modeling, I aim to uncover how energy metabolism is re-routed in variegated plants, leading to fast growth despite chloroplast defects. This offers insights into plant adaptation harnessing energy-efficiency strategies for sustainable urban landscapes as well as agriculture in our changing climate.

Pilbara Region – Biodiversity Barcoding

This project develops a DNA metabarcoding approach using mixed plant samples to modernize botanical surveys in the Pilbara mining region. Using a comprehensive genomic reference database, we aim to improve the accuracy, efficiency, and scalability of species identification of this world-recognised biodiverse region. This approach will enhance environmental monitoring and support sustainable post-mining restoration by delivering rapid, cost-effective biodiversity assessments.

Online Resources

I have been involved in a number of resources useful for proteomics and genomics. The main resources include:

The compendium of crop proteins with annotated locations (cropPAL)

The subcellular location database for Arabidopsis proteins   (SUBA)

The Chloroplast annotation engine for plants of the Magnoliopsida group (Chloe)

Genome-scale modelling of Plant Metabolic Processes

My research focuses on complex metabolic dependencies in plant tissues and their role in energy efficiency, particularly in Anigozanthos. By integrating genomic, transcriptomic, and metabolic modeling approaches, I investigate the spatial separation of metabolic processes across plant tissues, cell types, and subcellular compartments. These insights help pinpoint biochemical limitations affecting growth and resilience. While my work primarily informs horticultural breeding and biodiversity conservation, the findings have the potential to be transferred to agriculture, improving crop growth, stress tolerance, and yield quality in a changing climate.

Subcellulome conservation and divergence in crops

My network of contributors and myself are also working on advancing our knowledge in the subcellular protein distributions within plant cells that allows the extrapolation of protein functions. The majority of genes in plant genomes are not well known in terms of their function, location and role within the metabolic network. In our data resources cropPAL and SUBA are continuously collating globally-generated experimental evidence of protein subcellular locations as well as computational predictions. We are currently housing >3500 data sets from scientists around the world on 12 crop species and Arabidopsis. Analysis pipelines and software are being developed to analyse these data in order to pinpoint important events of conservation versus diversification that lead to species-specific plant behaviour.

Techniques and Expertise

Molecular, Cell and Organism Biology

• Protein immunolabelling, isolation, purification and quantitation by FACS, MACS, electrophoresis
• Expression profiling, cloning & transgene tracking
• Microscopy: 4 channel Fluorescence microscopy, Quantitative Confocal microscopy, 3D imaging, Electron microscopy
• Cancer cell, stem cell tissue culture technologies
• Cell and tissue behaviours: cell migration, necrosis-apoptosis, permeability and diffusion, in situ receptor activation
• Organisms: Animal cancer trials, Human research and preclinical trials

Bioinformatics

• Large-scale data integration, Databases
• Network building and topology analysis (co-expression, metabolic networks)
• Machine learning
• Prediction modelling and optimisation