Speakers

Dr Michelle McDonald’s research careers spans over 19 years, attaining her PhD in 2008 at The Kids Research Institute, Westmead, she is currently Group Leader of the Bone Microenvironment Group at The Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Sydney, Australia. Through the development of a novel intravital imaging technique her research has allowed, for the first time, visualisation and fate tracking of dormant and actively growing tumour cells within living bone, as well as visualisation of bone cells in real time. This approach has revealed previously unappreciated bone cell dynamics and interactions, thereby advancing our fundamental understanding of osteoclast biology, and uncovering mechanisms behind unexpected clinical responses to anti-resorptive therapies. In addition, bone cell regulation of tumour cell behaviour, including dormancy, chemo-resistance, and disease relapse, has been demonstrated using this technique. Combined with her extensive experience using therapeutic agents to modulate bone cell activity in vivo, her group is working to define how these agents can be repurposed to prevent tumour-induced bone destruction and prevent tumour growth through regulating the bone micro-environment. This work has recently attracted a number of awards, grants and international invitations to speak, and spans collaborations with academic and industry partners internationally.

Dr McDonald has always worked closely with clinician scientists, which has influenced the development of her research towards clinically translatable outcomes. Michelle regularly perform peer reviews, sits on the editorial board for the Journal of Bone Oncology and Clinical Reviews in Bone and Mineral Research and has also held positions on international scientific committees and editorial boards (IBMS, ASBMR IFMRS and ANZBMS). Her research interests have also allowed multiple opportunities to work with industry and pharmaceutical companies, and more recently form active collaborations within Australia and with groups form the UK and the USA.

Lisa Bouchier-Hayes, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Hematology-Oncology section of the Department of Pediatrics in Baylor College Medicine, Houston, Texas. The focus of her lab is to determine how members of the caspase family of protease function in apoptosis and non-apoptotic processes to protect from disease. She has pioneered the development of live cell imaging-based methodologies to interrogate activation of distinct caspases in normal and transformed cells. Her research program is focused on two major areas: (1) caspase regulation in cancer; and (2) caspase activation during inflammation. The ultimate goal is to understand how these caspase pathways can be manipulated for preventative and therapeutic purposes. https://www.bcm.edu/research/labs-and-centers/faculty-labs/lisa-bouchier-hayes-lab

The specific focus of Dr Gordon’s research is to determine the precise molecular signals that control cell adhesion within the vessel wall the surrounding environment. If the signals controlling cell adhesion become deregulated, normal vessel growth and function is lost. This contributes to the progression of a wide range of human diseases, including cancer growth and metastasis, diabetic eye disease and stroke. Dr Gordon aims to use novel biological models, biochemical assays and imaging techniques to better understand vessel biology, which will enable improved treatment of disease and aid in the development of vascularised, bioengineered organs.

Dr Gordon received her Bachelor of Science (2005) and PhD (2011) from The University of Adelaide, after which she undertook six years of postdoctoral studies at Yale University in the USA and Uppsala University in Sweden. With the support of an ARC DECRA Fellowship, Dr Gordon relocated to IMB in 2017 to establish her independent research career as an IMB Fellow. In 2019, she was appointed as Group Leader of the Vessel Dynamics Laboratory.

My work is focused on understanding how immune cells that protect us from infection function efficiently and keep us healthy. By studying this process, we also aim to understand the development of diseases related to the function of immune cells such as autoimmunity (lupus, diabetes, coeliac disease) and cancer (leukaemia and lymphoma). With this knowledge we aim to:

Develop diagnostic tools for early detection of autoimmunity and immunodeficiency
Development of personalised medicine
Identify new therapies for the treatment of immune disorders and blood cancers
Develop new imaging technology for visualising immune cells in action

Research interest

The focus of my lab is to understand how immune signals are interpreted by lymphocytes to generate protective immunity. To investigate this problem we take a quantitative approach, using computer models to describe and measure individual components of the immune response. This allows us to accurately measure the contribution of immune signals, or genetic variation on the effectiveness of the lymphocyte function. Conversely, we can use the same theory to investigate how therapeutic interventions can be applied to target individual pathways, or components of the model, that are defective in immune disorders.

Therefore, my laboratory has two arms. One is to apply models to study lymphocyte function as described above, while the second is to construct and test new models. We do this through a combination of quantitative in vitro analysis integrated with single cell imaging techniques both in vitro and in vivo.

Dr. Tiago  Ferreira is a scientist at HHMI’s Janelia Research Campus, leading the imaging efforts of the MouseLight Project Team since 2017.  The MouseLight project generates data sets of whole mouse brains imaged at sub-micron resolution that allows reconstructions of complete axonal arbors of individual projection neurons across the entire mouse brain.

He received his MSc degree from University of Porto (PT) , and PhD degree from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and Heidelberg University (IT, DE). His post-doctoral research and subsequent work at McGill University (CA) was on development of neuronal dendrites. Dr Ferreira has authored several open-source tools for quantitative analysis of neuronal morphology. More recently, Dr. Ferreira’s research has been focused on multi-modal identification of neuronal cell types in the mouse brain.

He received the MSc degree in Electrical Engineering from Delft University of Technology (Delft, the Netherlands) in 1996 and the PhD degree in Medical Image Analysis from Utrecht University (Utrecht, the Netherlands) in 2000. Before coming to the University of New South Wales (UNSW, Sydney, Australia) in 2019, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Lausanne, Switzerland) from 2000-2002, an Assistant Professor at Erasmus University Medical Center (Rotterdam, the Netherlands) from 2002-2008, and an Associate Professor at the same institute from 2008-2019. Since 2019 he is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

In the Gratton lab (2010-2013) Elizabeth developed methods based on fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) and fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) to quantify chromatin dynamics in live cells. With the aim of applying this technology to cell biology, Elizabeth returned to Australia as a UNSW Vice Chancellor Fellow (2013-2015) and a Cancer Institute NSW Early Career Fellow (2015-2016) within the EMBL Australia node for Single Molecule Science, University of New South Wales (UNSW). Under the mentorship of Prof. Katharina Gaus, Elizabeth then established an independent research program at UNSW and at the University of Melbourne in the Department of Biochemistry as an NHMRC Career Development Fellow (2017-2020) which investigated live cell nuclear organisation. Collectively, Elizabeth’s work has been recognised by the US Biophysical Society with the 2014 Young Fluorescence Investigator Award and the Australian Society of Biophysics with the 2016 McAulay-Hope Prize for Original Biophysics.

In the areas of biology and biophysics, Dr. Gratton utilizes his knowledge of the latest techniques in fluorescence spectroscopy and microscopy to image live cells. As head of the Laboratory for Fluorescence Dynamics, a National Center for Research Resources supported by the National Institutes of Health, he and the scientists in his lab use fluorescence to study cellular processes including protein aggregation, membrane interactions, and migration of cells, to track moving particles, and to analyze collagen formation and deformation. The research leads to a better understanding of cell function, with potential application to diagnosing and identifying treatment for many human diseases, including Huntington’s disease, kidney disorders, and cancers. Their findings also lead to the development of new fluorescence instrumentation and to the continued advancement of his center’s data analysis software, Globals for Spectroscopy and Globals for Imaging. Proceeds from the software are used to fund research-related conferences and workshops, reflecting the longstanding commitment of Dr. Gratton and his lab to disseminating the latest advances in biomedical research to the greater scientific community.

A passionate and experienced research professional and entrepreneur (co-founder of an innovative life-science company Neurotar Ltd).

Expert in Neurosciences, specializing in synaptic plasticity, with methodological focus on in vivo microscopy and electrophysiology in awake behaving mice. Internationally trained (MSc from Russia, PhD from Italy, postdoc at Duke University and NIH in the USA, currently a Principal Investigator in Finland). Leader of the Conscious Evolution Research group at University of Helsinki. Author of 60+ peer-reviewed academic publications, book chapters and patents.