Our Investigators

Investigator

A/Prof Devakar Epari

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Devakar has a research interest in the biomechanics and mechanobiology of bone healing. His work involves application of experimental and computational approaches. He also has interested in implant development and is currently leading the development of a novel fracture fixation device.

Investigator

Prof You-Gan Wang

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You-Gan’s research interests include developing statistical methodology for correlated data analysis, robust inferences and model selection and applying advanced techniques that help to solve important problems in medical sciences, environmental research and natural resource management.

Investigator

Prof Lisbeth Grondahl

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Lisbeth is a lead researcher in the field of biointerface science with extensive expertise in fabrication and testing of biomaterials. She is a Fellow of Biomaterials Science and Engineering (FBSE), has published over 100 research papers and book chapters, has graduated 19 PhD students and is currently leading a research group of four PhD students and an NHMRC ECR Fellow

Investigator

Dr Neha Gandhi

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Neha is an Advance Queensland Industry Research Fellow and Program Leader in Personalised Medicine of the Centre for Genomics and Personalised Health at QUT. As a computational structural biologist/biophysicist, her research focuses on the structure-function of biomolecules and drug discovery.

Investigator

Prof Robert Herbert

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Rob is an NHMRC Principal Research Fellow, Senior Principal Research Scientist at Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA), conjoint Professor in the School of Medical Sciences at UNSW Sydney, Honorary Professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Sydney, and Honorary Professorial Fellow at the George Institute for Global Health. His biomechanical research investigates passive mechanical properties of human muscles in vivo, and uses medical imaging to investigate changes in muscle architecture under physiological conditions.

investigator

Prof Syn Schmitt

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Syn is a professor of “Computational Biophysics and Biorobotics” at the University of Stuttgart and in 2019 he co-founded the Institute for Modelling and Simulation of Biomechanical Systems, together with Oliver Roehrle. Syn Schmitt is fellow of the Stuttgart Center for Simulation Science (SimTech) and a faculty member of the International Max Planck Research School for Intelligent Systems (IMPRS-IS). Recently, he was appointed as Adjunct Professor in the School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering of the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia. His research focuses on autonomous muscle-driven motion with special interests in design principles of the locomotion apparatus, non-linear dynamics of locomotion, motor control and morphological computation in biological and technical systems.

Investigator

Prof Oliver Rohrle

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Oliver is the Director of the Institute for Modelling and Simulation of Biomechanics Systems and the Chair for Continuum Biomechanics and Mechanobiology at the University of Stuttgart

Investigator

Prof Michael Milford

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Michael conducts interdisciplinary research at the boundary between robotics, neuroscience and computer vision and is a multi-award winning educational entrepreneur. His research models the neural mechanisms in the brain underlying tasks like navigation and perception to develop new technologies in challenging application domains such as all-weather, anytime positioning for robotics and autonomous vehicles. He currently hold the positions of Deputy Director of the QUT Centre for Robotics, Professor at the Queensland University of Technology, Microsoft Research Faculty Fellow and Chief Investigator at the Australian Centre for Robotic Vision.

investigator

Prof Cameron Brown

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Cameron’s research interest and expertise is in the structure-property-function relationships in biomedical materials and systems. As Director of QUT’s Medical Engineering Research Facility, he is actively involved the development and translation of frontier technologies to medicine. He has worked at the Botnar Research Centre, University of Oxford in Biomedical Engineering and Materials. Supported by an ARUK Career Development Fellowship and a NIHR-BRC Senior Fellowship he set up and led the Photonics, Mechanics and Modelling of Biomedical Materials Group. In this time he was also the Oxford lead for the Marie Curie skelGEN Project, the image analysis lead for the 7-Tesla MSK Imaging Programme, and the engineering lead for the ARUK Experimental Osteoarthritis Treatment Centre.

Investigator

Prof Yin Xiao

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Yin is the Founder and the Director of the Australia-China Centre for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (ACCTERM) established in 2013 and the Joint Research Centre of functional biomaterials for tissue and organ replacement. His work has predominantly focused on bone, biomaterials, stem cells, dentistry, osteoarthritis, and tissue engineering. He initiated the concept of osteoimmunology in bone biomaterial development and introduced the “Materiobiology” in M. Phil training courses. He has authored more than 270 journal papers, three books, and 23 book chapters. His H index is 61 and his work has been cited for more than 11600 times.

Investigator

Prof Travis Klein

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Travis is the Director of the Centre for Biomedical Technologies at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). He is an expert in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, with research that primarily focuses on developing long-term regenerative therapies for treating cartilage defects. He is a CI on three ARC Training Centres and has expertise in developing and using 3D cell culture systems, functionalised biomaterials, biofabrication approaches and mechanical stimulation bioreactors.

investigator

A/Prof Emilie Sauret

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Emilie has extensive interdisciplinary research experience in computational fluid dynamics, and heat & mass transfer. Her current research focusses on the development of advanced computational techniques to accurately simulate complex non-ideal fluid flow behaviours that are critical for the rational design and robust optimisation of engineering applications, in particular in the field of energy and biomedical engineering.

Investigator

Prof Sandy Brauer

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Sandy is the Head of School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. She leads a number of studies to better understand the underlying motor control mechanisms contributing to altered postural control, particularly in populations with neurological disorders or advanced age, and use this information to better develop physiotherapy assessment techniques and rehabilitation strategies. This research has subsequently developed to encompass prevention strategies and the investigation of the cost-effectiveness of intervention, to better facilitate the translation of research evidence into clinical practice.

Investigator

Prof Paul Hodges

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Paul is a recognised world leader in movement control, pain and rehabilitation. His unique comprehensive research approach from molecular biology to brain physiology and human function has led to discoveries that have transformed understanding of why people move differently in pain. His innovative research has also led to discoveries of changes in neuromuscular function across a diverse range of conditions from incontinence to breathing disorders. These observations have been translated into effective treatments that have been tested and implemented internationally.

investigator

Prof Steven McPhail

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Steve is a health service innovator, health economist, and researcher who leads the health management discipline at the School of Public Health and Social Work, Faculty of Health, Queensland University of Technology. He is the Academic Director of the Australian Centre for Health Services Innovation (AusHSI).

Investigator

Prof Antonio Cuesta-Vargas

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Antonio is a Chair in Physiotherapy at the University of Málaga and Principal Researcher of the Clinimetric Research Group at the Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Málaga (IBIMA), Spain.  He is particularly interested in to develop new tools for assessment and clinical monitoring incorporating biomechanics, physiology and psychometrics with a clinimetric approach for ICT-based solution in public health.  He has taught in different universities in Europe and supervised 22 PhD. He currently participates in three European projects and a European Union COST Network. He has published more than 180 peer-reviewed scientific articles with a cumulative impact of over 200 Journal Citation Reports and participated in raising more than €1 million in research funding.

Our People

BID TEAM

PROGRAM 1

Marine Bio-products for Human Health and Nutrition

LEADER

Professor Colin Barrow

Deakin University

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DEPUTY

Dr Michael Conlon

CSIRO

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INDUSTRY CO-LEADER

Dr Damien Stringer

Marinova

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Damien is an avid supporter of value-added industry and has built a career working with innovative enterprises. Damien graduated with a BSc with 1st Class Honours at the University of Tasmania and worked with Botanical Resources Australia before completing a PhD in Chemistry at UTas, before joining Marinova Pty Ltd in 2008. As Marinova’s Operations Manager, Damien couples his technical expertise with his consultative approach to lead the laboratory, processing and research teams. Damien is a former President of the Tasmanian Branch of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute and is a graduate of the Tasmanian Leaders Program.

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PROGRAM 2

Marine-Derived Agricultural Products

LEADER

Professor Ben Hankamer

University of Queensland

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DEPUTY

Professor Rob Capon

University of Queensland

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INDUSTRY CO-LEADER

Rob Velthius

Xeron

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PROGRAM 3

Sustainable marine bioresources

LEADER

Professor Catriona MacLeod

University of Tasmania

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Associate Professor Catriona Macleod has a PhD in Aquaculture (UTAS, 2006). Her research focus is on sustainable development and science-based management and decision-making, with specific expertise in environmental, economic and social sustainability.

She is a member of both the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies and College of Sciences and Engineering leadership teams within UTAS and is responsible for issues related to the sustainable development of salmonid aquaculture in Tasmania as part of a joint venture agreement with the Tasmanian State Government.

She has a demonstrated ability to connect research with industry, government and community priorities and a track record of delivering outputs on time, within budget and on target.

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DEPUTY

Professor Peer Schenk

University of Queensland

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Professor Peer Schenk completed his PhD in Microbiology at the University of Göttingen and the Max Planck Institute in Cologne, Germany in 1994. He has since worked for Queensland DPI, CSIRO Plant Industry and three CRCs as Project and Program Leader (CRCs for Tropical Plant Pathology, Tropical Plant Protection and Sugar Industry Innovation through Biotechnology). He currently holds a CRC-P grant valued at $2.1 million on Translational R&D to develop large-scale omega-3 fatty acid production from microalgae.

Professor Schenk is a full-time Teaching & Research academic in the School of Agriculture and Food Sciences (SAFS) at The University of Queensland (UQ) and a Research Affiliate at the Centre for Marine Science and the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation. He leads the Algae Biotechnology Lab at UQ and is internationally recognised for his expertise in Plant Biotech and experience with transition from fundamentally new research concepts to industry. He was appointed as APEC representative for biorefinery concepts for Australia.

Schenk’s research pursues sustainable solutions to Food Security by applying cutting-edge biotechnology concepts to plants and microalgae.

He has commercialised technology from 7 patents leading to start-up companies Qponics, Nexgen Plants, Blue Quest and commercial IP in several companies, three of which are industry participants in MBB-CRC. His Australian crop varieties are commercially grown with annual sales >$10 million.  

 

In the last 10 years Prof Schenk has focused on health products from Australian microalgae and pioneered commercial omega-3-rich oil production. In 2013, he established the Algae Energy Farm, a large-scale demonstration farm used regularly by industry as a testbed. It deploys new technologies to produce food, feed and fuel from microalgae. His new concepts for scalable low-cost cultivation, harvesting and processing have been successfully adopted by industry. He has provided training, guidance and technical assistance to the construction of a commercial Chlorella farm in Oman that started operation in March 2017 and is undergoing further upscaling. Similarly, he helped construct a commercial microalgae farm for Mohawk in Miles, (MBB-CRC participant in regional QLD) that commercially produces omega-3-rich Nannochloropsis for aquaculture and human health industries in Australia and Asia. 

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DEPUTY

Steven Clarke

SARDI/PIRSA

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Graeme barnett

INDUSTRY CO-LEADER

Dr Graeme Barnett

Qponics

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Connect educate train

(CET)

CET LEADER

Professor Kirsten Heimann

Flinders University

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AProf. Heimann obtained a PhD in botany/cell biology (University of Cologne, Germany, 1991).  

Since 2008, she held lead roles in education and training (e.g. Associate Dean Teaching and Learning, 2014; AMCRC Science and Education Committee, 2012-2014) and is presently the Research Director of the Australia-China Joint Laboratory for Native Bioresource Industry Innovation (CANBI2). 

Kirsten built and led the AMCRC and industry-partnered Microalgae Carbon Capture and Methane Remediation programs  and served on the industry steering committee to implement research outcomes at industry level.

Kirsten has over 10 years of experience in managing IP and commercialising research outcomes.

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