Lab team

My team collaborates extensively with researchers from the Institute, Catalyst Therapeutics and external institutions. All projects are multidisciplinary and cross-divisional.

Isabelle Lucet, Head Chemical Biology Division, BMedSc (Hons) France, PhD France. Structural Biologist, expert in kinase drug discovery, cell signalling

(ORCID: 0000-0002-8563-8753) 

Key publication: Patel O, Griffin MDW, Panjikar S, Dai W, Ma X, Chan H, Zheng C, Kropp A, Murphy JM, Daly RJ, Lucet IS. Structure of SgK223 pseudokinase reveals novel mechanisms of homotypic and heterotypic association. Nature Communications, 2017 Oct 27;8(1):1157. doi: 10.1038/s41467-017-01279-9. PMID: 29079850

Onisha Patel, Senior Postdoctoral Fellow, BSc (Biochemistry), PhD (Biochemistry)

Structural biology/Drug discovery, understudied kinases and pseudokinases

 (ORCID: 0000-0001-6701-7139)

Key publication: Patel O, Roy MJ, Kropp A, Hardy JM, Dai W, Lucet IS. Structural basis for small molecule targeting of Doublecortin like kinase 1 with DCLK1-IN-1.  Commun Biol 2021 4(1):1105. DOI: 10.1038/s42003-021-02631-y  PMID: 34545159

Michael Roy, Senior Postdoctoral Fellow (ORCID: 0000-0003-0198-9108), BSc(Hons)/LLB, DML(German) Melbourne PhD Melbourne

Development of small molecule Targeted Protein Degraders (academic/industry collaboration with Prof John Silke); illuminating the non-catalytic roles of PEAK family pseudokinases.

Key Publication: Roy MJ, Winkler S, Hughes SJ, Whitworth C, Galant M, Farnaby W, Rumpel K and Ciulli A. SPR-measured dissociation kinetics of PROTAC ternary complexes influence target degradation rate. ACS Chem Biol. 2019 Mar 15;14(3):361-368. PMID: 30721025.

Nicole Trainor, Senior Postdoctoral Fellow, PhD in Chemistry, Imperial College London (2017) MSci In Chemistry with Medicinal Chemistry, Imperial College London (2013)

Key publication: Farnaby W, Koegl M, Roy MJ, Whitworth C, Diers E, Trainor N, Zollman D, Steurer S, Karolyi-Oezguer J, Riedmueller C, Gmaschitz T, Wachter J, Dank C, Galant M, Sharps B, Rumpel K, Traxler E, Gerstberger T, Schnitzer R, Petermann O, Greb P, Weinstabl H, Bader G, Zoephel A, Weiss-Puxbaum A, Ehrenhöfer-Wölfer K, Wöhrle S, Boehmelt G, Rinnenthal J, Arnhof H, Wiechens N, Wu MY, Owen-Hughes T, Ettmayer P, Pearson M, McConnell DB, Ciulli A. (2019) BAF complex vulnerabilities in cancer demonstrated via structure-based PROTAC design. Nat Chem Biol, (15) 7, 2 July 2019, 672-680doi: 10.1038/s41589-019-0294-6. PMID: 34675414

Josh Hardy, EL1 Investigator Fellow (NH&MRC), BMedSc (Hons) Monash University,  PhD Monash University, speciality: cryo-EM (ORCID: 0000-0002-8014-8552)

Key Publication: Hardy JM, Newton ND, Modhiran N, Scott CAP, Venugopal H, Vet LJ, Young PR, Hall RA, Hobson-Peters J, Coulibaly F, Watterson D. (2021) A unified route for flavivirus structures uncovers essential pocket factors conserved across pathogenic viruses. Nature Communications, 12:3266 doi:10.1038/s41467-021-22773-1. PMID: 34075032

Luke Duncan, Postdoctoral Fellow, B. Med. Chem. (Hons), PhD La Trobe, Medicinal Chemist/WEHI IPD (ORCID: 0000-0001-5702-4992)

Key Publication: Luke F. Duncan, Geqing Wang, Olga V. Ilyichova, Rabeb Dhouib, Makrina Totsika, Martin J. Scanlon, Begoña Heras, Belinda M. Abbott. Elaboration of a benzofuran scaffold and evaluation of binding affinity and inhibition of Escherichia coli DsbA: A fragment-based drug design approach to novel antivirulence compounds. Bioorg. Med. Chem., 2021 Sep 1, 45, 116315. DOI: 10.1016/j.bmc.2021.116315 PMID: 34364222  

Stephanie Nguyen, Research Fellow, BSc (Hons) University of Adelaide, PhD University of Adelaide, Specialty: Protein crystallography (ORCID: 0000-0003-0989-7734)

Lung-Yu Liang, BScTaiwan, MSc University of Melbourne, PhD student

Key Publication: Liang LY, Roy M, Horne CR, Sandow JJ, Surudoi M, Dagley LF, Young SN, Dite T, Babon JJ, Janes PW, Patel O, Murphy JM, Lucet IS. The intracellular domains of the EphB6 and EphA10 receptor tyrosine pseudokinases function as dynamic signalling hubs. Biochem J. 2021 Sep 17;478(17):3351-3371. doi: 10.1042/BCJ20210572. PMID: 34431498

Hai-Tian Chen, BSc University of Melbourne, MSc University of Melbourne, PhD student (CCeMMP)

Weiwen Dai, Research Assistant

Anna Surudoi, Research Assistant, MSc University of Melbourne

Thien-Kim Le, Research Assistant (Lucet/Babon Labs)