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NSW Systems Biology Initiative Staff

Director

Prof Marc Wilkins Professor Marc Wilkins is the Director of the Initiative. Professor Wilkins holds the chair of Systems Biology in the School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences. His research interests involve the proteomics of protein-protein interactions and systems biology. Specifically, Professor Wilkins' research focuses on the dynamics of protein-protein interaction networks, and the role that gene expression and protein post-translational modifications play in the control of protein interactions and thus delivery of cellular function in yeast and human cells.
For more information about Professor Wilkins' research, please click here.

Deputy Director

Prof Ian Dawes Professor Ian Dawes is a Scientia Professor and holds the chair of Molecular Genetics in the School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences. In 2007, he was elected to the membership of the Australian Academy of Science. Professor Dawes’ research interests revolve around regulation of gene expression, functional genomics and systems biology. His research group studies how the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae regulates gene expression under a range of important conditions including oxidative stress, cell differentiation, one-carbon metabolism and pre-mRNA splicing.
For more information about Professor Dawes' research, please click here.

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Dr Nandan Deshpande Dr Nandan Deshpande is a postdoctoral fellow working at the SBI. He graduated with an MS in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Texas (Southwestern Medical Center) in Dallas, USA. As a bioinformatics scientist at the Institute of Bioinformatics (Bangalore, India), he was involved in many projects based on genomic data integration, visualization and analysis. His PhD, titled "'SYSTEM'atic integration of glycosylation related processes: A bioinformatic initiative", was based on the analysis of glycosylation related pathways. His current interests at SBI include the assembly and annotation of genomes sequenced using next generation sequencers.

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Dr David Fung Dr David Fung is a molecular biologist turned bioinformatician. After graduating with a MSc at the University of New South Wales, he spent 10 years in human genetics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and University of Sydney. In 2000, after studying software engineering at the University of Technology Sydney, his interests shifted to bioinformatics. He commenced his PhD, entitled "Visualisation and Analysis of Biomolecular Networks", at the University of Sydney in 2005. David's research is currently focused on the network modeling of hepatocellular carcinoma as well as human protein-disease networks.
For more information about Dr Fung's research, please click here.

Bioinformatics Research Scientist

Natalie Twine Natalie Twine studied Molecular Biology at undergraduate level in Cape Town and went on to work in complex disease genetics at University College London for a few years before studying for a MRes (Bioinformatics) at Birkbeck College. From 2005 to 2008, she worked as a Bioinformatician in a Leukaemia Sciences group at Kings College London. Here she worked in functional genomics and integration of data from multiple microarray platforms to better understand the myelodysplastic syndromes.

Bioinformatics Research Scientist

Simone Li graduated with a BE (Bioinformatics) Hons I degree in 2008. In her thesis, titled "Visualisation of the yeast complexome," she developed novel methods to integrate and visualise complexome data to explore the role of modularity in the dynamics of the yeast complexome. She is currently involved in a number of interdisciplinary collaborative projects, primarily focusing on bioinformatic data integration and analysis. Simone also holds a BArts (Japanese Studies) degree and Diploma in Innovation Management.

Affiliated Staff

Dr Ruby Lin Dr Ruby Lin is an UNSW Vice-Chancellor Research Fellow based at the Ramaciotti Centre. She was an NHMRC Peter Doherty Fellow at UNSW between 2005-2008. Her research involves using functional genomics approaches to investigate molecular mechanisms of metabolism and its related disorders in human and rodent models, in particular transcriptomics and molecular genetics. As part of her work on functional genomics and cardiovascular diseases, she has forged successful collaborations and obtained competitive funding for projects (NHMRC) as well as equipment for infrastructure (ARC LIEF; Cancer Institute Infrastructure Equipment Grant). Her interest and focus in functional genomics resulted in the development of the first diagnostic approach for sepsis by use of gene expression profiling in a clinical setting. This was a major breakthrough in the field of critical care medicine in terms of development of diagnostic strategy.
For more information about Dr Lin's research, please click here.
Dr Rohan Williams Dr Rohan Williams studied Physics as an undergraduate and then worked in applied physiology for 8 years, gaining a PhD in Medicine from UNSW in 2003. Since 2002, he has worked in transcriptomics, functional genomics and mammalian genetics. Between 2004-2007, he was an NHMRC Peter Doherty Fellow at UNSW working with Professor Peter Little on the emerging field on expression genetics. He was appointed Group Leader at the John Curtin School of Medical Research (ANU) in 2007. His group is focused on systems level approaches to understanding inter-individual variation in gene expression and regulation.
For more information about Dr Williams' research, please click here.
Dr Sarah Kummerfeld is a CJ Martin Postdoctoral Fellow currently based in Stuart Kim's lab at Stanford University. Her research involves studying the molecular basis of ageing using computational approaches to derive and compare gene expression signatures.
For more information about Dr Kummerfeld's research, please click here.