Speakers

Jason Potter, PhD
Head of Synthetic Biology Enzymology, Thermo Fisher Scientific, USA

After graduating from Cornell, Jason has over 20 years’ experience in biotech R&D. He has led development and evolution of enzymes including SuperScript III and other reverse transcriptase and polymerases at Invitrogen. He has led groups focusing on synthetic genes and error correction.  He now leads the Synthetic Biology Enzymology R&D team in the Life Sciences Solutions Division of Thermo Fisher Scientific in Carlsbad, CA. His team is focused on developing and improving tools for genome editing using the TAL and CRISPR technologies.

James Kehler, VMD, PhD
Director of Scientific Alliances, MTI-GlobalStem, Gaithersburg, USA

James is a comparative stem cell biologist who thrives on developing productive collaborations to translate scientific discoveries into transformative products. He trained at the University of Pennsylvania, where he received his VMD in 2002, and PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology in 2004. James has worked as a visiting researcher at the National Institutes of Health for over 10 years, where he and his collaborators have developed animal and stem cell-based models of human diseases. James has worked for stem cell companies from product development and management to directing custom reprogramming and gene-editing services. James joined MTI-GlobalStem now part of Thermo Fisher Scientific, as Director of Scientific Alliances to foster collaborative research projects with academic, biotech and pharmaceutical partners.

Bronwen Connor, PhD
Associate Professor of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences University of Auckland

Bronwen is a graduate of the University of Auckland, graduating with a BSc in Pharmacology and Physiology in 1994 and a PhD in Neuropharmacology in 1997. She then spent three years as a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Northwestern University in Chicago, USA studying the potential use of gene therapy for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. She has worked on a number of strategies for the treatment of neurological disorders including gene therapy for Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s disease, the development of stem cell replacement therapy for Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease and stroke, and the identification of novel agents for the treatment of depression. She also has an interest in the re-direct use of current pharmacological agents, such as anti-depressant or anti-psychotic agents for the potential treatment of other neurological disorders and is currently involved in a clinical trial for the use of clozapine for the treatment of multiple sclerosis.

Her current research focuses on the direct reprogramming of human somatic cells to neural precursor cells using non-viral gene delivery approaches. She developed a reprogramming protocol using transient overexpression of the neural developmental genes SOX2 and PAX6 to generate induced neural precursor cells, and subsequently mature GABAergic, glutamateric or dopaminergic neurons from adult human skin. Her research group is using this technology to model neurological diseases as well as autism spectrum disorder using skin cells from affected patients. The objective of this program is to enhance knowledge regarding the pathogenesis of these diseases and to identify new therapeutic targets. Future objectives include the use of these disease models for high throughput drug screening.

Aneta Przepiorski, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow, Dept. of Molecular Medicine and Pathology, University of Auckland

Aneta received her PhD from The University of Auckland in 2016 where her research was focused on developing a novel technique to differentiate iPSC’s into kidney organoids. This model was used to study the pathogenesis of cystinosis, a lysosomal storage disease that causes renal failure. In addition, Aneta has played a central role in setting up the iPSC Core Facility at the University of Auckland where she was involved in the reprogramming of the first NZ iPSC lines. She remains associated with the iPSC Facility where she trains others in iPSC techniques and continues to develop the kidney organoid assay.

Arjun Challagulla, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, CSIRO Australian Animal Health Laboratory

Dr. Arjun Challagulla is a post-doctoral fellow in genome engineering at CSIRO’S Australian Animal Health Laboratory in Geelong, Australia. He has been active in the area of gene editing in livestock since the rapid emergence of gene editing tools in 2012. He developed a novel approach for RNAi delivery by minimal transgene insertion into chicken genome using gene editing. He is currently working to improve the immunity of chickens through delivering virus specific CRISPR transgenes to confer resilience against economically important pathogens of poultry.

Duncan Crombie, PhD
Research Fellow, Neuroregeneration Research Unit, University of Melbourne

Dr Duncan Crombie recently completed his PhD in 2016 with support from a prestigious NHMRC-CSL Gustav Nossal Scholarship. Although early in his post-doctoral career, he has spent the last 15 years conducting in vitro disease modelling for a number of conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, Friedreich ataxia, glaucoma and Alzheimer’s disease. Duncan has undertaken his research in both academic and industry environments at Monash University, biotechnology company Stem Cell Sciences, and currently has a joint appointment as research fellow with the University of Melbourne and the Centre for Eye Research Australia.

Christian Nefzger, PhD
Research Fellow, Reprogramming & Epigenetics Laboratory, Monash University

Dr Christian M. Nefzger acquired a Master equivalent in Biology from the Technical University Munich (Germany) and a PhD at the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences investigating neuronal subtype specification. He is currently a research fellow in the group of Associate Prof. Jose Polo at the Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology/ the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute (Monash University, Melbourne) with publications in Nature Methods, Nature Genetics, Nature Communications, Cell, Cell Stem Cell & Cell Reports. His current research interests involve understanding the molecular events that underpin the nuclear reprogramming process into distinct states of human pluripotency. Furthermore, Dr Nefzger has a keen interest in characterizing the transcriptional, epigenetic and functional changes that occur during somatic stem cell ageing.

Yagiz Alp Aksoy,
PhD Candidate, Synthetic Biology and Neuroscience, Macquarie University, Sydney

Yagiz is pursing his PhD in Neuroscience in conjunction with continuing research and development into novel genome engineering technologies to achieve his goal of developing novel therapeutic approaches for disease treatment. Since 2010, he has worked to establish and develop the field of synthetic biology in Australia. He formed the first ever Australian iGEM team and, since then has mentioned many iGEM teams, who won numerous prizes in iGEM competitions at MIT, USA. At present, he is the student representative of Synthetic Biology Australasia.

Inken G Martin, MD PhD
Senior Postdoctoral Fellow, Molecular Cardiology Division,
Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute

Inken G Martin (published Huttner) graduated in Medicine from the University of Freiburg, Germany, and performed doctoral studies at UC Berkeley, USA. Following clinical training at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, and first exposure to zebrafish cardiac research in the laboratory of Prof. Wolfgang Rottbauer, she relocated to Sydney. Following further clinical training at Prince of Wales Hospital, Dr. Martin joined Prof. Diane Fatkin’s group at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, where she established a zebrafish research program to study adult human heart disease that is currently the only one of its kind in Australia. Her research employs genetically engineered zebrafish models to study the consequences of human gene variants on cardiac function and the development of cardiomyopathies and arrhythmias, as well as the roles of genetic, environmental and pharmacological modifiers of disease. She employs a suite of cardiac function analysis tools, including video-microscopy, electrocardiography, high-frequency cardiac ultrasound and micro-computed tomography.

George Yeoh, PhD
Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research

Professor Yeoh completed his undergraduate science degree with honours and a PhD at the University of Western Australia. After completing his PhD he was awarded the prestigious CJ Martin Fellowship from the NHMRC, which allowed him to study at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research in Glasgow before returning to UWA. Following his return to Australia he was awarded an NHMRC Fellowship and achieved successive renewals to the level of Principal Research Fellow. He was the Associate Dean, Research in the UWA Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, and is currently a Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology. He has mentored over 100 students, actively contributed to numerous scientific associations as well as extensively promoting and advancing Medical Research across Australia.
Professor Yeoh has worked tirelessly in the field of liver disease and carcinogenesis. His work with liver stem cells has contributed vital insights into the viability of using transplanted cells for liver regeneration and has significantly informed our understanding of how liver cancer develops.

Jimmy Leong, PhD
Technical Specialist, Thermo Fisher Scientific

Jimmy completed his undergraduate degree, masters and PhD from the University of Otago, New Zealand. He is a microbiologist and immunologist with experience in a wide area of research, covering viral immunology, infectious diseases and cancer research.  He has previously held positions as a post-doctoral scientist in the Department of Anatomy and Physiology at Monash University, and also at the Virus Research Unit in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology Department at Otago University. He has worked with Thermo Fisher Scientific for over 3 years where he specialises in Stem cells, cell culture and transfection, cell biology and drug discovery.

Michael O’ Connor, PhD
Director, Medical Sciences Research Group
Head of Regenerative Medicine Laboratory, Western Sydney University

Dr O’Connor uses human pluripotent cells to model eye diseases including cataract. He received his PhD from the University of Sydney in 2005, for regenerating and characterising functional rat lenses in vitro. During postdoctoral studies in Vancouver, Canada, he identified genes related to pluripotency. During his tenure as President of the Australasian Society for Stem Cell Research he led a variety of public- and policy-related projects aimed at advancing the development of a responsible and effective stem cell industry in Australia.