I became fascinated by genetics during my undergraduate studies at the Department of Genetics, University of Melbourne. During my PhD, I was affiliated with the same department, and was based at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute. There I studied the genetics of cell cycle checkpoints using the fission yeast (Schizosaccharomyces pombe) as a model system, in the lab of Assoc. Prof. Matthew O’Connell. My PhD research gave me a strong appreciation for how the use of model organisms allows us to study fundamental questions of biology. The powerful experimental techniques available for model organisms means we can ask biological questions that then relate to the understanding of disease processes in humans, for example how human cancer develops and progresses.
In order to continue studying complex biological questions using genetic model organisms, I moved to the University of California, San Francisco in 2000 to work on vertebrate development in the laboratory of Prof. Didier Stainier. The model system I used was the zebrafish, Danio rerio, a small striped fish ideally suited for both embryology and genetics.
While at UCSF I co-ran a genetic screen in which we mutagenised zebrafish, crossed the mutant lines through several generations and screened the embryos for mutants showing defective gut development. We identified many mutants, which are now being studied in many different laboratories around the world.
In 2004, I returned to Melbourne to work at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research with Assoc. Prof. Joan Heath, studying the movements of the endodermal (gut-forming) cells during intestinal morphogenesis. In 2007 I started at the School of Biological Sciences at Monash University, using my previous studies as the backbone for current research in my laboratory. |
