Assoc. Prof. Adam Walker
Principal investigator
Ross Maclean Fellow for MND research
Bill Guest FIGHTMND Mid-Career Research fellow
Adam has focused on uncovering the mechanisms of MND and FTD for over 15 years. He obtained his BSc(Hons) in biochemistry from the University of Tasmania, PhD in neuroscience from the University of Melbourne, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research at the University of Pennsylvania and at Macquarie University, Sydney before founding the lab at QBI.
Dr Rebecca San gil
Postdoctoral Fellow
Bec completed her PhD at the Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute, University of Wollongong, focused on understanding the role of heat shock proteins and glial cells in neurodegenerative disease. She joined the lab in 2018 and is now developing new approaches to understand the role of TDP-43 in disease pathogenesis, and was awarded the FightMND Early Career Research Fellowship in 2020.
Juliana Venturato
Laboratory manager
Juliana has used her wealth of experience in cell culture, biochemistry and molecular biology to study the molecular mechanisms of ALS and FTD, and to keep the lab running smoothly since 2018.
Britt berning
phd candidate
Britt studies the role of subcellular organelle dysfunction in MND/FTD, using neuronal cell cultures and mouse models of disease. She is the recipient of an MNDRA PhD scholarship to support her research in our lab.
thomas hedl
PHD candidate
Tom uses proteomics techniques to analyse the protein composition of neuronal pathology in MND and FTD. He completed his Master of Research in the lab in 2017, and is now undertaking his PhD studies at QBI.
DR Heledd Brown-Wright
postdoctoral Fellow
Heledd completed her PhD at Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience, University of Sheffield, UK, investigating a potential therapeutic target in the SOD1G93A mouse model of MND. She joined the lab in 2019 to work with the hTDP-43ΔNLS mouse model with a view to validating novel therapeutic targets for ALS/FTD.
Sean Keating
PhD candidate
Sean uses CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology to create new disease models, and is investigating protein clearance pathways that contribute to degradation of pathological TDP-43. He received First Class Honours in the lab in 2019, before starting PhD studies, supported now by Thornton Foundation and MND Research Australia scholarships.
Dr Wei (leon) luan
postdoctoral fellow
Leon completed a joint PhD between the CSIRO and Chinese Academy of Sciences, and has undertaken research on the mechanisms of several brain diseases. He joined the lab in 2020 and is now studying the role of cellular stress responses in disease.
Dr ADEKunle Bademosi
Race against dementia-dementia australia research foundation postdoctoral fellow
Kunle uses single-molecule imaging to study the normal and pathological role of TDP-43 in cells. He completed his PhD at QBI investigating how general anaesthestics attenuate neuronal communication, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Flanders Institute of Biotechnology (VIB), Belgium, investigating synaptic autophagy in Parkinson’s disease.
Matisse jacobs
PhD CANDIDATE
Matisse uses CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology and high throughput microscopy to identify regulators of TDP-43 pathology and toxicity.
Lidia Madrid
research assistant
Lidia is conducting studies to test potential therapeutics and characterise new mouse models of ALS/FTD.
Elise Kellett
PHD CANDIDATE
Elise is conducting studies to understand how pathology develops in neurons in ALS/FTD, supported by an MND Research Australia PhD scholarship.
Yi Jia (Celine) Chye
Honours Student
Celine joined the lab as an undergraduate summer student in 2022, and returned to undertake Honours research focused on human neuron and Drosophila models of TDP-43 pathology.
Hao (Donny) Wu
Research Assistant
Donny applies a variety of bioinformatics pipelines to large datasets to reveal biological pathways involved in ALS and FTD.
Join us!
Be in touch if you are interested to be involved in our research.
Lab Alumni
Sarah risby-Jones
Honours Student (2023)
Sarah joined the lab as an undergraduate summer student in 2021, and returned to undertake Honours research with a project to identify genes that modulate protein aggregation in cell and neurons models of ALS.
yvonne Un
Honours Student (2023)
Yvonne joined the lab as an undergraduate summer student in 2022 and continued on with Honours, using biochemical and microscopy techniques to study proteins that could target and clear TDP-43 pathology in disease.
Dr Purba Nag
senior research assistant (2022-23)
Purba worked on projects aimed at understanding genes and proteins that control protein aggregation in neurodegeneration, using cell and human iPSC-derived neuron models of disease.
yi KIt chui
Honours student (2022)
Kit was an undergraduate winter intership student, and returned for Honours, employing adeno-associated virus approaches to study proteins that ameliorate TDP-43 pathology in mouse models of ALS.
SHILPA SWAMINATHAN
MASTERs StudENT, research assistant (2020-21)
Shilpa completed a summer internship and Masters coursework with the lab, followed by her Masters of Molecular Biology research in 2021, using cell culture systems to understand TDP-43 aggregation.
dR aMANDA wRIGHT
pOSTDOCTORAL fELLOW (2016-18)
Amanda obtained her PhD from the Garvan Institute, UNSW, focused on molecular studies of Alzheimer's Disease. Amanda continues to collaborate with us on projects focused on developing MND treatments.
dR pRACHI mEHTA
pOSTDOCTORAL fELLOW (2016-18)
Prachi obtained her PhD from the Kolling Institute, University of Sydney, with a focus on Parkinson's Disease genetics. In our lab, Prachi developed approaches for proteomics analysis of mouse tissues and identified potential biomarkers of disease.
Winonah RiddeLL
Summer Student, Research Assistant (2017-18)
Winonah joined the lab as a summer scholar, learning a variety of skills in biochemistry and histology, and continued with us to support our mouse model studies.
Owen Watson
Rotation student, Research Assistant (2017-18)
Owen joined the lab for a Master of Research rotation, and continued on using his histology skills to assist with projects analysing mouse brain and spinal cord tissues.
Dr Kelly Jacobs
Research Assistant (2017-18)
Kelly assisted us in drug delivery and behavioural studies of mice, as a side-project while completing her PhD studies.
DR Sheng Le
pOSTDOCTORAL fELLOW (2017)
Sheng holds an MBBS and completed his PhD at Macquarie University focusing on neurocircuitry before joining our lab. He spearheaded pre-clinical MND/FTD mouse studies, and has now made a successful move to advance his career in industry.
HOSSAI GUL
MASTERS STUDENT (2017)
Hossai completed a Masters of Research project focused on uncovering disease mechanisms in genetically modified MND mice. She continued on to undertake a PhD at the Australian Institute of Health Innovation.