Invited Speakers

International Speakers

Doctor Erin Baker

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, USA

Dr Erin Baker is a bioanalytical chemist with more than 16 years’ experience and >70 publications utilising ion mobility spectrometry in conjunction with mass spectrometry (IMS-MS) to study environmental and biological systems. In the last 10 years, she has worked primarily on IMS-MS applications in the field of proteomics and more recently she optimised IMS-MS metabolomic, glycomic and lipidomic separations. Her research involves the development and evaluation of high-throughput IMS-MS, SPE-IMS-MS and LC-IMS-MS analyses to quickly study numerous samples in a short time period without losing valuable biological information, as well as assessing the number and quality of features detected with IMS-MS for comparison with existing MS platforms. Dr Baker is also presently working with the PNNL Informatics team to design and implement software tools that automatically analyse the complex multidimensional SPE-IMS-MS and LC-IMS-MS data.

Professor Garry Corthals

University of Amsterdam, Netherlands

Although born in Sydney Garry Corthals studied in Delft, the Netherlands, and then returned to do a PhD at Macquarie University with Drs Keith Williams & Andrew Gooley. He recently became the new chair and professor of Biomolecular Systems Analytics at the University of Amsterdam (UvA). His new group at the UvA focuses on the use and development of mass spectrometry for molecular analysis of clinical and biomedical samples, where their objective mainly is towards the development of synoptic MS assays for quantitation, phosphorylation and protein pathway activity analysis. Additionally, research has lead to the development of range of computational and statistical methods to assist in the validation and annotation proteome-scale measurements of human tissues, body fluids and cells. Most recently Garry has also established two new areas of activity in 1) 'Science for Art' with the Netherlands Institute for Conservation, Art and Science (NICAS) and Forensics with the Dutch Masters program in Forensics at the UvA. Previous positions have been at the University of Turku and Centre for Biotechnology (Turku, Finland), Geneva University Hospital (Geneva, Switzerland), the Garvan Institute for Medical Research (Sydney, Australia) and the School of Medicine at the University of Washington (Seattle, USA). In the past he has served as chair of the national Proteomics and Metabolomics technology platform (Finland), and several European networks including Nordic Quantitative Proteomics network of research schools, Nordic Protein Signalling and the Nordic MS Imaging. Currently he is co-chair of the pan European Imaging MS network. He was a founder of the European Proteomics Association (EuPA) and has led several committees through the years. Currently, he is chair of the HUPO Education & Training committee.

Professor Bernhard Küster

Technical University of Munich, Germany

Bernhard Küster is a chemist by training and obtained is PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford. He went on to do a PostDoc funded by an EMBO long-term fellowship at the EMBL in Heidelberg and the University of Southern Denmark in Odense. After seven years as VP Analytical Sciences and Informatics at the biotech firm Cellzome, he became full Professor of Proteomics at the Technical University of Munich in 2007 where he is also the Chair of the Department for Biosciences and Co-Director of the Bavarian Biomolecular Mass Spectrometry Center.

Bernhard’s research focuses on mass spectrometry-based proteomics and its application to chemical and systems biology. He is particularly interested in how drugs interact with proteins, signaling pathways and cellular systems Bernhard has published numerous papers on proteomic and bioinformatic tools for systematic protein-drug interaction profiling, notably kinase inhibitors. His team continues to develop proteomic technologies and has recently provided a draft map of the human proteome that serves as a starting point for the exploration of the human proteome and its application to drug discovery and personalised medicine.

Professor HoJeong Kwon

Yonsei University, South Korea

Prof Dr Ho Jeong KWON received his BSc from Seoul National University, Korea (80-84) and has completed his MS and PhD from University of Tokyo, Japan (90-95) and postdoctoral study at the Professor Stuart Schreiber lab of Harvard University, USA (95-98). He is a full professor, Dept. of Biotechnology, and an adjunct professor, Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, Yonsei University, Korea and director of chemical genomics Global Research Laboratory. He served as a council member of HUPO (05-08, 15-present), the president of KHUPO (10-11) and has been serving a council member, secretary general and vice president of AOHUPO (10-present). He has been serving as a Scientific Advisory Committee member of Institut Pasteur Korea (IPK: 12-present). He has published over 170 papers in reputed journals and been serving as editor-in-chief of Proteome Science and editor of repute journals; J. Proteomics, Int. J. Proteomics, J. of Proteomics & Bioinformatics, J. Antibiotics, Oncology Research, J. Chemical Biology, and J. Integrative Omics. He has also filed over 50 patents and received many awards including Sura Academy Award and Outstanding Research Professor Awards of Yonsei University. His major research interests focus on discovery of natural or synthetic small molecules with phenotypic activities, target identification and validation of bioactive small molecules, integration of omics technologies toward innovation in drug discovery and translational research. Based on this integrated approach with chemistry, biology, and omics technologies, his goal aims to deeply understand the biological systems and to apply these insights towards novel drug discovery and development.

Professor Dame Carol Robinson

University of Oxford, UK

Carol Robinson holds the Chair of Dr Lee’s Professor of Chemistry at the University of Oxford. She is recognised for using mass spectrometry to further her research into the 3D structure of proteins. Her most recent work is concerned with examining how small molecules, specifically lipids, impact on the structure and function of membrane assemblies.

Carol’s graduate education was completed while working full-time in a post in industry. She was subsequently admitted to the University of Cambridge where she completed her PhD in two years. Following an eight-year career break to begin raising her three children, she returned to research at Oxford. In 2001 she accepted the post of Professor of Mass Spectrometry at the University of Cambridge, returning to Oxford in 2009 to take up the Chair of Dr Lee’s Professor of Chemistry.

Her research has attracted international awards and prizes including the Anfinsen Award from the Protein Society, the Biemann Medal from the American Society of Mass Spectrometry, the Davy Medal and the Rosalind Franklin Award from the Royal Society, the HUPO Award for Distinguished Achievement in Proteomic Science, and the Anatrace Award for Membrane Proteins from the American Biophysical Society. Carol also holds three honorary doctorates and received a DBE in 2013 for her contribution to science.

Professor Hartmut Schlüter

University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany

Dr Schlüter is a Professor at University Medical Center Hamburg Eppendorf, University Cancer Center in Hamburg. From 1991 to 1996 he had a Post-Doctoral fellowship, Nephrology in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Münster and was a Group leader, Nephrology in Medical Faculty of the Ruhr-University of Bochum until 2000. From then until 2008 Dr Schlüter was Head, Bioanalytical Laboratory, Nephrology at the Campus Benjamin-Franklin, Charite – University Medicine Berlin. In August 2008 he became Head, Core Facility Mass Spectrometric Proteomics, Institute of Clinical Chemistry, UKE. This was followed by Project leader of the UKE part of the ERC-advanced grant project SUREPIRL of Prof. Dwayne Miller (Max-Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, Hamburg). Dr Schlüter has also published a large number of peer-reviewed papers.

Professor Albert Sickmann

Leibniz Institute for Analytical Sciences, Germany

Albert Sickmann is a Professor at the Leibniz Institute for Analytical Sciences in Dortmund. From 2002 to 2003 he was a Junior Professor for protein function and Proteomics at Ruhr-University Bochum. In 2007 Albert became Professor for protein mass spectrometry at the University of Würzburg before returning to Ruhr-University Bochum as Professor for applied proteomics and bioanalytics and Director of the bioanalytics department at the Leibniz Institute for Analytical Sciences. Among other things, Prof Sickmann is concerned with the protein network of yeast mitochondria and signal transduction in human platelets. Within his focus in the field of proteomics and systems biology, he aims to improve analytical techniques towards highly sensitive and medically useful protocols, particularly using mass spectrometry. Albert Sickmann has also published a large number of peer-reviewed papers.

Professor Jennifer Van Eyk

Cedars-Sinai, USA

Dr Van Eyk is a Professor of Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Director of the Basic Science Research in the Barbra Streisand Woman’s Hearth Center and Director of the new Advance Clinical Biosystems Institute where she recently moved from Johns Hopkins University. Most recently she has become the co-director of the Cedars Sinai Precision Health, focused on in-hospital and population individualisation of health care. Dr Van Eyk is an international leader in the area of clinical proteomics and her lab has focused the developing technical pipelines for de novo discovery and larger scale quantitative mass spectrometry methods. This includes multiple reaction monitoring (MRM, also known as SRM) and most recently data independent acquistion. Her laboratory is well know for the extreme technical quality of the data generated, rigorous quality control with tight %CV while applying these two key clinical questions. The aim is to maximise throughput and reproducibility in order to move targeted and robust discovery methods into large population healthy continuous assessment and clinical grade assays focusing on brain and cardiovascular diseases.

Mr Babar Vaqas

Imperial College London, UK

Babar is a senior fellow in neurosurgery at the Imperial College Healthcare NHS trust, London, UK, and a chief investigator of the first in human use of iKnife in Neurosurgery. After obtaining his medical degree from Oxford University, Babar completed his Basic Surgical Training scheme in Cambridge and Neurosurgery training in London. Babar has an interest in Neuro-oncology and translating advanced technologies into the operating room to improve accuracy and safety when operating on the human brain. His work in the Takats Lab at Imperial College London has introduced advanced ambient mass spectrometry for the first time into the Neurosurgery operating theatre.

National Speakers

Associate Professor Bronwyn Barkla

Southern Cross University, NSW

Bronwyn J Barkla is an Associate Professor at Southern Cross University in Lismore where she heads the Plant Biochemistry group and co-ordinates the Post-Graduate Training Program. Prior to this appointment, she was a researcher at the Biotechnology Institute of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Bronwyn was Vice President of the Mexican Proteomics Society from 2010 to 2012 and was on the Executive Board of the Society from 2008 to 2010. She received her Masters (1989) and PhD (1994) in the Department of Botany at the University of Toronto and carried out post-doctoral research in the Department of Plant Sciences (1994-1995) at the University of Oxford. Bronwyn is a country representative for the International Plant Proteomics organisation and is on the Editorial Board for the Journal of Agricultural Sciences, and Frontiers in Plant Biology Plant Proteomics section, as well as on the Peer Review Board for Journal of Visualized Experiments. She is a member of the ARC College of Experts. Her research interests include studying the role of membrane proteins in abiotic stress tolerance in crop and model plants and she is currently using ‘omics’ approaches to further understanding in this area.

Doctor W Alexander Donald

University of New South Wales, NSW

Dr W Alexander Donald is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Chemistry at the University of New South Wales. The Donald research team develops and applies mass spectrometry methodologies and instrumentation to problems in bioanalytical and biophysical chemistry. This research has been recognised by the ANZSMS Michael Guilhaus Research Award (2015), the RACI Peter W. Alexander Medal (2016) and the RACI Physical Chemistry Division Lectureship (2016). Alex was selected as an emerging investigator by The Analyst (2016), The Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry (2016) and Analytical Methods (2015).

Professor Melissa Fitzgerald

University of Queensland, QLD

Melissa Fitzgerald holds the Australian Food and Grocery Council Chair in Food Science and Technology at the University of Queensland. Melissa’s research focuses on using metabolomics profiling platforms to understand the quality and nutritional value of foods. She works on volatile compounds, as well as primary and secondary metabolites in plants and food. Melissa undertook her PhD at La Trobe University in the School of Botany in 1994, and then joined NSW Agriculture in 1997, to head the grain chemistry and quality laboratory. In 2004, she was spirited off to the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines to head the Grain Quality, Nutrition and Value-Adding program, where she worked for eight years developing new techniques to measure rice quality and directing research in rice quality. In 2012, Melissa returned to Australia, to take the Chair at UQ, and so her three children could experience living in Australia.   

For more details on Melissa Fitzgerald, please follow this link: www.uq.edu.au/agriculture/melissafitzgerald

Doctor Gene Hart-Smith

University of New South Wales, NSW

Dr Gene Hart-Smith is an ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) holder working within the UNSW School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences. In 2010 he completed a PhD at the UNSW School of Chemistry, in which he utilised mass spectrometry as a primary tool to investigate synthetic polymer formation processes. He has since been applying his expertise in mass spectrometry to the study of biological systems. Dr Hart-Smith’s first hands-on experiences with proteomics came while he was employed at the UNSW Bioanalytical Mass Spectrometry Facility in 2010, where his research focused on the characterisation of glycopeptides. He was awarded the opportunity to further develop his interests in proteomics as an ARC Australian Postdoctoral Fellow from 2011 to 2013; during this period, he conducted systems biology-focused research on post-translational methylation. This work was performed at the NSW Systems Biology Initiative in UNSW (Marc Wilkins Laboratory), where he remains an affiliated member. Gene’s current research is centred around the examination of protein-protein interaction networks. He is particularly interested in the impacts of post-translational methylation on the dynamics of these networks, and is developing and applying mass spectrometric methods towards the investigation of these phenomena in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Associate Professor Michelle Hill

University of Queensland, QLD

Associate Professor Michelle Hill heads the Cancer Proteomics Group at the University of Queensland Diamantina Institute (UQDI), Brisbane, and is the Academic Lead of the Proteomics & Mass Spectrometry Core Facility of the Translational Research Institute (TRI), in which UQDI is housed. She is also an affiliate senior research fellow of the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN, UQ) and affiliate senior lecturer at UQ’s School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences. Dr Hill is an elected member of UQ’s Academic Board, and the international Human Proteome Organisation (HUPO) Council.

Michelle obtained her PhD investigating insulin signalling using phosphoproteomics with Prof David James at the University of Queensland. She undertook two postdoctoral positions in Switzerland and Ireland before returning Brisbane where she worked with Prof Rob Parton and Prof John Hancock on signalling from lipid rafts and caveolae. In 2009 she established the Cancer Proteomics Group at UQDI to address two areas of translational cancer research. The clinical diagnostics team aims to develop new clinical tests for the management of cancer, including early detection, prognosis and personalized therapy selection. The cancer mechanisms team is dissecting the link between metabolism and cancer, with current focus on the role of cholesterol-rich membrane microdomains and the impact of microbiome on cancer development and progression.

Associate Professor Vera Ignjatovic

Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, VIC

Assoc Prof Vera Ignjatovic began her career by establishing the Haematology Research Laboratory at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) in mid-2001. Since then she has developed a highly productive, internationally competitive research laboratory in the field of paediatric haemostasis. Her team that is acknowledged as being at the forefront of this research field internationally, and is the only team focusing on paediatric haemostasis nationally. Following her introduction to the world of Proteomics in 2008, her interest in this methodological approach has risen dramatically and she is committed to promoting the use of proteomics in translational research. A/Prof Ignjatovic is a co-founder of the Paediatric Proteomics (PediOme) initiative through HUPO.

Her recent achievements include:

• 2014: Organiser and co-chair of the inaugural PediOme session at the HUPO meeting in Madrid; Awarded the Human Proteome Project Clinical Scientist Award; Co-edited a special PediOme edition of Proteomics Clinical Applications.
• 2015: Member of the Australasian Proteomics Society Board of Management.
• 2016: Invited speaker at the USHUPO meeting in Boston; Editor of a special paediatric series for Clinical Proteomics; Chair of the Signaling and Post Translational Modifications session, Lorne Proteomics Symposium.

A/Prof Ignjatovic has received funding from NHMRC for a project that utilised proteomics in the setting of Cardiopulmonary bypass. Within her institution she is the “go-to person” for proteomics and is currently the proteomics consultant on a number of projects ranging from autism to mild traumatic brain injury and vascular malformations.

Doctor Daniel Kolarich

Griffith University, QLD

Daniel Kolarich became fascinated with glycobiology and mass spectrometry during his undergraduate studies in Vienna. During his PhD with Professor Friedrich Altmann and his post-doctoral work with Professor Nicolle H. Packer at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia where he worked intensively on glycopeptide oriented glycoproteomics of human glycoproteins and plant/insect glycoprotein allergens. In late 2010 he took up the opportunity to establish his own independent research group at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam, Germany, his research was focusing on glycomics and glycoproteomics techniques to investigate the role glycosylation plays in health and disease. He was awarded an ARC future fellowship in late 2016 and joined the Institute for Glycomics at Griffith University in January 2017 continuing his research in disease and evolutionary glycomics and glycoproteomics.

Doctor Benjamin Schulz

University of Queensland, QLD

Dr Ben Schulz's research focuses on developing mass spectrometry techniques for global analysis of proteins and their modifications, and on using these to investigate the mechanisms, biological roles and applications in biotechnology of glycosylation, the most abundant and complex post-translational modification of proteins. Ben graduated with a degree in Chemical Engineering and Science in 2000 from The University of Queensland, after which he joined Proteome Systems in Sydney. In 2004 Dr Schulz moved to the ETH Zurich in Switzerland for his doctoral studies. Ben then joined the School of Chemistry & Molecular Biosciences at The University of Queensland where he is currently an NHMRC Career Development Fellow and Senior Lecturer.

Trade/Scientific Speakers

Doctor Jose Castro-Perez

Waters Corp, USA

Jose Castro-Perez is the Director of Health Sciences Marketing, Waters Corporation, Milford. USA. Prior to this, Jose spent part of his career as the Team Leader of Biomarkers and Translational Research at Merck, USA. He has published 62 publications and numerous scientific patent applications. He attained his BSc in Chemistry from King's College in London (UK) and subsequently received his MSc in Clinical Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Surrey (UK). He obtained his PhD at the University of Leiden (Netherlands) in Metabolomics and Biomarker discovery. In 2014, Jose was awarded by Thompson Reuters the prestigious Highly Sited Researcher Award.

Assistant Professor Chester Drum

National University Singapore, Singapore

Chester Drum, MD PhD, is an assistant professor at the National University of Singapore, a consultant cardiologist at the National University Hospital and director of the Clinical Trial Innovation Lab at TLGM, A*STAR. He is a Singapore permanent resident and currently maintains both internal medicine and cardiology board certifications in the US and Singapore. Dr Drum received an MD and PhD from the University of Chicago. He was trained in medicine at the University of California, San Diego and as a cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (Harvard Medical School), in Boston. He then moved to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he was director of translational medicine for the regulatory innovation group, MIT-NEWDIGS. While at MIT, he received the Burroughs Wellcome Career Award for Medical Scientists. In Singapore, he has been a recipient of a Clinician Scientist Award from the NMRC.

Dr Drum’s current research centers on clinical trial technique development. Specifically, the lab focuses on new forms of biomarker detection, materials engineering and biological data collection through blood microsampling and metabolic analyses of large patient cohorts. Quantitative mass spectroscopy, located in Dr Drum’s laboratory, is often the analytical modality of choice. Dr. Drum holds several active IRBs, two SMART innovation awards and is currently the primary investigator on a multi-institutional, 3000-person clinical trial in Singapore. He has served as a contributing editor to Science Translational Medicine, holds an active MOU with Agilent Corporation and currently sits on the Board of Directors, Asian Scientist Magazine.

Christie L Hunter PhD

AB SCIEX Australia Pty Ltd, USA

Christie Hunter is the Director of Omics Applications at SCIEX. Christie and her team are focused on developing and testing innovative MS workflows to analyze biomolecules, and work collaboratively with the instrument, chemistry and software research groups. Her primary area of focus is the application of MS based tools for the quantitative analysis of proteins and using MRM and SWATH^® Acquisition strategies.

Professor Arthur Moseley

Duke University, USA

Arthur Moseley is the Director of Proteomics for the School of Medicine at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina. In this position he is responsible for the development and application of proteomic technologies for open (unbiased) qualitative and quantitative UPLC/MS/MS analyses using high resolution, accurate mass tandem mass spectrometers coupled with ultra-performance nanoscale capillary liquid chromatographs, and for targeted protein quantitation using UPLC/MS/MS with multiple reaction monitoring (MRM).

The Proteomics Core Facility has the capability for support a diverse range of research projects, from studies in Basic Sciences Departments through support of clinical trials for Clinical Sciences Departments. The clinical support has included biomarker discovery in studies in the areas of oncology, immunology, and infectious disease. Prior to his position at Duke University, he managed mass spectrometry laboratories at GSK for sixteen years, and for the last six years of these years he lead a transnational laboratory (US/UK) dedicated to proteomic biomarker discovery. Dr Moseley received his MS in Physical Chemistry from North Carolina State University, and his PhD in Analytical Chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His dissertation, under the direction of Professor Jim Jorgenson, addressed the coupling of nanoscale separation with tandem mass spectrometry for the analysis of peptides and proteins.

Doctor Eileen Ryan

University of Melbourne, VIC

Eileen Ryan obtained her PhD in nutritional sciences from University College Cork (UCC), Ireland under the supervision of Professor Nora O’Brien and Professor Anita Maguire in 2007. She spent a year at UCC as a postdoctoral scientist and in 2008, after arriving in Australia, took up a post at the Centre for Drug Candidate Optimization (CDCO) based within Monash University. Here she spent several years working as a research officer with a focus on in vitro drug metabolism and MS based identification and structural elucidation of drug metabolites. In December 2014, she accepted a postdoctoral position with Professor Gavin Reid (Professor of Bioanalytical Chemistry) at the Bio21 Institute of Molecular Sciences & Biotechnology, University of Melbourne. Since then her research has been focused on mass spectrometry (MS) based lipid analysis (lipidomics), specifically on the development of novel MS based strategies for analysis of complex lipids and bioactive lipid mediators as well as the application of these methods toward understanding the role of lipids in the onset and progression of disease. Her research interests include lipidomics, biomarker discovery, metabolic pathways and nutritional biochemistry..