Contact Details
After studying physics and mathematics at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, I received an MPhil (1996) and PhD (1999) from the University of Cambridge, UK while being supported by the German National Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes) that supports the top 1% of the German students and the European Trust of the University of Cambridge. After the applied research at Cambridge, I joined the Cell Biology Group led by Professor Roger Dean and Professor Wendy Jessup at the Heart Research Institute in Sydney on a BASF-sponsored fellowship from the German National Scholarship Foundation (1999-2001).
In 2001, I spent three months at the University of Urbana-Champagne, USA, on an NHF travel grant working with Professor Enrico Gratton. I returned to Australia to take up ARC postdoctoral fellowship linked to a Discovery Grant (2002-2004)
In 2005, I established my own independent research group at the University of New South Wales; having been awarded an NHMRC/NHF co-funded Career Development Award and an ARC Research Fellowship. The focus of the Membrane Cell Biology Group at the Centre for Vascular Research is to understand how lipid domains in the plasma membrane organize and regulate signal transduction processes.
Also in 2005, I received the ARC Early Researcher Award, a NSW Young Tall Poppy Award and an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship, which allowed me to spend six months in the laboratory of Professor Kai Simons at the Max Planck Institute for Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, Germany.
Since 2009, I am an NHMRC Senior Research Fellow and Associate Professor.
In 2010, I received the Young Investigator Award from the Australia and New Zealand Society for Cell and Developmental Biology.
Highlight publications
Pair correlation microscopy reveals the role of nanoparticle shape in intracellular transport and site of drug release. Nat Nanotechnol. 2016 Sep 12. doi: 10.1038/nnano.2016.160. [Epub ahead of print] |
Pair correlation microscopy reveals the role of nanoparticle shape in intracellular transport and site of drug release. |
Conformational states of Lck regulate clustering in early T cell signalling Nat Immunol. 2013 Jan;14(1):82-9. doi: 10.1038/ni.2488. Epub 2012 Dec 2. |
Conformational states of Lck regulate clustering in early T cell signalling |
Sub-resolution lipid domains exist in the plasma membrane and regulate protein diffusion and distribution. Nat Commun. 2012;3:1256. doi: 10.1038/ncomms2273. |
Sub-resolution lipid domains exist in the plasma membrane and regulate protein diffusion and distribution. |
Pre-existing clusters of the adaptor Lat do not participate in early T cell signaling events. Nat Immunol. 2011 Jun 5;12(7):655-62. doi: 10.1038/ni.2049. |
Pre-existing clusters of the adaptor Lat do not participate in early T cell signaling events. |
Condensation of the plasma membrane at the site of T lymphocyte activation. J Cell Biol. 2005 Oct 10;171(1):121-31. Epub 2005 Oct 3. |
Condensation of the plasma membrane at the site of T lymphocyte activation. |
Visualizing lipid structure and raft domains in living cells with 2-photon microscopy. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2003 Dec 23;100(26):15554-9. Epub 2003 Dec 12. |
Visualizing lipid structure and raft domains in living cells with 2-photon microscopy. |