EMBL Australia researchers and alumni have been awarded almost $3.5 million in recent grant funding, enabling ambitious new research projects that push the boundaries of fundamental science across our network.
Group Leaders Dr Senthil Arumugam and Dr Vaishnavi Ananthanarayanan, as well as several alumni and members of the EMBL Australia leadership team, were awarded funding under the Australian Research Council’s 2026 Discovery Project scheme.
Dr Sami Al-Izzi, a postdoctoral researcher in the Morris Group, was also recently awarded a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) of more than half a million dollars to advance the mathematical modelling of living biological surfaces.
These grants will enable our researchers to pursue high-impact investigations – from decoding how cells sort and signal to uncovering the mechanics of early human development.
Funded projects include:
Lead researcher: Dr Vaishnavi Ananthanarayanan – UNSW (EMBL Australia group leader)
Project summary: Receptors on the cell surface transmit the signals that keep cells functioning and alive. Receptors move through the cell to stop or maintain these signals, but how this movement is controlled by cellular motors is unknown. Recent work has revealed a mechanism by which motors move these receptors, leading to the current proposal that it is motor adaptors- proteins that link the motor and receptor- that control what happens to a receptor and its signal in the cell. This project will uncover how motor adaptors control receptor signals and create a mathematical model predictive of how receptors move through the cell. This will provide a boon for understanding receptor regulation and a basis to develop new treatments targeting receptor signals.
Amount: $788,064
Lead researcher: Dr Senthil Arumugam – Monash BDI (EMBL Australia group leader)
Project summary: Just as cities rely on efficient supply chains to distribute goods, cells use complex delivery networks to transport vital cargo. This research will use advanced microscopy and artificial intelligence to explore how cells sort and move essential molecules within their internal transportation system. We aim to uncover how different cargoes are directed toward their correct destinations—or escape from the expected routes altogether. This project will provide fundamental insights into cellular cargo sorting, with the potential to improve treatments for diseases including cancer and Alzheimer’s, to develop more effective strategies for delivering mRNA vaccines and therapeutics, and to impede viral infections.
Amount: $599,674
Lead researcher: Professor Max Cryle – Monash BDI (EMBL Australia alumni)
Project summary: This project aims to (1) understand the mechanism and control the specificity of peptide crosslinking by engineered enzymes and (2) to exploit these enzymes as biocatalysts to produce complex bioactive peptides. This project intends to generate new knowledge on the biocatalytic synthesis of peptides using a highly interdisciplinary approach and essential tools that have been developed. The anticipated outcomes of this project are an enhanced understanding of how to the control the function of biocatalysts for peptide synthesis and to use these biocatalysts to synthesis complex bioactive natural products. This knowledge is vital for future efforts to develop biocatalytic methods for peptide production.
Amount: $753,845
Lead researcher: Professor Jose Polo (EMBL Australia Scientific Head)
Project summary: This research aims to deepen our understanding of early human development by focusing on the hypoblast, a vital cell type that contributes to the formation of the yolk sac, a structure essential for early embryonic growth and development. Using innovative laboratory-grown embryo models and advanced molecular techniques, this study will explore how hypoblast cells form, maintain their identity, and interact with other embryonic cell types. By addressing fundamental questions about the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying early human development, this research will contribute to advancing the global understanding of developmental biology and reinforce Australia’s leadership in cutting-edge scientific discovery.
Amount: $841,353
Lead researcher: Dr Sami Al-Izzi
Project summary: Biology is typified by thin deforming interfaces that undergo complex geometric changes. Examples include lipid membranes and thin layers of epithelial tissue that form the basis of organs. The proposed research will develop mathematical methods to build models of these active living interfaces using tools from the fields of differential geometry, continuum mechanics and active matter. The project will focus on three aims, each displaying general mathematical characteristics, but with specific examples in biology that have so far evaded mathematical analysis. The development of these novel methods will bridge a substantial knowledge gap and tackle a problem that has stalled the feedback between theory and experiment in mathematical biology.
Amount: $506,852
Congratulations to all of our successful recipients!