Dr. Yulia Alexandr is a Lecturer in Applied and Computational Algebra in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Melbourne. Her research lies at the intersection of algebraic geometry, statistics, and machine learning, with a particular focus on using algebraic and geometric methods to understand statistical models and learning systems.

She is broadly interested in applications of algebra across different scientific domains, including the life sciences and phylogenetics. Prior to joining the University of Melbourne, she held postdoctoral positions at UCLA and Harvard and received her PhD in Mathematics from UC Berkeley.

Dr Marius Jessen is leading strain engineering at Eden Brew, where he builds the yeast strains behind precision-fermented dairy proteins, real milk proteins made without the cow.

He develops industrial Komagataella phaffii (Pichia pastoris) strains as production hosts for recombinant milk proteins at scale. His research interest sits at the interface of host biology and bioprocess performance: how the Pichia transcriptome shifts over the course of a fermentation, and how the metabolic burden of heterologous dairy protein expression reshapes cellular programs such as secretion, protein folding and stress response. His aim is to use these transcriptomic signatures to guide strain engineering decisions, letting the cells’ own expression data point to the next set of targets rather than relying on trial and error.

Rob Brown is Chief Science Officer at Eden Brew, an Australian company, developing precision nutrition employing recombinant dairy caseins.

He brings over 25 years of experience in synthetic biology, protein engineering, and fermentation scale-up, including nine years as Vice President of Research at Viridos (formerly Synthetic Genomics Inc.), where he led the phototrophic biofuel production and supervised a team of >100 scientists and engineers. Earlier in his career, Rob directed enzyme evolution programs at Diversa Corp and ChiroTech Technology, scaling industrial biocatalysts and fermentation processes from lab to multi-ton commercial production.

Storme de Scally is a Research Fellow in the McDonald Lab, assisting in projects that together explore how bacteria evolve and adapt — from the diversification of central carbon metabolism across the tree of life, to how phage interactions shape antibiotic resistance and bacterial fitness.

Storme works closely with PhD students Ziqi Shen and Bo Ya Looi on culturing, growth experiments, proteomics and metabolics.

Dr. Eleanor Saunders is a Senior Research Fellow in biochemistry at the Bio21 Institute, University of Melbourne. Her research focuses on characterising the metabolism of Leishmania, a single-celled human pathogen and significant neglected tropical disease agent. Employing advanced mass spectrometry platforms and high-throughput approaches, she aims to elucidate central carbon metabolism in the parasite and understand how these metabolic processes intersect with the biology of the human host macrophage.

Dr. Saunders completed her PhD at the University of Melbourne and has made sustained and significant contributions to understanding the metabolism of this neglected pathogen. Working alongside Professor Malcolm McConville, she employs a diverse range of analytical platforms, including stable isotope tracing workflows, system perturbation strategies, high-content imaging, and both in vitro and in vivo models of infection. Together, these approaches enable the interrogation of parasite and macrophage metabolism in parallel, and the generation of high-quality, model-ready datasets well suited to systems biology integration.

Dr. Saunders is an active collaborator, engaging broadly across the University of Melbourne and with external partners including the Victorian Centre for Functional Genomics, Metabolomics Australia, and the Australian Gut Metabolome Initiative.

Dr Francesca Short is an Associate Investigator working on regulatory networks and environmental survival in bacterial pathogens.

Fran completed her PhD in molecular microbiology at the University of Cambridge, which was followed by a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral fellowship at the Wellcome Sanger Institute. In 2019, she relocated to Australia to work at Macquarie University with Professor Ian Paulsen. Fran joined Monash University in November 2020 as an ARC DECRA fellow and became a teaching and research academic in 2023. Fran’s research bridges classical molecular microbiology, biochemistry and genomics approaches to build our understanding of how bacterial pathogens adapt and survive, with a particular focus on the regulation of virulence factors, and survival of stresses encountered outside the host, such as disinfectants.

Pascal Buenzli is an Associate Professor of Mathematical Biology at the School of Mathematical Sciences, Queensland University of Technology (QUT). His research builds new mathematics for data-driven, predictive computational models for applications in biomedical technologies.

Pascal’s recent research focuses on the development of mathematical models of the mechanobiology and geometric control of cellular tissues. He uses a range of mathematical and computational modelling frameworks including discrete, stochastic, and continuum models to examine experimental data through the mathematical lens.

Dr David Warne is a Senior Lecturer in Statistical Data Science and an ARC DECRA Fellow at the School of Mathematical Sciences, Queensland University of Technology.

As an expert in computation inference methods, David is motivated by computational challenges in the statistical analysis and uncertainty quantification of complex systems that frequently arise in biology, ecology, and epidemiology. One of his research focal points is efficient and accurate simulation-based inference methods for systems with computationally expensive simulators. With a background in high performance computing and computer science, he also seeks efficient use of computer hardware through code optimisation.

Dr Patricia Menéndez  is a Senior Lecturer in Statistics (Data Science) in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Melbourne.

Her research spans statistical methodology, computational statistics, machine learning, and data visualisation, with a strong focus on real-world applications in climate change, environmental science, marine ecosystems, and criminology.

Educated in Spain, Japan, and Switzerland, Patricia earned her PhD in Mathematics from ETH Zurich and was awarded a prestigious Monbukagakusho Scholarship by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). She has held academic positions at the Public University of Navarre, UNSW, University of Queensland, and Monash University, and has also worked as a statistician for the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research and the Australian Institute of Marine Science.

Patricia is passionate about interdisciplinary collaboration and the development of statistical tools that support evidence-based decision-making. Her recent work includes interdisciplinary applications ranging from health inequality and coral reef monitoring to flood risk analysis and visualisation methods. She is also a dedicated educator, committed to fostering statistical literacy and mentoring the next generation of data scientists.