Cheng Soon Ong is the director of the Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence Future Science Platform (MLAI FSP) at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and an adjunct Professor at the Australian National University.

The MLAI FSP is dedicated to enabling scientific discovery by harnessing the power of machine learning and artificial intelligence. It employs over 30 postdoctoral researchers and 10 mid-career researchers who work in cross disciplinary teams to achieve the aims and objectives of MLAI FSP. Among them is a team working on problems in digital agriculture and host pathogen responses, which uses genotype to phenotype models. Another team builds deep learning models of DNA sequences and develops MLAI models for designing gene regulation sequences. These designs are then biologically verified using synthetic biology in bacteria.

Additionally, Ong has had extensive experience in extending machine learning approaches for problems in computational biology, and is currently developing active learning, bandits, choice theory and adaptive experimental design methods.

Professor Padmini Rangamani’s research is focused on understanding the design principles of biological systems. 

Her long-term research goal is to understand the control of cell shape by analysing biological membranes and their interaction with proteins and the cytoskeleton using principles from transport phenomena. This is a unifying framework that brings together, mechanics of the membrane, membrane-bound proteins, and their coupled interactions. Her work uses a combination of novel mechanical theories and computational approaches to simulate many aspects of cellular membranes, in collaboration with experimentalists.

Associate Professor Douglas Pires is highly experienced in developing state-of-the-art machine learning applications for bioinformatics and cheminformatics to support and enhance biomedical and biological research.

He is particularly interested in using structural bioinformatics to understand how mutations can affect protein structure and function, leading to different phenotypes. He also has an outstanding track-record in developing machine learning applications for drug discovery and to leverage data at scale.

Professor Wallace Marshall is an engineer by background and has developed engineering perspectives on the analysis of cellular systems and dynamics.

He has a particular interest in the interplay between biochemical and cell-mechanical processes, and in the ways these processes affect cell fate decisions. He is the director of the Centre for Cellular Engineering at the University of California at San Francisco. In this role he has established one of the worldleading research centres considering how we can use models and engineering methods to understand cellular behaviour and control cellular function.

Professor Marshall’s pioneering work in driving convergence between the physical, mathematical, engineering and life-sciences extends to the development of outreach activities. Here he has collaborated with the Exploratorium in San Francisco, to develop displays that educate the general public on how we, as human beings, are shaped by both our genes and our environments and how our bodies trillions of cells work together to create a human self.

Associate Professor Jen Martin (@scidocmartin) spent many years working as a field ecologist until she decided the most useful thing she could contribute as a scientist was to teach other scientists how to be effective and engaging communicators.

Jen founded and leads the University of Melbourne’s acclaimed Science Communication Teaching Program and is deeply committed to helping scientists develop the skills they need to be visible, make connections and have impact.

She also practises what she preaches: for 18 years she’s been talking about science each week on 3RRR radio, she writes for a variety of publications, hosts the Let’s Talk SciComm podcast and MCs events. Jen was named the 2019 Unsung Hero of Australian Science Communication, is Ambassador for The Wilderness Society’s Nature Book Week and is a member of the Homeward Bound Faculty, a global leadership program for women in STEMM.

Her first popular science book “Why am I like this? The science behind your weirdest thoughts and habits” was published in 2022.

Dr Stuart Johnston is a mathematical biologist who focuses on multiscale modelling of migration processes. He has experience in modelling cellular behaviour, as well as the motion of individuals and animals. He regularly connects his models with experimental data to generate new biological insight.

Dr Johnston has developed mathematical models of the interactions between nanoparticles and cells, to understand and design future medical treatment delivery options. In 2020, he commenced an ARC Discovery Early Career Research Award Fellowship to study the ability of organisms to navigate through environments in the presence of uncertainty and noise, with a focus on cell transport and whale migration. He is currently a Lecturer in Applied Mathematics in the School of Mathematics and Statistics.

Dr Wolfgang Huber is an expert in bioinformatics, computational biology and machine learning/AI.

Huber works at the forefront of statistical bioinformatics research. He is one of the lead-developers and founders of Bioconductor. He is a research group leader and senior scientist at EMBL. He is a co-director of the Molecular Medicine Partnership Unit of EMBL and the Medical Faculty of the University of Heidelberg. He also co-directs EMBL’s “Theory” transversal theme.

His group develops statistical data analysis and machine learning methods for modern biotechnologies. He applies them to do discovery science across different domains of biology and biomedicine. He then translates these methods and ideas into reusable tools by engaging in open source software communities.