KJ Goh
Equity, People, and Culture Committee
Research Fellow
Kwok Jian (KJ) Goh is a microbiologist at the MACSYS Monash University node. Within MACSYS, KJ contributes to the biological direction of several projects. Leveraging his background in molecular biology and microbiology, he specializes in generating bacterial mutants and validating mathematical models through wet-lab experimentation. Additionally, he interrogates the role of post-transcriptional regulation in bacterial gene expression, aiming to provide data that will further improve the whole-cell model.
KJ earned his PhD in 2020 from Nanyang Technological University, researching ribosome-binding proteins under Prof. Yong-Gui Gao. He then spent three years as a Postdoctoral Fellow with Prof. Yunn-Hwen Gan at NUS (Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine), focusing on regulatory RNAs in hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae. In 2023, KJ joined Prof. Trevor Lithgow’s team at Monash University to investigate quiescent porins and outer membrane remodeling.
Alex Sneddon
Equity, People, and Culture Committee
Research Fellow
- alexandra.sneddon@anu.edu.au
Dr Alex Sneddon is a postdoctoral research fellow within MACSYS at the Australian National University, working at the intersection of AI and RNA biology. The overarching goal of her work is to leverage and extend deep learning methods for biological discovery and design.
Prior to completing her PhD, Alex was a Software Engineer at Saluda Medical, contributing to the first closed-loop neuromodulation system for the treatment of chronic pain. In her PhD, she combined knowledge of RNA biology with deep learning to decode nanopore direct RNA sequencing signals, leading to a hardware-integrated, AI-driven software for selective sequencing of RNA types (Nature Communications 2024). Alex’s current work aims to harness domain knowledge for biological representation learning and generative modelling in low-data regimes.
Matt Coffey
Matt Coffey
Indigenous Outreach & Education Coordinator
- matthew.coffey@unimelb.edu.au
Matt Coffey is the Indigenous Outreach and Education Coordinator. He is a Wiradjuri man who is passionate about education and helping young people reach their full potential.
Matt has previously worked at WEHI where he managed the partnership with DeadlyScience and led the implementation of the WEHI DeadlyScience Pathways Program, a national STEM immersion experience for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. Prior to that Matt worked at Science Gallery Melbourne at the University of Melbourne, where he managed the design and delivery of secondary education programs.
Heather McDonald-Haynes
Equity, People, and Culture Committee
PhD Candidate
Heather is a PhD candidate supervised by Marc Wilkins at the University of New South Wales. Her research uses bioinformatic tools to investigate co-regulatory relationships of protein phosphorylation sites in yeast.
Heather completed her undergraduate degree with honours in biochemistry at the University of Sydney, where she worked on CRISPR screening in Tasmanian devil facial tumour cells.
Veronica Lay
Equity, People, and Culture Committee
Node Administrator
- veronica.lay@monash.edu
Veronica Lay is the MACSYS Monash University Node Administrator. She holds a Bachelor of Science and Arts, and a Master of Biomedical and Health Sciences from Monash University.
Lucy Ham
Equity, People, and Culture Committee
Research Fellow
- lucy.ham@unimelb.edu.au
Dr Lucy Ham is a senior postdoctoral research fellow within MACSYS at the University of Melbourne and a member of the Theoretical System Biology group. Her research integrates mathematics, computational biology, and theoretical biophysics, with a particular focus on developing mathematical models to understand complex biological systems.
Her work focuses on the control mechanisms governing stochastic gene expression and signaling processes that influence cell fate decisions. By combining mathematical theory with computational approaches, she aims to uncover the fundamental principles underlying molecular networks and their role in cellular function and development.
Lucy has led several projects in systems biology, resulting in publications in journals such as Nature Communications, Physical Review Letters, Cell Systems, and eLife. She holds a PhD in pure mathematics, which bridged logic, algebra, and theoretical computer science, and she continues to publish in the area.
Haripriya Sridharan
Equity, People, and Culture Committee
Research Fellow
- hsridharan@unimelb.edu.au
Haripriya is a postdoctoral researcher at MACSYS, focusing on the modelling and analysis of Chemical Reaction Networks (CRNs). The overarching goal of her research is to help develop rigorous foundations for understanding fundamental biological processes, by employing modern, abstract mathematics (algebra, algebraic geometry and algebraic topology).
Haripriya’s academic background is in pure mathematics, with an interdisciplinary PhD at the confluence of complex geometry and K-theory, a work that drew upon many areas of modern pure mathematics — category theory, algebra, geometry, and topology. She is now thrilled to be working towards expanding the understanding of the building blocks of life, and employing beautiful mathematics in service of this important scientific pursuit.
Eduardo Eyras
Equity, People, and Culture Committee
Chief Investigator
Professor Eduardo Eyras is a world leader in the development of computational methods to advance RNA biology, with a track record of research excellence and multidisciplinary focus.
Notable contributions include leading the gene discovery pipeline at the prestigious Sanger Institute for the international human and mouse genome projects. As an independent group leader, he received a Young Investigator Grant from the European Union to pioneer the application of machine learning to study RNA. His expertise in using machine learning to integrate multiple molecular experiments to study biological systems is directly relevant to MACSYS’ goals. Professor Eyras is currently director of the Centre for Computational Biomedical Sciences (CCBS) at the Australian National University (ANU). In 2021, he obtained $2.5M in philanthropic funding to launch the ANU Talo Computational Biology Talent Accelerator, an 8-year program supporting research and training for young scholars in computational biology. Additionally, Eyras has assembled multidisciplinary teams to secure two Australian Research Council grants (DP21, DP22) and one NHMRC Ideas grant (2022) for innovative RNA research.
Michael McDonald
Equity, People, and Culture Committee
Deputy Director & Node Leader
Professor Michael McDonald leads the Microbial Experimental Evolution laboratory in the School of Biological Sciences at Monash University and has established himself as a national leader for research at the interface of evolution, genomics, and microbiology.
Professor McDonald’s research group in the School of Biological Sciences at Monash University has the rare attribute of working with diverse microbial organisms: classic model organisms (E. coli, baker’s yeast, and the yeast C. albicans) as well as new model systems he has developed for experimental evolution – H. pylori, A. baumannii and A. baylyi (horizontal gene transfer and recombination), L. plantarum and C. albicans (experimental co-evolution) and bacteriophage. This versatility is important for the research aim of MACSYS: to construct whole-cell models for diverse prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms. Professor McDonald and his research group will lead MACSYS efforts to use whole-cell models to predict the outcomes of evolution.