Beth Wilson
Beth Wilson
Stakeholder Engagement Officer
- bethwilson@unimelb.edu.au
Beth Wilson is the MACSYS Centre Stakeholder Engagement Officer. A partnerships and engagement specialist, Beth is committed to fostering collaborative and mutually beneficial relationships with industry to drive impactful outcomes.
Beth has previously led partner engagement and work integrated learning in an innovative transdisciplinary tertiary setting. Developing partnerships with industry, community and government organisations, Beth designed programs that ensured mutual learning and professional development for both students and industry partners.
Calvin Kraupner-Taylor
Translation and Partner Engagement Committee
Research Fellow
- calvin.kraupner-taylor@monash.edu
Calvin Kraupner-Taylor is an RNA biologist working in the MACSYS Monash University node.
He researches the intricacies of mRNA metabolism in Saccharomyces cerevisiae through tailored RNA sequencing methods. In MACSYS, he applies this expertise to collaborative projects to tease apart the life cycle of mRNA in acute and chronic stress through mathematical models.
Hilary Hunt
Translation and Partner Engagement Committee
Research Fellow
- hilary.hunt@unimelb.edu.au
Dr Hilary Hunt is a mathematical biologist. Her research integrates mathematical methods, systems biology, and experimental data to understand the mechanisms underlying cellular regulation and behaviour.
In MACSYS, Hilary draws on her experience integrating -omics data and biological insights into mathematical models to identify the mechanisms underlying mRNA regulation and their potential effects on downstream biological processes.
Her previous work focused on constructing mathematical models to predict and optimize the effects of biological perturbations – whether physical, genetic, and/or pharmacological – in a variety of biological systems, most notably cardiac ion channels and plant metabolism. Hilary completed her PhD at the University of Melbourne under the supervision of Prof Edmund Crampin and A/Prof Vijay Rajagopal.
Eduardo Eyras
Translation and Partner Engagement 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.
Matthew Simpson
Translation and Partner Engagement Committee
Node Leader
Professor Matthew Simpson is an internationally recognised leader in mathematical biology, and he holds position as Professor of applied mathematics at Queensland University of Technology (QUT).
Professor Simpson’s research experience in mathematical biology has led to more than 200 journal articles covering both theoretical and practical aspects of mathematical biology. This research includes the development of new mathematical theory and methodologies, as well as deploying these theoretical tools to interrogate and understand various biological phenomena, often focusing on population-level biological systems ranging from development to tissue repair phenomena.
As Editor-in-Chief of the Bulletin of Mathematical Biology, Professor Simpson leads the main publication associated with the international Society for Mathematical Biology, and he is Deputy Chair of ANZIAM, which is a Division of the Australian Mathematical Society whose members are interested in applied mathematics, research in applied mathematics and tertiary mathematics education.
Traude Beilharz
Translation and Partner Engagement Committee
Chief Investigator
Professor Traude Beilharz is an RNA biologist and biochemist interested in the birth, life and death of RNA as the molecule that brings the genome to life. In MACSYS, Traude combines her love of collaborative data-driven research and the Baker’s yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
Traude believes that the cross-disciplinary research applied in MACSYS to pursuit of whole-cell models will enable a new academic discipline -Predictive Biology- and new career paths toward research and entrepreneurship in digital biology.
In addition to her research, Traude enables excellence by supporting the thriving of the Centre’s diversity. She uses her mindset and leadership coaching qualifications to ensure each MACSYS member is safe to bring their best ideas, creativity and ambition -knowing that this looks different in each of us, and that the Centre’s success depends on it.
Wenjie Zhang
Translation and Partner Engagement Committee
Chief Investigator
Professor Wenjie Zhang is a computer scientist specializing in databases, data management and big data analytics. She is currently a Professor in Computer Science in the Data and Knowledge Research Group at the UNSW Sydney and has served as the Deputy Head of School (Research) since 2019.
Professor Zhang’s long-term research interests lie in accelerating data-intensive applications, focusing on the most fundamental problems and pushing the boundaries of state-of-the-art techniques in terms of efficiency, effectiveness and scalability. Professor Zhang has previously held an ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award where her research focused on uncertain data modelling and analysis, several ARC Discovery Projects investigating spatial-temporal and spatial-textual data mining and analytics, and her pioneering work in the area of large-scale graph processing, is supported by an ARC Future Fellowship (FT21).
Professor Zhang is a valued member of the international research community and has held many senior roles in international conference committees and journals. She has served on numerous promotion and recruitment committees and the Academic Board of UNSW (2021 – 2023), bringing experience in institutional governance.
Marc Wilkins
Translation and Partner Engagement Committee
Node Leader
Marc Wilkins is a Professor in the School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences at UNSW Sydney where he leads an Australian Research Council-funded proteomics and molecular systems biology lab.
Professor Wilkins brings 25 years of experience in proteomics research, and 12 years’ experience in molecular systems biology of the yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. His reputation as a leader in the field of proteomics, especially protein post-translational modifications, is reflected in his more than 240 journal publications and over 30k citations (Google scholar). He also has extensive experience in the generation and analysis of genomic and transcriptomic data, using short- and long-read next-generation sequencing techniques.
Professor Wilkins has additional experience in the management and growth of major research infrastructure, serving as Director of the Ramaciotti Centre for Genomics from 2011 to 2022. This Centre is the largest such facility at any Australian University, is infrastructure of national significance and funded under the NCRIS program. Typically, it analyses over 60,000 samples per annum for the genomics research community – the majority by next-generation sequencing techniques.
In addition to his academic profile, Professor Wilkins has six years’ full time experience in industry, having co-founded two biotechnology companies. These companies, both which were listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), took analytical instrumentation, software, in-field testing devices or live cell products to market. Professor Wilkins has also advised the NSW State Government, the Australian Government and the Government of New Zealand on aspects of science policy.
Heejung Shim
Translation and Partner Engagement Committee
Chief Investigator
Dr Heejung Shim is a group leader within Melbourne Integrative Genomics at the University of Melbourne and a Senior Lecturer in the School of Mathematics and Statistics. Her research interests lie in the areas of statistical genomics, computational statistics, Bayesian statistics, and bioinformatics.
Most of her recent research focuses on statistical modelling and the development of statistical and computational methods for the analysis of complex and large-scale genomics data. Dr Shim completed her PhD in Statistics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and did a postdoc at the University of Chicago. Previous to her current position at the University of Melbourne, she was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Statistics at the Purdue University and currently retains an affiliation with Purdue as an Adjunct Assistant Professor.