Highlights

Professor George Muscat is currently a Professorial and an NHMRC Principal Research Fellow (2014-18) at IMB, and an affiliate appointment in the Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland.

Professor Muscat completed undergraduate training at the University of Sydney, and was mentored by Professor Peter B. Rowe during the completion of his PhD program at the CMRI (1981-85).

He conducted his Postdoctoral Research under the guidance of Professor Larry Kedes at Stanford University, CA. (1985-88), and was subsequently appointed as an Assistant Professor of Research at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles (1989).

He joined The University of Queensland in 1990, and focused his research on understanding the molecular role of Nuclear Hormone Receptor signalling in breast cancer, diabetes, obesity and exercise.

Professor Muscat was a visiting scientist/sabbatical visitor at X-Ceptor Therapeutics, San Diego (2001), involved in a scientific collaboration with Metabolex, and a Guest Professor, Sahlgrenska Academy, The University of Gothenburg, (2014-15). 

He has served as a member of: (i) the editorial boards of J. Biol. Chem., Endocrinology and Molecular Endocrinology, (ii) NHMRC Assigners Academy, NHMRC GRPs, NHMRC Research Fellowships Peer Review Panels, and (iii) National Breast Cancer Foundation Research Advisory Council. 

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Highlights

Professor Rob Capon is a natural products chemist. He is a master of interrogating the molecular diversity of the natural world and applying it to society’s most pressing social and economic problems. He goes out into the natural world, detects biologically active molecules from living things, then isolates, identifies and evaluates them. Most importantly, he is committed to finding a use for them. His mantra for commercialization is ‘forced failure', in other words, “if you can break it, you won’t make it”. With the enormous untapped potential of natural products, he doesn’t like to waste time. He works quickly to “break or make” hypotheses, to focus resources on those molecules that are worthy of investment.

Professor Capon leads a group of researchers that are responsible for assembling a world-class molecule library, which along with the Australian collection of microbes housed at IMB, is used to discover new drugs. For Professor Capon, the most rewarding aspect of his work is the ability to dip into the molecular resource in the Australian environment, extract the chemistry and use it to improve our understanding of the natural world, and solve important problems.

He applies his research methodology to human health, animal health, crop protection, and environmental protection. He collaborates broadly in each of these areas.

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