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Imagine waking up every day wondering if you are going to have a 'good' or 'bad' pain day. That is the reality of more than 1 in 5 Australians who live with chronic pain. But what is chronic pain and how can we treat it?
  • Stores Supervisor
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
  • Capon Group

    Group Leader

    Professor Rob Capon

    Professorial Research Fellow - GL
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
    Researcher profile is public: 
    1
    Supervisor: 
    Researcher biography: 

    My research group specializes in the detection, isolation, identification and evaluation of biologically active small molecules from Nature (natural products). We acquire valuable knowledge on how and why natural products are made, and apply this knowledge to better understand living systems, and solve important scientific and societal challenges.

    To achieve these goals we have established specialist capabilities that extend across;

    Microbiology – the isolation, characterization and cultivation of bacterial and fungal strains.

    Chemistry – the extraction and fractionation of natural extracts, the purification, chemical and spectroscopic characterization, and structure elucidation of natural products, and the use of synthetic and medicinal chemistry to explore bioactive scaffolds.

    Biology – to evaluate extracts and natural products against an array of bioassays, leading to new human pharmaceuticals that target such indications as infectious and neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, pain and epilepsy, as well as new animal health products and new crop protection agents.

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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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    Researchers

    Dr Zeinab Khalil

    ARC Research Fellow
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
    Researcher profile is public: 
    1
    Supervisor: 
    Researcher biography: 

    I completed my PhD in 2013 and I am currently a Senior Research Fellow and the Managing Director of the Soils of Science (S4S) Program at the University of Queensland. I am recognised as an emerging leader in antibiotic biodiscovery research. I have multidisciplinary research skills and expertise spanning the fields of organic chemistry and microbiology. I have made a significant contribution to the field of microbial biodiscovery employing high-throughput, high efficiency, natural product discovery to explore the chemical and biological properties of natural products produced by Australian marine and terrestrial microbes. I have identified and evaluated >40 new drugs targeting infectious diseases that attracted >$3M in research funding. I have led multi-year projects with industry, targeting animal health (ELANCO) and crop (NEXGEN Plants) and microbial chemical diversity (Microbial Screening Technologies; BioAustralis). I am a co-inventor on a UQ pending patent application documenting a new soil microbiome-inspired crop protection agent. This invention has attracted industry investment (NEXGEN Plants), to establish its potential, ahead of licensing and commercialisation. Therefore, I have co-led a project with industrial partner NEXGEN Plants, to investigate a new natural product that activates innate plant immunity defences against significant pathogens (patent pending). Since 2015, I have established the antibiotic biodiscovery capability at IMB targeting multidrug resistant (MDR) human pathogens and developed new approaches that have had significant knowledge impact in the antibiotic development and host defence research areas directed to combat MDR pathogens. This has resulted in the establishment of the Biodiscovery@UQ facility, a university-wide networking initiative designed to support excellence in biodiscovery research across UQ. I have secured funding from UQ to develop a new antitubercular drug lead (CIA), an ARC Linkage grant (LP19, CIB) to develop new anthelmintics and a grant from the University de La Frontera (collaborator), Chile to discover new antibiotics from Antarctic microbes, Marine CRC fund (CIA) to map the chemical diversity in Australian marine microbes and ARC LIEF grant. I co-led THE FIRST citizen science initiative, S4S, including developing the APP, website and running regional public workshops, with the aim of increasing public awareness about the role of soil microbes in antibiotic discovery. This initiative has attracted ~$1M in institutional and philanthropic support.

    Dr Angela Salim

    Research Fellow
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
    Researcher profile is public: 
    1
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    Dr Jianying Han

    Postdoctoral Research Fellow
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
    Researcher profile is public: 
    1
    Supervisor: 

    Dr Waleed Hussein

    Research Fellow/Senior Research officer
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
    Researcher profile is public: 
    1
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    Ms Jolynn Kiong

    Senior Research Assistant/Technician/Coordinator (Supervisor)
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
    Researcher profile is public: 
    0
    Supervisor: 

    Dr Taizong Wu

    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
    Researcher profile is public: 
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    Dr Amila Agampodi Dewa

    Postdoctoral Research Fellow & Research Officer
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
    Researcher profile is public: 
    1
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    Students

    Dr Thulasi Sritharan

    PhD student & Senior Research Assistant/Technician/Coordinator (Supervisor)
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
    Researcher profile is public: 
    0
    Supervisor: 

    Ms Caitlin Aust

    Global Challenges Scholar
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
    Researcher profile is public: 
    0
    Supervisor: 

    Mr Shengbin Jin

    PhD student
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
    Researcher profile is public: 
    0
    Supervisor: 

    Mr Jerry Guo

    Masters Student
    Researcher profile is public: 
    1
    Supervisor: 

    Ms Alvi Wardani

    PhD student
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
    Researcher profile is public: 
    1
    Supervisor: 

    Mr Dean Wu

    Masters Student
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
    Researcher profile is public: 
    1
    Supervisor: 

    Yuxuan Zhu

    Masters Student
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
    Researcher profile is public: 
    1
    Supervisor: 

    Xueqing Ding

    Masters Student
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
    Researcher profile is public: 
    1
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  • Higher degree by research (PhD) student
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
  • Higher degree by research (PhD) student
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
  • Senior Storeperson
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
  • Higher degree by research (PhD) student
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
  • PhD student
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience

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