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  • Higher degree by research (PhD) student
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
  • Our vision is to transform global industries with solar-driven biotechnologies that secure planetary sustainability and resilience.
  • Group Leader, Chemistry and Structural Biology Division
    Emeritus Professor
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
  • 23 Mar 2025
    Fashion and science come together in this special presentation part of World Science Festival 2025. Explore the powerful connection between fashion and science in a conversation around the boundary-pushing project Cutting Edge by Fashion Queensland and the University of Queensland’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB).
  • Gachon team

    Group Leader

    Associate Professor Frederic Gachon

    Honorary Associate Professor
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
    Researcher profile is public: 
    1
    Supervisor: 
    Researcher biography: 

    Frédéric Gachon received his PhD in 2001 from the University of Montpellier (France). Between 2001 and 2006, he performed his post-doctoral training with Prof. Ueli Schibler at the department of Molecular Biology of the University of Geneva (Switzerland), where he started to work on the regulation of physiology by the circadian clock. In 2006, he worked at the Institute of Human Genetic in Montpellier (France) as a junior group leader before continued his career in Switzerland as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacology of the University of Lausanne (2009-2012) and as a group leader at the Nestlé Institute of Health Sciences, Lausanne (2012-2018). He finally joined the Institute of Molecular Bioscience of the University of Queensland as an Associate Professor in 2019. During all these years, research of the Gachon group focussed on the understanding of the role of feeding and circadian rhythms on mouse and human physiology, contributing to the fundamental basis for chronopharmacology and chrononutrition.

    Researchers

    Dr Meltem Weger

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

    I am a basic science researcher trained in molecular and cell biology, with expertise in transdisciplinary research. My primary focus is investigating the circadian aspects of (patho-) physiology, specifically in relation to the liver. I am particularly interested in understanding how circadian, endocrine, and metabolic pathways work together to maintain homeostasis, as well as how disruptions in these pathways can contribute to pathological conditions.

    Following the completion of my PhD at Heidelberg University in Germany in 2013, I pursued post-doctoral studies as a Marie-Curie Fellow at Birmingham University (UK) and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland). During this time, I utilized omics-approaches to elucidate the metabolic changes caused by impaired mitochondrial glucocorticoid biosynthesis and adrenal insufficiency. Additionally, I investigated the relationship between mitochondrial function and stress-induced depression. In order to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying rhythmic expression of metabolic genes, I also developed tools that facilitate the study of how circadian clock components and glucocorticoids cooperatively drive these processes.

    In 2019, I have joined the Physiology of Circadian Rhythms laboratory at the Institute of Molecular Bioscience, University of Queensland, to investigate the role of the circadian clock and chronodisruption in metabolism and liver disease.

    Dr Benjamin Weger

    NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
    Researcher profile is public: 
    1
    Supervisor: 

    Students

    Mr Dominic Hoyle

    Researcher profile is public: 
    0
    Supervisor: 

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Strawberry DNA extraction activity

Extract and view DNA from a strawberry using common household ingredients.

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The Edge: Genetics

People have known for thousands of years that parents pass traits to their children, but it is only relatively recently that our technology has caught up to our curiosity, enabling us to delve into the mystery of how this inheritance occurs, and the implications for predicting, preventing and treating disease.

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