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  • Genetic diseases or disorders are caused by a change in our DNA. These changes occur in multiple ways.
  • Yap Group

      Group Leader

    Professor Alpha Yap

    Professor and ARC Laureate Fellow
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
    Researcher profile is public: 
    1
    Supervisor: 
    Researcher biography: 

    My group studies the role of cadherin cell adhesion molecules in morphogenesis and tumor development. E-cadherin is a key mediator of cell-cell recognition. It participates in tissue patterning and its dysfunction contributes to tumor progression and invasion.

    Associate Professor Yap is the group leader for Cadherin cell adhesion molecules, Epithelial morphogenesis & Cell locomotion research at the IMB.

    Body: 

    Highlights

    Professor Alpha Yap is a cell biologist. After training in Internal Medicine, Endocrinology and Cell Physiology, he undertook postdoctoral research with Barry Gumbiner at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (New York) before returning to Australia to establish his independent research group.

    His research is at the leading edge of a rapidly developing field of science called mechanobiology. Mechanobiology explores how mechanical forces influence biology. Professor Yap is particularly interested in understanding how cells communicate by exerting force upon one another.

    Collaborating across disciplines with colleagues from physics, developmental biology and mathematics, his research group has been instrumental in discovering how mechanical forces are generated, and sensed, to coordinate cell behaviour in tissues. Focusing on the epithelial tissues that are the major barriers of the body, Professor Yap believes that their cells monitor force to detect changes in the health of the tissue. This has important implications for understanding diseases such as cancer and inflammation.

    Professor Yap currently serves on the editorial boards of several major international journals, amongst them Developmental Cell, Current Biology and Molecular Biology of the Cell.

    He was the recipient of the 2013 President’s Medal of the Australia and New Zealand Society for Cell and Developmental Biology and is a Principal Research Fellow of the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia.

    Connect

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      Postdoctoral Researcher Fellows

    Dr Ellen Potoczky

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

    Dr Robert Ju

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

    Dr Julia Eckert

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

    Research Assistants

    Ms Suzie Verma

    Principal Research Technician
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
    Researcher profile is public: 
    0
    Supervisor: 

    Miss Fayth Lim

    Senior Research Technician
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
    Researcher profile is public: 
    0
    Supervisor: 

     Students

    Miss Denni Currin-Ross

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

    Ms Zoya Mann

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

    Ms Le Thanh Huyen Nguyen

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

    Ms Angela Khin Oo Lwin

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

    Mr Akshar Rao

    PhD Student
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
    Researcher profile is public: 
    1
    Supervisor: 
  • Higher degree by research (PhD) student
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
  • Our program is designed to create a cohort of outstanding researchers who use multidisciplinary approaches to discover the cellular basis of chronic diseases, enabling us to develop future disease therapies.
  • Postdoctoral Research Fellow
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience

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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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