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Dr Andrew Walker

UQ Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Institute for Molecular Bioscience
+61 7 334 62326
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Researcher biography

My research interests are centred around molecular evolution within the arthropods, and the development of arthropod-derived biomolecules for technology and medicine. Currently I am a Postdoctoral Fellow in the King laboratory in the Institute for Molecular Bioscience, where I am part of a team working on venom peptide inhibitors of voltage-gated sodium channels, particularly NaV1.7 (see Research Interests for more information on this topic). My contribution to the team involves the discovery of novel NaV1.7 inhibitors from insect venoms, and the development of bivalent NaV1.7 inhibitors by peptide conjugation.

Apart from venoms my chief interest is in silk proteins. My doctoral studies (administered jointly by the Australian National University and Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) focussed on the discovery of novel insect silk proteins, silk protein structure and function, and the application of silk proteins for producing advanced biomimetic materials.

Publications

Book Chapter (1)
Journal Articles (14)

Book Chapter

Kameda, Tsunenori, Walker, Andrew A. and Sutherland, Tara D. (2014). Evolution and application of coiled coil silks from insects. In Tetsuo Asakura and Thomas Miller (Ed.), Biotechnology of silk (pp. 87-106) Dordrecht The Netherlands: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-94-007-7119-2_5

Journal Articles

Walker, Andrew A. , Madio, Bruno, Jin, Jiayi, Undheim, Eivind A. B. , Fry, Bryan G. and King, Glenn F. (2017) Melt with this kiss: paralyzing and liquefying venom of the assassin bug Pristhesancus plagipennis (Hemiptera: Reduviidae). Molecular and Cellular Proteomics, 16 4: 552-566. doi:10.1074/mcp.M116.063321
Walker, Andrew A., Weirauch, Christiane, Fry, Bryan G. and King, Glenn F. (2016) Venoms of heteropteran insects: a treasure trove of diverse pharmacological toolkits. Toxins, 8 2: . doi:10.3390/toxins8020043
Walker, Andrew A., Weisman, Sarah, Trueman, Holly E., Merritt, David J. and Sutherland, Tara D. (2015) The other prey-capture silk: fibres made by glow-worms (Diptera: Keroplatidae) comprise cross-β-sheet crystallites in an abundant amorphous fraction. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part B: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 187 78-84. doi:10.1016/j.cbpb.2015.05.008
Walker, Andrew A., Holland, Chris and Sutherland, Tara D. (2015) More than one way to spin a crystallite: multiple trajectories through liquid crystallinity to solid silk. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 282 1809: 1-9. doi:10.1098/rspb.2015.0259
Church, Jeffrey S., Woodhead, Andrea L., Walker, Andrew A. and Sutherland, Tara D. (2014) A comparison of convergently evolved insect silks that share β-sheet molecular structure. Biopolymers, 101 6: 630-639. doi:10.1002/bip.22431
Sutherland, Tara D., Trueman, Holly E., Walker, Andrew A., Weisman, Sarah, Campbell, Peter M. , Dong, Zhaoming, Huson, Mickey G. , Woodhead, Andrea L. and Church, Jeffrey S. (2014) Convergently-evolved structural anomalies in the coiled coil domains of insect silk proteins. Journal of Structural Biology, 186 3: 402-411. doi:10.1016/j.jsb.2014.01.002
Walker, Andrew A., Warden, Andrew C., Trueman, Holly E., Weisman, Sarah and Sutherland, Tara D. (2013) Micellar refolding of coiled-coil honeybee silk proteins. Journal of Materials Chemistry B, 1 30: 3644-3651. doi:10.1039/c3tb20611d
Walker, Andrew A., Church, Jeffrey S., Woodhead, Andrea L. and Sutherland, Tara D. (2013) Silverfish silk is formed by entanglement of randomly coiled protein chains. Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 43 7: 572-579. doi:10.1016/j.ibmb.2013.03.014
Sutherland, Tara D., Peng, Yong Y., Trueman, Holly E., Weisman, Sarah, Okada, Shoko, Walker, Andrew A., Sriskantha, Alagacone, White, Jacinta F., Huson, Mickey G., Werkmeister, Jerome A., Glattauer, Veronica, Stoichevska, Violet, Mudie, Stephen T., Haritos, Victoria S. and Ramshaw, John A. M. (2013) A new class of animal collagen masquerading as an insect silk. Scientific Reports, 3 . doi:10.1038/srep02864
Walker, Andrew A., Weisman, Sarah, Kameda, Tsunenori and Sutherland, Tara D. (2012) Natural templates for coiled-coil biomaterials from praying mantis egg cases. Biomacromolecules, 13 12: 4264-4272. doi:10.1021/bm301570v
Walker, Andrew A., Weisman, Sarah, Church, Jeffrey S., Merritt, David J., Mudie, Stephen T. and Sutherland, Tara D. (2012) Silk from crickets: a new twist on spinning. Plos One, 7 2: e30408-1-e30408-8. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0030408
Sutherland, Tara D., Weisman, Sarah, Walker, Andrew A. and Mudie, Stephen T. (2012) Invited review: The coiled coil silk of bees, ants, and hornets. Biopolymers, 97 6: 446-454. doi:10.1002/bip.21702
Mirza, Shamaruh, Walker, Adrew, Chen, Jinglong, Murphy, James M. and Young, Ian G. (2010) The Ig-like domain of human GM-CSF receptor α plays a critical role in cytokine binding and receptor activation. Biochemical Journal, 426 3: 307-317. doi:10.1042/BJ20091745
Chen, Jinglong, Olsen, Jane, Ford, Sally, Mirza, Shamaruh, Walker, Andrew, Murphy, Jame M. and Young, Ian G. (2009) A new isoform of interleukin-3 receptor α with novel differentiation activity and high affinity binding mode. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 284 9: 5763-5773. doi:10.1074/jbc.M808197200