Professor Peter Gray BSc Chem Eng (Hons) Syd, PhD NSW, FTSE, FIEAust, FAICD.
Director, Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology
Mammalian Cell Lines and Stem Cell Bioprocesses
Professor Peter Gray is the founding Director of the AIBN and internationally recognised for his work on the expression and production of complex proteins in mammalian cell cultures. Professor Gray has commercial experience working in the USA, and has held academic positions at the University College of London and at the University of California, Berkeley. Consultancy services have been provided by Professor Gray to a wide range of national and international companies and government organisations in the areas of: biotechnology; biopharmaceutical production; bioprocessing of primary and secondary metabolites; bioengineering of cell cultures, and in the technical and economic assessment of projects.

Professor Julie Campbell AO BSc (Hons) NSW, PhD Melb.
National Health and Medical Research Council Senior Principal Research Fellow
Vascular Research
Professor Julie Campbell is an NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow at the University of Queensland. Professor Campbell uses stem cell biology to bioengineer new blood vessels for transplantation. Primarily focused on the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which a healthy blood vessel becomes diseased, Professor Campbell seeks to discover ways to prevent or reverse the process.

As a vascular cell biologist, Professor Campbell focuses on cell plasticity i.e. whether there are alternative cellular sources to create an artery wall. To this end, she has been engaged in the development of an artificial blood vessel grown in the peritoneal cavity of the person into whom it will be grafted. The tissue is derived from stem cells from the person's own bone marrow, and so there is no rejection. This work is now being extended to grow other artificial organs of the urogenital system. Professor Campbell is also involved in designing strategies to target deliver drugs to sites of injury in the artery wall in order to prevent restenosis following angioplasty to remove atherosclerotic lesions.

Professor Justin Cooper-White BE (Chem) (Hons) UQ, PhD UQ.
Tissue Engineering and Microfluidics
Professor Justin Cooper-White has research interests in biomaterials processing, tissue engineering, non-Newtonian fluid mechanics, rheology and microfluidics. The Tissue Engineering and Microfluidics (TEAM) Laboratory has projects in all of these areas with a common focus of providing fundamental insight into complex polymer-based structures and systems, with the aim of ultimately tailoring and controlling their interactions with biological systems. In detail, these projects are investigating novel methods of manufacturing polymeric scaffolds and methods of surface engineering of these scaffolds for drug delivery and tissue engineering applications, new in vitro modules for mapping cell-surface and cell-scaffold interactions, manufacturing functional microparticles with micro processing plants and complex fluid behaviour in microdevices.

Dr Krassen Dimitrov MSc Sofia PhD Baylor College of Medicine.
Single Molecule Nanotechnology
Dr Dimitrov is in the process of building a diverse multidisciplinary group with expertise in nanoelectronics, electrochemistry, molecular biology and microfluidics. He has done a Ph.D. in Biochemistry at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, and a postdoctoral fellowship in Leroy Hood’s group in Seattle. Prior to joining AIBN Dr. Dimitrov was the Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of NanoString Technologies, Inc.

Professor John Drennan BSc (Hons) Flinders PhD Flinders.
Microscopic Power to Improve Materials and Devices
Professor Drennan, as the present Director of the Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis, oversees the electron microscope infrastructure located at The University of Queensland. This instrumentation provides information to a wide range of disciplines and the Centre currently runs and maintains 15 microscope columns in various configurations.

As a consequence his research uses electron microscopy to understand the relationship between the properties of a material and its internal microscopic structure.

Professor Peter Halley BE (Chem) UQ, PhD UQ, Grad. Cert. Higher Education UQ.
Rheology and Processing of Biopolymers
Professor Peter Halley is part of a group (CHPP-Processing) whose research focuses on rheology and processing of biopolymers and nanostructured polymers. This research includes multiphase polymers, biopolymers for high value manufacturing and biomedical applications, and novel polymer processing methods for nanostructured and biopolymers.

Professor Halley is part of the Centre for High Performance Polymers (CHPP) the largest single University polymer research centre in Australia. Specialist research and consultancy services can be provided in the areas of characterisation, processing and flow simulation of polymers, (nano) composites, biodegradable polymers, biomaterials, fluids and foodstuffs.

Professor Mark Kendall BE (Hons) UQ, PhD UQ.
Needle Free Gene, Drug and Vaccine Delivery
Professor Kendall focuses on the delivery of biomolecules and stimuli to cells in skin (and other soft tissue) using physical methods. The goal is novel delivery strategies for step-change improvements in the treatment/vaccination of key major diseases. Professor Kendall joined the AIBN from the University of Oxford, where he was Associate Director of the PowderJect Centre for Gene and Drug Delivery Research, University Research Lecturer (Engineering Science) and Lecturer (Magdalen College). He also has both research commercialisation and consultancy experience, working with companies in the areas of drug delivery devices and vaccines.

Professor G.Q. Max Lu  BE, ME Northeastern, PhD UQ, FTSE, FIChemE.
Professor of Chemical Engineering in Nanotechnology
Functional Nanomaterials Research to Improve Energy, Environment and Health
Professor Lu is Director, ARC Centre for Functional Nanomaterials. His areas of expertise include the synthesis and molecular engineering of nanomaterials such as inorganic nanoparticles,carbons,nanoporous materials and membranes, and nanocomposites. His team is developing many innovative applications of such materials in clean energy and environmental technologies as well as in biomedical fields. He has won numerous prestigious awards including Orica Award, Le Fevre Prize, RK Murphy Medal, and Top 100 Most Influential Engineers in Australia. He has served on two PMSEIC Expert Working Groups, ARC College of Experts, and other federal government committees.

Associate Professor Steve Mahler BSc (Hons) Syd, PhD UQ.
Biologics
Associate Professor Stephen Mahler’s research activities focus on the discovery and development of recombinant proteins as drugs, also called biologics or biopharmaceuticals. Many natural growth factors and hormones for example, are able to treat diseases such as cancer, heart disease and inflammatory disease such as rheumatoid arthritis. Of particular interest are monoclonal antibodies, which are a major class of biopharmaceuticals, accounting for 30 percent of all new biologics in clinical development. Our research includes the isolation of monoclonal antibodies of therapeutic significance from large, immunoglobulin gene libraries against selected disease targets.

Associate Professor Mahler also offers education and training programs in all aspects of biologics R&D, and has delivered professional development programs to Big Pharma and government agencies both nationally and internationally.

Associate Professor Darren Martin B.Appl.Sci. (Materials) UTS, PhD UTS.
Nanotoxicology, Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering
Associate Professor Martin is a materials scientist with broad interests and experience in biomaterials, structure-property relationships in nanostructured materials, polymer technology and polymeric nanocomposites.

His research within AIBN deals with polymer-clay nanocomposites for medical and non-medical applications, mechanical aspects of tissue engineering, and the health and safety surrounding engineered nanoparticles. He has a patent on novel compliant, resilient polyurethane nanocomposite elastomers.

Professor Anton Middelberg BE (Hons) Adel, PhD Adel, MA Camb. FIChemE, FTSE. 
Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Biomolecular Engineering
Professor Anton Middelberg's research focuses on the science of chemical self-assembly processing, with the ultimate aim of defining new functional products and new process routes for the manufacture of existing products. He is particularly interested in products that comprise ordered biomolecules, with current research foci in the area of stimuli-responsive peptide-stabilised emulsions, self-assembling processing of viral vaccines, and the recovery of biological products.

Professor Middelberg moved to the AIBN from the University of Cambridge where he was the Reader in Biological Engineering and a Fellow of Selwyn College. He has received a number of awards, has published more than 100 refereed papers at the interface between biology and engineering, and has editorial roles on journals including Chemical Engineering Science (Executive Editor), Trends in Biotechnology (Advisory Editorial Board Member) and Biochemical Engineering Journal (Associate Editor).

Professor Michael Monteiro BSc (Hons) Griffith, PhD Griffith.
ARC QEII Fellow
AIBN Postgraduate Co-ordinator
Structure and Function of Complex Polymer Architecture
Associate Professor Monteiro's research aims to develop methods of synthesising complex polymer architectures in water, with controlled particle size, molecular weight and morphology. By understanding the structure-property relations of these novel nanomaterials, targeted properties can be manufactured for vaccine and drug delivery. Easily recycled polymers that could be used in a variety of products have been synthesised.

Professor Lars Nielsen MEngSc Denmark, PhD UQ.
Tissue and Metabolic Engineering
Professor Nielsen is dedicated to both the advancement of bioengineering science and its application to specific problems. Using thermodynamic principles, novel approaches are developed for handling complex, transient dynamics in developing tissue as well as rational design of complex pathways. These novel approaches are used in the design of bioprocesses as diverse as the production of blood cells for transfusion and the production of industrial biopolymers.

Dr Steven Reid BSc (Hons) Griffith, PhD Griffith.
Biopesticides
Increased resistance to chemical pesticides and concern over their use has seen renewed interest in the application of biological means to control pests of commercial importance. Moreover, as our understanding of the engineered ecologies responsible for our food supply increases, the "slash and burn" approaches of old become not merely undesirable, but unnecessary and inefficient. We are involved with the advancement of technology that is necessary to reduce the cost of production of biological control agents. Our research is concerned with the effective scale-up of insect viruses, fungal biopesticides and bacteria for use in aquaculture.

Professor Sean Smith BSc Canterbury, PhD Canterbury FRACI.
Computational Simulation and Visualisation of Molecular Systems
Professor Sean Smith is the foundation Chair of Computational Molecular Science, and Director of the Centre for Computational Molecular Science. His research projects include: theories and computational methods for the quantum description of molecular reactions; computational studies of fluorescent proteins; computational modeling of hydrogen storage in new materials; computational studies of DNA capture and delivery into cells by nanoparticles; computational device modeling of proposed quantum computing architectures; and computational characterization of the mechanism for multi-step proton transfer in proteins.

Professor Matt Trau BSc (Hons) Syd, PhD Melb.
ARC Federation Fellow
Nanotechnology and Biomaterials
Professor Matt Trau has a well-established and outstanding track record of research output in the area of NanoBiotechnology. Professor Trau's specific research interests involve the nanostructured assembly and manipulation of matter to produce materials and devices for application in medicine and biotechnology. Research outcomes include artificial scaffolds, novel devices for genomics, proteomics, drug discovery, diagnostics and devices for controlled drug release.

Professor Andrew Whittaker BSc (Hons) UQ, PhD UQ.
Polymer Chemistry
Professor Whittaker is working  to bridge the gap between fundamental physical sciences and applications in the field of new materials, in particular biomaterials.  His  research strengths are in magnetic resonance and polymeric materials. Professor Whittaker works as part of the Polymer Chemistry  group  and  has a particular interest in solid-state NMR of polymer morphology and properties, and MRI of fluids in polymers and other materials.  In the field of polymer physical chemistry studies are currently being undertaken on hydrogels for controlled release and lenses, composite materials, and the use of supercritical CO2 for the formation of new materials, among many other topics.  The current focus is the study of the synthesis and properties of biopolymers.

The Polymer Chemistry Group has commercial contracts with International Sematech, a consortium of microelectronics manufacturers.  The  program involves the synthesis of new polymers with high refractive indices for use as the next generation resist polymers. The Group has also been recently funded by Dupont Central Research to study the mechanisms of thermal degradation of fluorinated thermoplastics. This work has lead to a detailed understanding of the causes of enhanced degradation of branched fluoropolymers.