2025 Registration and Abstract Submission - OPEN NOW
2025 Speakers (International)
Professor Chase Beisel
Chase Beisel received his bachelors and doctoral degrees in chemical engineering, although he always maintained an interest in engineering biomolecules and biological systems. His doctoral work at the California Institute of Technology (Pasadena, California, USA) with Dr. Christina Smolke introduced him to the concept of RNA engineering. He then completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, Maryland, USA) under the direction of Dr. Gisela Storz exploring the natural properties of RNA regulators. He then began his faculty position in the department of chemical and biomolecular engineering at North Carolina State University (Raleigh, North Carolina, USA) in 2011 pursuing RNA-guided immune systems called CRISPR-Cas systems. He was promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure shortly before transitioning to the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (Würzburg, Germany) in 2018, where he focuses on applying RNA engineering to better understand, diagnose, and treat infectious disease.
Dr Elizabeth Kellogg
Elizabeth Kellogg did her undergraduate studies at UC Berkeley and received a PhD from the University of Washington, working on computational biology in the group of David Baker. She then became a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Eva Nogales at UC Berkeley using cryo-electron microscopy. Her scientific background results in a scientific approach that seeks to understand biology with a quantitative perspective, relying on biological structure determination and design. Since starting her own group at Cornell University in 2019, Dr. Kellogg has sought to understand how transposons reshape genomes and how they can be repurposed as genome-editing tools. In particular, her group has investigated the behavior and molecular mechanisms of programable, CRISPR-associated transposons (CASTs), to determine how DNA integration is regulated spatially and temporally in a genomic context, using a combination of biochemical, structural, single-molecule and genetic approaches. Among other honors, Dr. Kellogg was selected as Pew Biomedical Scholar in 2021 and received the 2023 Margaret Oakley Dayhoff Award from the Biophysical Society. She joined St. Jude as an Associate Member in 2023.
2025 Speakers (Australia)
Professor Marco Herold
Marco is an NHMRC Leadership Fellow, Honorary Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne, and laboratory head and CEO of the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute in Melbourne, Victoria. During his PhD and first postdoctoral studies at the University of Würzburg (Germany), Marco was trained in cell death research and mouse genetics. In 2008, he moved to Australia to join the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, where he served as a Laboratory Head in the Blood Cells and Blood Cancer Division and Head of the Melbourne Genome Editing Centre (MAGEC). Marco’s research team specialises in applying CRISPR gene editing techniques to identify novel gene targets required for the development and sustained growth of cancer cells. Recent findings identified DNA repair as fundamental for TP53-mediated tumour suppression (Janic et al, Nature Medicine 2018). With >130 publications (H-index 41) Marco has a comprehensive track record in cancer genetics and gene engineering. His current research specialises in applying advanced genome-wide CRISPR screens (including knockout, activation, and base-editing) to discover vulnerabilities that can be exploited for cancer therapy.
Dr Susan Woods
Susan is a biomedical scientist with three first author Nature publications to her credit. She trained with Nobel Laureate J. Michael Bishop (UCSF, USA), Prof Nick Hayward (QIMR-B, Australia) and A/Prof Daniel Worthley (SAHMRI, Australia). She established her Gut Cancer Research group at SAHMRI in 2019 supported by NHMRC Ideas/Project grant funding and a Beat Cancer SA fellowship. She continues this work as the Gastroenterological Society of Australia Bushell Research Fellow. Her research integrates state-of-the-art approaches using both patient samples and sophisticated preclinical models, to address clinical needs for gut cancer patients.
Dr Gavin Knott
Gavin has a long-standing interest in RNA biology and biotechnology. His research interests over the years have been centred on understanding the evolution of diverse proteins that recognise one of biologies most remarkable polymers, RNA. Originally from country Western Australia, Gavin obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Western Australia in the labs of Prof. Charlie Bond and Prof. Archa Fox where he was trained as a structural biologist. His Ph.D. project sought to understand the mechanisms of long non-coding RNA binding proteins involved in human innate immunity and paraspeckle formation.
After completing his PhD, Gavin accepted a position in the lab of Nobel laureate Prof. Jennifer Doudna at the University of California Berkeley. Here he leveraged his training as a structural biologist to investigate the mechanisms of RNA guided CRISPR-Cas immune systems. During his postdoctoral years he described structures of RNA targeting CRISPR Cas13 systems, the mechanisms evolved by phage to overcome CRISPR immunity, and the molecular basis for precision CRISPR Cas9 genome editing tools. Gavin leads the Knott Lab at Monash University in the Biomedicine Discovery Institute.
Dr Karen Massel
Karen Massel is a Research Fellow in QAAFI at the University of Queensland whose research group is focused on the improvement of crops using genomic and biotechnological tools. She began her scientific journey through obtaining an Honours BSc in Pharmaceutical sciences (Genomics) from the University Ottawa where her honours focused on the impact of RNA stability in cold-treated wheat seedlings. From there she joined Ian Godwin's group in SAFS at UQ to start her PhD in developing and optimising biotechnological tools in sorghum to understand food and feed quality. As a research fellow, she has applied these initiatives to numerous tropical grain crops and using these tools to study a range of traits focused on understanding key developmental pathways.
Dr Mohamed Fareh
Mohamed is a mid-career research leader with a diverse background encompassing RNA biology, CRISPR, and advanced quantitative single-molecule approaches. He completed his Ph.D. training in France, where he investigated the role of non-coding RNAs in regulating tumor heterogeneity and cell plasticity. Following this, he pursued postdoctoral training in single-molecule biophysics in the Netherlands, where he developed advanced single-molecule pulldown and fluorescence assays to study RNA interference and CRISPR dynamics at nanometer and millisecond scales. In August 2018, Mohamed joined the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre as a senior research fellow, where he initiated new research directions aimed at effectively silencing tumor and viral RNAs using cutting-edge CRISPR tools. His current research focuses on three primary areas: (i) understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying various CRISPR enzymes at the nanoscale level, (ii) engineering innovative CRISPR-based therapeutics, and (iii) developing lipid nanoparticles for targeted delivery of CRISPR therapeutics. Recently, Mohamed's team uncovered crucial design principles of CRISPR-Cas13, enabling efficient and precise silencing of oncogenic RNAs (Hu et al, Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, 2024; Shembrey et al, Science Advances, in press, 2024), as well as infectious viruses, including SARS-CoV-2 (Fareh* et al, Nature Communications, 2021).
Dr Teresa Sadras
Dr Teresa Sadras is a molecular biologist with more than ten years of experience in studying deregulated signalling networks in blood cancers. She received her PhD in 2014 from the University of Adelaide, followed by two post-doctoral trainings at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute and the Beckman Research Institute in Los Angeles. While in the USA, Dr Sadras was awarded a Lymphoma Research Foundation Fellowship for her research into B-cell leukaemia. Dr Sadras is currently a Senior Research Officer at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and holds a Gilead Research Scholar Award in Haematological malignancies.
Dr Sandro Ataide
Sandro F Ataide is a biochemist and structural biologist at the School of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Sydney since 2012. He completed his PhD at The Ohio State University. He was a post-doc at UC Berkeley and at ETH in Zurich. His research on the structural and biochemical characterization of RNAs and RNA-protein complexes discovered a new gene editing tool named seekRNA.
Dr Shivani Pasricha
Shivani Pasricha is a laboratory head in the Department of Infectious Diseases at the Doherty Institute, spearheading rapid point-of-care diagnostics for infectious diseases with advanced technologies like CRISPR. She holds honorary positions at Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory and the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, and sits on the executive committee for the ARC funded ITRP antimicrobial resistance hub, world-first partnership between industry, researchers and end users to transform AMR and stewardship. Her team utilizes molecular and genomic approaches to enhance detection, prevention, and surveillance of infectious diseases, addressing critical clinical challenges.
Shivani earned her PhD from the Genetics Department at the University of Melbourne, where she authored several pioneering articles on fungal pathogenesis. During her postdoctoral tenure focused on Legionnaires Disease, Shivani gained recognition for her innovative research on Legionella nuclear effectors and amoebal infection, earning prestigious awards including the UniMelb ECR Research Grant, Lorne Infection and Immunity Career Development Award, and the Hudson Institute Next Big Idea Pitch Award. Currently, she is recognised as a rising leader in rapid diagnostics and STI research, publishing in multiple high impact journals. In 2024, Shivani received the Gilead Fellowship and Norman Beischer Innovation Grant.
Associate Professor Paul Beavis
Assocociate Proffessor Beavis completed his PhD at Imperial College London in 2010, studying the role of regulatory T cells in rheumatoid arthritis and joined the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in 2011 to work in the Cancer Immunology Program. He formed an independent research group in 2018, where his team is focused on the development of novel cancer immunotherapies.
His team has a significant interest in developing novel CAR T cell technology to enhance their effectiveness in solid cancer, guided by the philosophy that engagement of host immunity is key for effective responses. Their work has been published in leading journals including Nature, Nature Immunology, The Journal of Clinical Investigation and Nature Communications. Recently his team have developed expertise in CRISPR/Cas9 technology enabling them to engineer CAR T cells to overcome tumour-induced immunosuppression. He is a fundamental cancer researcher and immunologist but his work has a strong translational focus. His collaborative research studies with industry partners and clinicians have provided the foundation for translation of his work, including the development of novel CAR T cell technologies for clinical use in conjunction with the Centre of Excellence in Cellular Immunotherapy. Other major focuses of Paul’s group include improving the trafficking of immune cells to ‘cold’ tumours and understanding the mechanisms of adenosine-mediated suppression.
Paul was awarded a Lloyd J. Old STAR award (2024-2028), holds a Mid-Career Fellowship from the Victorian Cancer Agency and his work is supported by funding from Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (US), NHMRC, Cancer Australia, NBCF, Tour De Cure and Cancer Council Victoria.
Professor Catherine Mills
Catherine is a professor in the Monash Bioethics Centre. Her disciplinary background is philosophy, and her research addresses ethical issues in human reproduction, especially from the perspective of how new reproductive technologies impact on women. She also has expertise in feminist philosophy and aspects of continental philosophy, particularly the work of Michel Foucault, and debates on biopolitics. She's the author of three books, as well as numerous articles and book chapters. She's the founding coordinator of the Reproduction Research Network, and a member of the Health and Biofutures Focus Program at Monash University.
Dr Omer Gilan
Dr Omer Gilan is a group leader in the Australian Centre for Blood Diseases, School of Translational Medicine at Monash University. He completed his PhD studies at the Bio21 institute, University of Melbourne and postdoctoral training at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre (leukaemia foundation fellowship and mid-career VCA fellowship) with Prof. Mark Dawson. Dr Gilan has expertise in epigenetic regulation, targeted therapies and blood cancers and has made major contributions to these areas, which include dissecting the mechanisms of combination epigenetic therapies in acute leukaemia (Gilan et al. Nature Structural and Molecular Biology 2016), delineating the selective functions of the BET proteins in cancer and inflammation (Gilan et al. Science 2020) and developing a novel CRISPR-screening method to uncover mechanisms of chromatin regulation (Gilan et al. Nature Structural and Molecular Biology 2023). He currently holds an EL2 investigator grant from NHMRC as well as an ideas grant. The Gilan lab is interested in understanding the unique ways in which chromatin regulation influences fundamental cellular processes and the development of therapeutic resistance in cancer.
Associate Professor Charles Robin
Charles Robin currently works at the School of BioSciences, University of Melbourne. Charles does research in Evolutionary Biology, Population Genetics and Entomology.