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Dr. David Jacques

David Jacques leads the Structural Virology group in the School of Biomedical Sciences at UNSW. He completed his PhD at the University of Sydney under the supervision of Jill Trewhella and Mitchell Guss where he trained in crystallography and small-angle scattering. As an NHRMC Early Career Fellow, he undertook his postdoc in Cambridge at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in the group of Leo James. Here he developed his expertise in virology, publishing seminal structural work on the HIV capsid structure and its interactions with the host. Now as a group leader at UNSW, David collaborates strongly with single molecule imaging experts and virologists to integrate dynamics with structural biology thereby bringing a unique perspective to the treatment of fundamental questions in virology.

Dr. Yi Shen

Dr. Shen joined University of Sydney as a Lecturer in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering since Sep 2020. She aims to be an independent researcher in the field of protein biophysics, soft materials and microfluidics. Prior to this position, she was a postdoctoral research associate in the Chemistry Department, Centre for Misfolding Diseases at the University of Cambridge, where she was working on biophysical studies of protein liquid-liquid phase separation with Prof. Tuomas Knowles. She investigated the dynamics and probed the mechanical properties of biomolecular condensates by using microfluidic approaches. She completed her PhD in 2017 under the supervision of Prof. Raffaele Mezzenga in the Department of Health Sciences and Technology at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, where she developed novel organic-inorganic hybrid biomaterials based on protein fibrils and nanoparticles for food and nutritional purposes. Before her PhD, she also worked as a research staff with Prof. Howard Stone at Harvard University and Princeton University in the US, on bacteria/biofilm response to shear forces in microfluidic environments.

Dr. Giselle Yeo

Dr Giselle Yeo is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Life and Environmental Sciences and Group Leader at the Charles Perkins Centre. Dr Yeo completed her PhD in matrix protein biochemistry at the University of Sydney, then continued on with postdoctoral studies in the biofunctionalisation of materials for tissue engineering applications. In 2018, with a USyd Early Career Development Fellowship, she established a research program focused on stem cell biology and stem cell-based regenerative applications. Her group works on understanding and controlling stem cell behaviour with extracellular matrix molecules and surface-engineered materials. Her work has been recognised by multiple early-career awards including the Selby Research Award and Bob Fraser Young Investigator Award. Dr Yeo also directs the Australian site of the Amgen Biotech Experience, a school science outreach program dedicated to delivering a biotechnology practical curriculum to 50+ schools across Sydney.

Dr. Alex Mason

Alex completed his PhD in Chemistry in 2017 at UNSW Sydney, where he focused on building artificial mitochondria by combining polymer vesicles with purified proteins from the electron transport chain. For his first postdoc, he moved overseas to the van Hest group at the Eindhoven University of Technology (the Netherlands), to develop artificial cells made from liquid-liquid phase-separated materials. He moved back to Sydney in 2021, where he is now investigating the biophysics of DNA-based functional objects (such as pores) in planar lipid membranes, with the ultimate aim to build networks of light-addressable droplets capable of signal transduction. In his spare time, Alex loves to cook, grow vegetables, go scuba diving, and hang out with his dog Rusty.