Meet The Team

Team Leader

Dr Cameron Stewart

Principal Research Scientist

  • Cam is a principal research scientist and Team Leader, having completed his PhD at the University of Melbourne and a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School. His research interests include developing better ways to detect infectious diseases by measuring and harnessing host immune responses to infection. Outside of work Cam enjoys golf, tennis, Star Wars and Led Zeppelin.

Scientists

Dr Marina Alexander

Research Scientist

  • Marina is an EMCR with expertise in RNA biology, virology, drug discovery, biomarkers of infectious disease and museum genomics using molecular tools and bioinformatics. She studies small things at scale to solve big problems, providing front-line responders; clinicians, vets, farmers, public health and biosecurity officials, with tools to rapidly contain disease outbreaks. Her doctorate training was at the Peter Doherty Institute studying HIV and post doctorate studies at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York where she assisted the HIV vaccine development mission. After a career break she combined her childhood passion for Australian wildlife and genomics to work on protocol development for sequencing formalin fixed museum specimens at National Collections, CSIRO. This was followed by a postdoc at the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness developing pan-viral therapeutics for Henipaviruses. She was recently appointed as a Research Scientist to work on host biomarkers of emergency animal diseases such as Lumpy Skin Disease and leads a collaboration with National Collections and the Department of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries to perform host-specific temporal viral surveillance using museum bats and rodents in The Australian National Wildlife Collection.

Dr Aaron Brice

Research Scientist

  • Aaron is a research scientist with a background in molecular biology, innate immunity, and molecular virology. His current research involves identifying and characterising novel genes/proteins that regulate our immune responses, with the aim of developing new therapeutic targets for the treatment of immune-related diseases such as inflammation and infection. He joined CSIRO and the Host Response team in 2019 as a postdoctoral research fellow, following completion of his PhD at the University of Melbourne in the lab of Greg Moseley, during which he investigated host-pathogen interactions important to lyssavirus infection and immune evasion. Aaron specialises in the use of molecular and biochemical tools, cell-based assays, and microscopy to delineate the functions of virus and host proteins and their impact on biological processes.

Dr Ryan Farr

Senior Research Scientist

  • Dr Ryan Farr is a molecular biologist and bioinformatician. His research is focussed on characterising host molecular responses to disease using next generation sequencing and advanced machine learning algorithms. This approach identifies biomarkers that aid in health monitoring and disease management. He has investigated the use of biomarkers in several diseases, including diabetes, rabies, and bovine mastitis, to enable clinicians and veterinarians to implement early, effective treatment. To that end, Ryan works closely with industry professionals, as well as biosensing and nanofabrication experts to understand how these biomarkers can be used in clinical practice. Ryan completed his PhD in Medicine at the Hardikar Laboratory within the NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre, University of Sydney in 2017, then underwent a three-year Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Australian Animal Health Laboratory before joining the Host Response Team.

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Dr Md Zohorul Islam

Research Scientist

  • Zohorul (Zahir) is a highly experienced veterinarian and microbiologist with over a decade of expertise in the fields of infectious diseases, antimicrobial resistance, microbial genomics, microbiomes, immunology, and RNA-seq research. His current research endeavours focus on creating technology for the early detection and accurate prediction of complex diseases related to co-infections. He is working towards establishing a genomic platform for the in-depth molecular immune response analysis of infections, including RNA synthesis, post-transcriptional modifications, specific nuclease events, and decay. He holds a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) degree and a Master's in Microbiology from Chattogram Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, and a PhD in Molecular Bacteriology and Infections from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. Following the completion of his PhD, Zahir was awarded a highly coveted research grant from the Lundbeck Foundation for a three-year postdoctoral fellowship at both Harvard University and the University of Copenhagen. During this time, he worked in the Microbiome Lab under the supervision of Dr. Alex Kostic at Joslin Diabetes Centre and Harvard Medical School, as well as in Dr. Axel Hansen's lab at the University of Copenhagen. Through his postdoctoral research, he explored the role of the gut microbiome in regulating immunity and its relationship with type 1 diabetes.

Dr Carlos Rodrigues

Research Scientist

  • Carlos is a research scientist focusing on the use of next-generation sequence data and machine learning to develop more efficient pipelines for the identification of biomarkers in infectious diseases. Prior to joining the Host Response team, Carlos had a joint appointment as a postdoctoral fellow at the Baker Institute and University of Queensland, exploring machine learning approaches to identify protein binding sites and investigate the impact of genetic mutations on protein-protein interaction networks, and their connection to diseases. During his doctoral studies at the University of Melbourne, Carlos applied data analysis and artificial intelligence to develop novel computational methods for studying genetic mutations and their link to disease development, as well as to identify drug-resistant mutations in TB infections and to model the consequences of genetic changes in SARS-CoV-2.

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Christina Rootes

Experimental Scientist

  • Christina is a classical virologist specialising in high biosafety level viruses. She first joined CSIRO in the Diagnostic, Surveillance, and Response group where she gained expertise in serology and isolating, cultivating, and characterising viruses at BSL-3 and -4. In 2010 Christina joined the Disease Prevention and Detection team on a project screening host genes for involvement in Hendra virus replication. Christina specialises in RNAi screening, drug and compound screening, developing improved strategies for early disease detection, and providing high level pathogen skills to members of the wider scientific community.

Rasan Sathiqu

Experimental Scientist

  • Rasan is an Experimental Scientist who joined the Host Response team at the end of 2022. She completed her Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree through the University of Melbourne at the St. Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research. For her Honour’s project, she studied a novel regulatory mechanism of Calcium-Calmodulin Kinase Kinase 2 (CaMKK2) which is involved in regulating energy homeostasis and thereby relevant to metabolic diseases like cancer and type 2 diabetes. Following this, she worked for 3 years as a Research Assistant at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre (PMCC) where her work focused on identifying metabolic dependencies in the context of breast cancer cells and delineating the signalling pathways contributing to chemotherapy resistance. Here she gained extensive experience across a range of cell and molecular biology techniques including cell culture, immunofluorescence, western blotting, cloning and plasmid DNA extraction. She also briefly worked in the Genotyping facility at the PMCC, where she validated the genotypes of experimental mouse models by conventional PCR, qRT-PCR, melt curve analyses or flow cytometry as well as performed mycoplasma testing services for the institute.

Jenny Su

Experimental Scientist

  • Jenny began her career in science at the Royal Children’s Hospital as a training medical scientist providing PCR and viral load testing for various infectious diseases. After a short time in pathology, she joined the infectious disease research team at the Royal Women’s Hospital, focusing on using molecular tools to increase understanding of disease transmission and epidemiology of Mycoplasma genitalium, an emerging STI that causes non-gonococcal, non-chlamydial urethritis and cervicitis. She continued to develop her knowledge and skills in genomic sequencing and bioinformatics through her Master study in Bioinformatics at the University of London and her work at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, where her research focused on infant gut microbiome. She started at CSIRO in 2021 as an experimental scientist within the Health & Biosecurity Business Unit, working on projects that involve discovering and developing host miRNAs as biomarkers for the early detection of disease.

Dr Annaleise Wilson

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

  • Annaleise is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow whose project focusses on understanding the host-microbiome interaction in livestock, and its impact on host immune function and health. The project is also interested in the identification of host-encoded microRNA biomarkers for the prediction of immune competency and productivity traits in cattle to aid in the improvement animal production efficiencies. Annaleise’s research is part of the CSIRO Microbiomes for One Systems Health (MOSH) Future Science Platform. Annaleise joined the Host Response team following the completion of her PhD at the University of Queensland, which was undertaken in collaboration with CSIRO Agriculture and Food. Annaleise’s areas of interest include molecular biology, microbiome analysis and bioinformatics.

CSIRO Microbiomes for One System Health (MOSH) Future Science Platform (FSP)

Students

Georgia Kennedy

PhD Candidate

  • Georgia is a PhD student who began her HDR journey with the Host Response team in early 2024 under the supervision of Dr Marina Alexander. Her work with the Host Response team at the ACDP aims to improve the specificity of miRNA and blood cell biomarkers for improved surveillance of key bovine diseases, such as Johnes Disease (JD). Georgia completed her Bachelor of Animal Science (Honours) in 2023 at Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga and is continuing her higher education through CSU. In her honours year, Georgia worked with Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) assays on a point of care test for Beak and Feather Disease Virus (BFDV). Her work primarily involved using rapid DNA extraction techniques on feathers and testing the performance of BFDV LAMP primers against the PCR gold standard.

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Previous Team Members

Daniel Dalton

Honours Student

  • Daniel completed his Honours within the Host Response Team after graduating from Deakin University with a Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences. His Honour’s project investigated the mechanistic action in which ILRUN mediates the innate immune system’s inflammatory response to viral infection. This project aided the identification of potential next-generation therapeutic targets. With research interests in immunology, molecular biology and virology, Daniel is eager to continue developing the relevant and necessary skills and knowledge required for a career in research.

Talym Myler

UROP Student

  • Talym was an undergrad student studying a Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Melbourne planning to major in Computing and Software Systems, with course interests including machine learning, data processing/analysis, genetics, and bioinformatics. He joined CSIRO in early 2023 through the Undergrad Research Opportunity Program (UROP).

Dr Leon Tribolet

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

  • Leon completed his PhD at the James Cook University Institute of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in the Loukas Laboratory working on host-pathogen interactions and hookworm ASP proteins, before undertaking a postdoc at Monash University in anatomy and developmental biology. He was a postdoctoral fellow at CSIRO between 2018 and 2021. His areas of interest include molecular biology, immunology, virology, parasitology and microscopy. His postdoctoral research project focused on the ILRUN gene and it's modulation of inflammation and disease in vivo and ex vivo.