Richard Farmer's Daily Email Briefing

ACCESS BACK ISSUES
HERE

NEWS AND VIEWS
Australia

Other Countries

Dr James Whisstock

Federation Fellowship winner 2008.

Project : Membrane Attack Complex/Perforin-like proteins in defence, attack and developmental biology.

Current institution : Monash University .

Host institution : Monash University .

Primary research field : Biochemistry and cell biology.

Dr Whisstock is recognised as a world-leading expert on bio-information and structural biology, especially serpins. He is a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Principal Research Fellow and Logan Fellow at Monash University , and a Chief Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence in Structural and Functional Microbial Genomics.

Membrane Attack Complex/Perforin-like (MACPF) proteins play central roles in vertebrate immunity, embryonic patterning and neural development. Dr Whisstock's research program aims to better understand the links between immunity and development. Data from his research will be crucial for developing approaches to control unwanted MACPF function in transplant rejection and diseases like Type I diabetes.

Dr Whisstock completed his PhD in biochemistry at Cambridge University in the UK and then moved to Australia to take up a Fellowship in the Faculty of Medicine at Monash University . He has since held several other research fellowships in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Monash University , including an NHMRC Principle Research Fellowship, an NHMRC Peter Doherty Fellowship, and a Monash University Logan Fellowship. He was also Scientific Director of the Victorian Bioinformatics Consortium.

Dr Whisstock was awarded the Science Minister's Prize for Life Scientist of the Year in 2006, an Australian Institute of Policy and Science's Young Tall Poppy Award in 2002, and the Invitrogen Life Science Award in 2002.