Prof Matt Trau | University of Queensland

Prof Matt Trau, Director Centre for Personalised Nanomedicine, UQ

Some novel nanotechnologies for cancer and infectious disease applications in precision medicine

Speaker biography

Matt Trau is currently a Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Centre for Personalised Nanomedicine at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. He is also senior group leader and co-founder of the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN). He also currently holds the UQ-CSIRO Chair in Personalised Nanodiagnostics. His research is dedicated towards developing innovative nano-diagnostics to help transform the healthcare system towards early detection and personalized treatment of disease.  This approach aims to dramatically extend high quality human life through a combination of innovative diagnostic technology, molecular-guided therapies and preventative measures.  Since graduating from the University of Sydney (BSc Hons I, University Medal) and the University of Melbourne (PhD in Physical Chemistry, 1993), he has held positions within industry and academia across the globe. These include a Fulbright Research Fellowship at Princeton University, USA, a research scientist at Dow Chemical and ICI Pty Ltd. Matt has also been a Visiting Professor at two of the largest Cancer Research Centres in the world: The Dana Farber Cancer Research Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston (2000), and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre, Seattle (2008). Matt is internationally recognised for his innovative and cross-disciplinary research at the interface between chemistry, nanotechnology, biology and medicine. He has co-authored more than 235+ publications, many of which appear in the highest impact journals in his field, e.g., twelve Science and Nature family journal publications overall to date.  His major awards and honours include an ARC Federation Fellowship, a Fulbright Research Fellowship to the US, a “Young Tall Poppy" Award for Queensland, a UQ Foundation/Vice Chancellor’s Research Excellence Award, a Paul Harris Fellowship, and a Pink Circle Award for breast cancer research excellence. Matt is also the co-founder of Xing Technologies Pty Ltd, a biotechnology company located in Brisbane.

In Dec 2018, Matt’s laboratory published a paper in the journal Nature Communications describing a universal DNA nano-signature for cancer.  This discovery and related detection technology has been dubbed the “10 minute cancer test”.  It has subsequently received broad media interest globally and has been selected by CNN and the journal BioScope as one of the “Top scientific advances” for 2018.

 

Host: Prof David Nisbet, Cancer Biology and Therapeutics Department