Meet the team
Centre Executive & Operations Team
Professor Eduardo Eyras
Centre Director
Eduardo is a highly regarded expert in the creation of advanced computational tools tailored to the study of RNA biology. Eduardo’s expertise in developing cutting edge computational solutions has consistently addressed a wide spectrum of intricate challenges within the field of RNA biology.
Dr Arash Araghi
HDR Manager
Arash supports initiatives that strengthen the HDR candidate experience and research capability across the Centre. His work spans HDR strategy and program development, student engagement and cohort experience, career development, and work-integrated learning (WIL), including industry placements, partnerships with industry and government agencies, and industry-funded PhD opportunities. Arash completed an undergraduate degree in Medical Science (First Class Honours) and a PhD in Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, and brings a cross-disciplinary perspective to designing practical, student-centred initiatives that connect research training with real-world pathways.
Associate Professor Jiayu Wen
Deputy Director
Jean’s expertise lies at the intersection of RNA-mediated post-transcriptional gene regulation and the intricate world of computational biology.
Dr Jin Yan Yap
Project Lead
Jin is an expert in clinical immunology, with a focus on rare genetic diseases and targeted therapies. Her career spans postdoctoral research at the Garvan Institute, grant and project management at ANU, and commercial and industry engagement, driving impactful biomedical innovations.
Our Research Fellows
Dr Rita Ferreira
rDNA regulation and therapeutic targeting
Dr Nadine Hein
DNA biology in cancer and stress
Our Group Leaders
Associate Professor Tamás Fischer
An expert in nuclear non-coding RNAs with a focus on R-loops and RNA-DNA hybrids.
Professor Ian Cockburn
Ian is a malaria immunology expert, leads pioneering research on B cell responses to malaria and vaccine efficacy.
Associate Professor Marian Burr
Marian is a clinician scientist and Snow Fellow at ANU, leads cutting-edge research on cancer immunology and epigenetics, focusing on overcoming immunotherapy resistance and improving outcomes for advanced cancer patients.
Associate Professor Tony Millar
Leading expert in plant RNA biology. Tony’s research focuses on microRNAs as key regulators of gene expression. Using Arabidopsis models, he explores the roles of microRNAs in development, disease resistance, target specificity, and programmed cell death; and engineers miRNA pathways for innovative applications.
Dr Joanna Melonek
Joanna is an expert in plant mitochondrial RNA biology. Her research focuses on protein-RNA interactions, including evolutionary plasticity in binding specificity, to understand fertility restoration mechanisms and to engineer applications to advance hybrid crop breeding.
Professor Thomas Preiss
Thomas is as a global authority in the field of mRNA biology. Over three decades, his RNA research has led to insights that are key features of today’s successful mRNA therapeutics, making him an indispensable architect of our current scientific achievements.
Associate Professor Dan Andrews
Dan develops computational and bioinformatics methods to study genetic variation and function in relation to immune cell development, autoimmunity, and rare diseases. He is interested in mutations that affect the function of RNA-binding proteins and in their role in disease.
Dr Tatiana Soboleva
Tatiana's research delves into the intricate mechanisms governing testis-specific epigenetic regulators, including histone variants, and their impact on pre-mRNA splicing, gene expression and genome compaction within their physiological environment of the testis.
Associate Professor Minh Bui
Minh is a world-renowned expert in the development of advanced bioinformatics and AI-based methods for evolutionary inference from large datasets. His core focus includes phylogenetic modelling across viruses, bacteria, and eukaryotes, as well as in cancer, using genomic, proteomic, and RNA information.
Associate Professor Riccardo Natoli
Riccardo, in collaboration with his dedicated team have pioneered the creation of a unique rodent model for dry Age-Related Macular Degeneration, a breakthrough innovation of great significance in the realm of miRNA therapeutics and diagnostics research.
Dr Paul Marshall
Paul specialises in neuroscience and RNA biology to uncover regulatory mechanisms of memory in neurons. He also develops innovative technologies to measure RNA in neurons with temporal, cell-type, and cell-compartment resolution to investigate experience-dependent gene expression.
Professor Benjamin Schwessinger
Benjamin is a leading researcher in plant-fungal interactions, genomics, and the evolution of rust pathogens. His research includes RNA transcriptomics to understand pathogen-host adaptation and synthetic biology to develop rapid detection assays for pathogen molecules in crops.