Chief Investigators
DARIO ARRUA
IDEAL Hub Chief Investigator
University of South Australia
ANDREW CARE
IDEAL Hub Chief Investigator
University of Technology Sydney
CHARLES CRANFIELD
IDEAL Hub Chief Investigator
University of Technology Sydney
ALLISON COWIN
IDEAL Hub Chief Investigator
University of South Australia
SHANLIN FU
IDEAL Hub Chief Investigator
University of Technology Sydney
EMILY HILDER
Alumni, Previously IDEAL Hub Deputy Director & Chief Investigator
University of South Australia
Professor Emily Hilder was previously the Director of the Future Industries Institute (FII) and Deputy Director of the IDEAL Research Hub for integrated devices for end-user analysis at low levels (IDEAL) at University of South Australia.
Emily is a graduate of the University of Tasmania where she completed her PhD in analytical chemistry in 2000. Following postdoctoral positions at Johannes Kepler University (Austria) and the E.O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (USA) she returned to Australia and University of Tasmania in 2004 where she held two IDEAL Fellowships (APD, Future Fellowship) as well as positions as Assistant Dean of Graduate Research and Head of Chemistry. She was inaugural Director of the IDEAL Hub Training Centre for Portable Analytical Separation Technologies (ASTech) before relocating to the University of South Australia in 2016. Her research is the field of analytical chemistry and materials science and is focused on the design and application of new materials that can be used to improve analytical measurements. Her work has led to commercial and field adoption in separation science, bioanalysis, disease diagnosis, environment and food science, defence and national security.
Postdoctoral Fellows
AMANI ALGHALAYINI
IDEAL Hub Postdoc Fellow
University of Technology Sydney
Amani Alghalayini is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), in the Molecular Biosciences team. She has received her Bachelor and Master degree in Biological Medical Sciences. Her research interest lies in understanding cell-electrode interfaces and optimal architecture for developing ion switches nano-biosensor for cell detection utilizing the tethered bilayer lipid membranes in conjunction with electrical impedance spectroscopy technologies.
BIN GUAN
IDEAL Hub Postdoc Fellow
University of South Australia
Dr Bin Guan started her PhD and postdoctoral research in the University of New South Wales, Australia, working in a multidisciplinary project involving chemistry, physics and biology, where she published in the fields of surface chemistry, physical chemistry, bio-conjugation and biosensors. In 2015, she took up a research associate position in the University of South Australia. Since then she has been working on several research projects related to analytical chemistry (including biosensors), material science and engineering, and advanced manufacturing. She has rich research experience in surface functionalisation, micro/nano fabrication, optics, silicon-based material science and biosensing and she is familiar with a variety of material/surface characterization tools, including XPS, FTIR, SEM, XRD, etc. Her research interests are mainly on functional (nano)materials for biological and environmental applications, such as sensing and diagnosis.
KRISHANTHI JAYASUNDERA
IDEAL Hub Postdoc Fellow
University of Technology Sydney
Krishanthi graduated from University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka with a honours degree in Chemistry. She received both a Masters and PhD in Chemistry from Kanazawa University, Japan. After her PhD she moved to New Zealand and worked as a post-doctoral researcher and a Senior Research Officer at Massey University for nearly 16 years. During this period, she was involved in various research projects focused on the chemical synthesis and analysis of architecturally interesting molecules which have biological, environmental and/or medicinal significance. After moving to Sydney, she worked at Macquarie University in the Department of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences. Her research focused on vibrational circular dichroism along with other spectroscopic methods for the structure and function analysis of chiral molecules. She has published over 30 research articles in different international journals and conference proceedings. She has also edited conference proceedings and books.
LELE JIANG
IDEAL Hub Postdoc Fellow
University of Technology
Dr Lele Jiang was trained as a chemical engineer in Beijing and obtained her PhD in Biochemistry at University of Sydney. With more than 20 years research experience, she has had academic appointments as honorary research fellow at University College London, senior research fellow at the St Vincent’s Centre for Applied Medical Research, and conjoint senior lecturer at University of New South Wales. As an NHMRC chief investigator, she led research projects in the areas of cell signalling, ion channels and membranes and made significant contributions in unravelling the role of the unusual metamorphic intracellular chloride ion channel protein CLIC1 in inflammation. She has been a postgraduate supervisor at UNSW and St Vincent’s Clinical School since 2007 and at UTS since 2014.
Dr Jiang is currently R&D director at Surgical Diagnostics Pty Ltd. With a multidisciplinary and multicultural approach, she is a keen driving force of commercialisation of SDx ICSTM (Ion channel switch) platform for the applications in the fields of in vitro diagnosis and drug screening. She has been the architect of two JVs between SDx and Chinese diagnostic companies.
STUART MILLS
IDEAL Hub Postdoc Fellow
University of South Australia
Stuart Mills completed his Bachelor of Sciences (HONS) at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne (UK) before moving to the University of Manchester (UK) to start work as a Research Associate. Whilst at the University of Manchester, Stuart completed an MPhil in immunology and cell biology before completing his PhD investigating the effects of photodynamic therapy on the wound healing process. Upon completion of his PhD Stuart then took a Research Officer role at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, where he worked for 3 years, before moving to Adelaide to work at the Women’s and Children’s Research Institute. The lab then moved to the Future Industries Institute (FII) at UniSA in 2013. Stuart’s research has focused on the mechanisms that drive wound healing and cancer.
Affiliates
DAVID GALLEGO-ORTEGA
IDEAL Hub Affiliate Member and Postdoc Fellow
University of Technology Sydney
David Gallego Ortega is Associate Professor and Director of the Single-Cell Technology Core at the School of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and IT at the University of Technology Sydney. He is also Group Leader at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research.
David’s current research interests include tissue engineering, tissue on-a-chip and single-cell genomics applied to the field of tumour immunology, and development of high-resolution methods for cancer diagnosis and prognosis. Using a combination of in vivo and tissue-engineered ex vivo models, David’s research group uses single-cell resolution approaches to study developmental mechanisms of the mammary gland and the progression to breast cancer. The group’s research interest focuses on the mechanisms of communication between different cellular compartments within the tissue ecosystem, particularly inflammatory pathways driven by myeloid cells during mammary morphogenesis and metastatic cancer dissemination.
JIAYAN LIAO
IDEAL Hub Affiliate Member
University of Technology Sydney
Dr. Jiayan Liao received her Ph.D. in 2020 from UTS. She is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate under the supervision of Prof. Dayong Jin in the Institute for Biomedical Materials & Devices (IBMD) at the University of Technology Sydney. She has qualifications in material chemistry, nanophotonics, and analytical chemistry, as well as research experiences in controlling the growth of rare-earth-doped nanoparticles, surface modification, DNA bioconjugation, and single nanoparticle spectroscopy. Her experience covers nanomaterials, polymer-based bio-/nano- interface engineering, analytical chemistry and instrumentation development. Since 2020, as a postdoc employed in two major collaborative research entities at UTS, she has driven a translational project on a single-molecule assay (one PCT patent) in collaboration with Sydney-based SpeeDX, and been key in developing a rapid point-of-care testing cartridge for SARS-CoV-2 test in collaboration with a Perth company Alcolizer Technology Pty Ltd.
LANA McCLEMENTS
IDEAL Hub Affiliate Member
University of Technology Sydney
Dr McClements is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Life Sciences, Faculty of Science at the University of Technology Sydney where she leads a team of eight researchers (5 HDR students, 2 Honours students, and a Research Assistant). Prior to completing her PhD in Molecular Biology at Queen’s University Belfast, she worked as a clinical pharmacists for five years in London. Her research focuses on women’s health, particularly during pregnancy. She has discovered and patented two novel predictive and diagnostic biomarkers for a dangerous cardiovascular complication in pregnancy, preeclampsia. These biomarkers are being developed into new point of care or laboratory-based tests in collaboration with industry partners. She is also interested in developing a digital health platform for home monitoring of high-risk pregnancies. Her research utilises proteomics and genomics approaches for biomarker discovery to address unmet clinical need in early diagnosis of cardiovascular disease in pregnancy and beyond.
SHIHUI WEN
IDEAL Hub Affiliate Member
University of Technology Sydney
Dr Shihui Wen is a new recipient of the IDEAL Research Hub Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) for funding commencing in 2022. He is an outstanding early career research leader who has demonstrated an extraordinarily high-level ability to deliver research excellence of international significance in the biomedical field. Dr Wen completed his PhD in 2018 at UTS. Then, he works as a postdoctoral researcher at the UTS Institute for Biomedical Materials and Devices (IBMD), mentored by Prof Dayong Jin (Distinguished Professor, Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering, Australian Laureate Fellow). Currently, Dr Wen is a core member and a research theme leader at IBMD with expertise in the controlled synthesis of heterogeneous nanoprobes and their biomedical applications. Dr Wen’s research focuses on exploring and transferring upconversion nanoprobes with excellent optical properties for biomedical applications, including sensitive biodetections, in vivo imaging, and point-of-care diagnostics.
JIAJIA ZHOU
IDEAL Hub Affiliate Member
University of Technology Sydney
Award-winning researcher Dr Jiajia Zhou has emerged as an international leader in the application of single particle spectroscopy. She has developed a global network of collaborators across a range of disciplines, opening up new research directions and accelerating developments in areas that include visual display technology, security inks and personalised medicine. Dr Zhou is an ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) Fellow (Jun 2018- May 2021), Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Fellow (Feb 2018- Feb 2022), and Senior Lecturer in the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Faculty of Science at UTS, leading a team of PhD students. Her research interests focus on lanthanide nanophotonics, fluorescence nanothermometry, fluorescence microscopy in life-sciences, luminescent sensors based on inorganic systems, rare earth spectroscopy, up/down conversion, quantum cutting + energy transfer (inorganic ions), and point-of-care diagnostic technologies, with a recent expansion into rapid COVID-19 antigen tests.
Tuck-Weng Kok
IDEAL Hub Affiliate Member
University of Adelaide
Tuck-Weng has 45 years research in virology & microbiology, including development of a comprehensive range of NATA & RCPA accredited public health diagnostics viz. molecular tests, immunoassays, serology and virus cultures. His passion for disruptive & emerging technologies initially took him to the CRC for Molecular Engineering & Tech. Sydney (Dr. Bruce Cornell) for detection of anthrax and plague with the ion channel switch biosensor. T-W and B.C. later obtained a significant NH&MRC “Bird Flu” grant. Subsequently, he initiated collaborations with Prof. Tanya Monro (Inst. Photonics & Advanced Sensing, Uni. Adelaide) for virus detection by surface plasmon resonance and photonics. T-W was recently invited to join the IDEAL Research Hub, UniSA to exploit whispering gallery mode for virus detection (Prof. Craig Priest, Dr. Guan Bin & Dr. Nick Riesen). His other focus includes more than 25 years study on HIV cell-to-cell transmission, neutralizing antibodies and influenza pathogenesis with intracellular IgA neutralization at mucosal sites to better inform immunity and vaccine studies. T-W was a former member of the W.H.O. (Geneva) Measles Working Group and W.H.O. (Beijing) Virology consultant for SARS, Influenza, ‘Bird Flu’ and PC2 & PC3 Biosafety Facilities.
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1924-1261.
Alumni
RHIANNON ALDER
Alumni, IDEAL Hub Postdoc Fellow (Alcolizer)
University of Technology Sydney
Rhiannon Alder completed a Bachelor of Forensic Science (Hons) in Applied Chemistry at the University of Technology Sydney in 2016. She then went on to complete her PhD in the area of illicit drug detection under Associate Professor Shanlin Fu. She is now a Postdoctoral Researcher focusing on using surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy for the identification and quantification of illicit drugs in forensic samples. Within the IDEAL Research HUB she was working with Alcolizer to develop a substrate suitable for surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy of drugs of abuse and working to make this technology applicable to on-site oral fluid testing.
EVA ALVARES DE EULATE
Alumni, IDEAL Hub Chief Investigator
University of South Australia
RINKU CHHASATIA
IDEAL Hub Postdoc Fellow
University of South Australia
Rinku Chhasatia received her PhD in Biomaterial Engineering and Nanomedicine from the Future Industries institutes (FII), University of South Australia (UniSA) in 2019. She was awarded a scholarship from the Ideal Research Hub Centre of Excellence in Convergent Bio-Nano Science (CBNS) & Technology to pursue her PhD. Before commencing her PhD, she completed Honours (Chemistry) at Flinders University, SA and M.Sc (Chemistry) at the Sardar Patel University, India. Her further research interest is in exploring various nanomaterial and sensing techniques towards the development of highly selective, sensitive, a cost-effective biosensor for real-time point-of-care analysis.
YINGHUI (YVONNE) CHEN
Alumni, IDEAL Hub Postdoc Fellow
University of Technology Sydney
Yvonne Chen was working as a postdoctoral research associate in the IDEAL Research Hub for Integrated Devices for End-User Analysis at Low Levels (IDEAL), responsible for a joint-project between university and industry to develop new bioassays for aggressive prostate cancer diagnosis. Yvonne developed a translational detection method with high sensitivity and reproducibility for the identification and evaluation of circulating biomarkers expression. The laboratory-based experimental development has been completed and the assay is presently validated by testing clinic samples. Yvonne has gained experience in clinical sample preparation and statistical analysis.
HAMID ILBEYGI
Alumni, IDEAL Hub Postdoc Fellow (ULVAC)
University of South Australia
Hamid Ilbeygi completed his Bachelor in Chemical Engineering in Irans’ University of Science and Technology (IUST), moving to University of Technology Malaysia (UTM) to do his Master in Chemical Engineering. Hamid continued his research in Advanced Membrane Technology Centre (AMTEC) and graduated with the best graduate student award from UTM. Soon after his graduation, he accepted a new role in University of Malaya (UM) to work as a research assistant. He started his PhD at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN), the University of Queensland with the prestigious IPRS scholarship and later he moved to Future Industries Institute (FII), University of South Australia together with his supervisor to continue his research. He recently completed his PhD on design and synthesis of multifunctional nanoporous heteropolyacids for energy storage applications.
GILES KIRBY
Alumni, IDEAL Hub Postdoc Fellow (Alcolizer)
University of South Australia
Giles is a translational scientist with a keen interest in cell therapies. Giles brings a decade of experience in advancing the science that underpins translational regenerative and cell therapies by identifying and tackling the bottlenecks from bench-to-bedside. He made the transition from chemistry into a biological field, positioning himself to address the key challenges relating to biomaterials and biotechnology developments. His primary area of interest is currently gene technologies. Giles maintains a cross-disciplinary skillset with side interests in plasma polymers, radiophysics and electronic interfacing (hardware & software development).
YUAN LIU
Alumni, IDEAL Hub PhD Candidate (Minomic)
University of Technology Sydney
Yuan Liu obtained his Bachelor and Master degree in microelectromechanical systems from North University of China and then worked as a research assistant at City University of Hong Kong. His research focuses on bead-based assays, using magnetic hydrogel beads combined with sandwich antibody-pair in the MiCheckTM test to detect the soluble GPC-1 biomarker for prostate cancer diagnosis.
NICK RIESEN
Alumni, IDEAL Hub Postdoc Fellow (ULVAC)
University of South Australia
Nick Riesen is a senior research fellow within the Laser Physics and Photonics Devices Laboratory (LPPDL) and ARC IDEAL Research Hub node at the University of South Australia (UniSA). He is also co-founder of the Australian-based telecommunications manufacturer Modular Photonics. Nick obtained a BSc. in Physics with the University Medal and a BEng (Hons-1) from The Australian National University in 2011. Subsequently he was awarded his PhD in 2014 at The Australian National University in the field of advanced optical communications. Following his PhD he has worked as a postdoctoral researcher at both the University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia on various photonics projects. Nick has published approximately 100 journal and conference articles with multiple invited talks. In the ARC IDEAL Hub Nick was involved in optofluidics research, bringing his vast expertise in photonics to various projects within the group.