A/ProfCharles Cranfield

Charles obtained his Science degree with Honours in Pharmacology from Monash University in 1996. He then completed his PhD in Biophysics at Swinburne University of Technology in 2002, where he investigated the effects of mobile phone radiation on calcium levels in T lymphocytes.

His first post-doctoral position took him to Keele University in England, where he worked under the mentorship of Prof. Jon Dobson to explore the interactions between biogenic magnetic nanoparticles and mobile phone radiation. Returning to Melbourne, Charles collaborated with Prof. Min Gu at the Centre for Micro-Photonics at Swinburne University of Technology, contributing to the development of the world’s first non-linear endoscope.

Charles was awarded two Marie Curie Transfer of Knowledge Fellowships. The first fellowship was at the Tyndall National Institute in Cork, Ireland, where he assisted in developing fluorescence-based point-of-care diagnostic devices. The second fellowship took him to University Hospital Jena, Germany, where he worked with biomolecular photonics expert Prof. Christoph Biskup to develop novel fluorescent ion nanosensors. From 2010 to 2013, Charles conducted research on lipid-protein interactions of mechanosensitive ion channels in the laboratory of Prof. Boris Martinac at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute.

In 2014, Charles was appointed Senior Lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). He became Team Leader of the Molecular Biosciences Team within the newly formed School of Life Sciences in 2015. By 2018, he was Deputy Leader of the Biology and Biotechnology Discipline, and in 2020, he was appointed Program Director for the Biomedical Science degrees and was then also made a Program Director for Medical Science and Advanced Science (Pre-Med) degrees in 2022. From 2021-2025, Charles was the Director of HDR Programs in the Faculty of Science. He is currently Associate Head of School (Teaching and Learning) in the School of Maths and Physical Sciences.

At UTS, Charles established the Membrane Biophysics Lab in the School of Life Sciences. He leads projects focused on understanding membrane-ion interactions, membrane-peptide interactions, and the development of novel membrane-based biosensors.