School of Life Sciences

Dr Penny Ajani is a adjunct fellow at UTS and has been actively engaged in the development, conduct and communication of biological science, especially in the area of marine phytoplankton for more than twenty years. She has worked in academia, government and also as a private consultant. She obtained her PhD from Macquarie University in 2014 and was awarded a UTS Chancellors Post Doctorate Fellowship the same year.

Her research has included the effects of ocean outfalls on water quality and marine biota, phytoplankton dynamics, and the ecology and specialist identification of harmful algal blooms. Her fellowship at UTS within the Seafood Safety Program, School of Life Sciences, engaged novel genetic tools to investigate the evolution, ecology and toxicity of harmful algae especially in relation to oyster farming. She is also interested in how ecologically significant, and potentially toxic, diatom species respond to ocean warming. This research provided critical insights into stress response, gene function and the adaptive capability of organisms to changing ocean conditions.

Dr Amani Alghalayini is a multidisciplinary researcher with expertise spanning cell biology, molecular biology, biophysics, biotechnology, and sensor development. She is currently based at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), where she is leading research focused on identifying and repurposing therapies for ARID1A-mutant ovarian clear cell carcinoma. Her work aims to overcome chemo-resistance and improve outcomes for women affected by this aggressive cancer.

Dr Alghalayini has a strong record of contributing to high-impact translational research through industry-academic collaborations. She played a key role in the development of a rapid point-of-care COVID-19 diagnostic cartridge in partnership with Alcolizer Technology Pty Ltd, driving antibody production, sensor development, and clinical trial implementation. This work gained national attention through media coverage by 7News, UTS News, and the IMCRC.

In collaboration with Surgical Diagnostics Pty Ltd, she contributed to an ion channel switch biosensor project, supporting the development of diagnostic platforms and drug screening tools. She has also contributed to a collaborative project with BOD Sciences investigating the biological role and therapeutic relevance of CLIC proteins.

Her doctoral research, completed at UTS in collaboration with industry, focused on lipid-membrane-coated electrodes and resulted in the development of a novel real-time biosensor for studying membrane disruption by laser-irradiated gold nanoparticles, providing insights into biomedical applications.

Dr Alghalayini continues to apply her broad skill set and collaborative approach to advance precision medicine and therapeutic innovation in cancer research.

Distinguished Professor Alaina Ammit is Professor of Respiratory Pharmacology in the School of Life Sciences and Associate Dean (Research) in the Faculty of Science at UTS. These positions are held collaboratively with the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research where Alaina is Research Leader.

Distinguished Professor Ammit has an international reputation for her research elucidating the mechanistic basis of inflammation in chronic respiratory diseases. Graduating with BAppSc (Biomedical Science) from UTS (then NSWIT) in 1984, Alaina went onto complete both her MSc (1990) and PhD (1996) studies through the University of Sydney. She received prestigious fellowships to support her postdoctoral studies, including an NH&MRC CJ Martin Fellowship. Returning from her postdoctoral position at the University of Pennsylvania, she was appointed Lecturer at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Sydney in 2002 and on the strength and success of her research and teaching, was appointed Associate Dean (Research) 2006-2010, promoted to Professor in 2014 and Head of the Respiratory Research Theme (2013-2016). She was recruited to UTS in 2016 in a collaborative research position in the School of Life Sciences and was the inaugural director of the Woolcock Emphysema Centre (2016 -2022) and Chair of the Research Committee and Executive Committee Member at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research (2024 - 2026). Alaina has served as Associate Dean (Research) in the Faculty of Science at UTS since 2018 and appointed Distinguished Professor in 2022 and was seconded to serve as interim Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research) (July-Dec 2025).

Awards, Fellowships and Distinctions:

2023     Fellow of the Royal Society of NSW (FRSN)

2022     Distinguished Professor, UTS

2022     Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD)

2013      Senior Medical Scientist Award, Lung Institute of Western Australia

2011       Thompson Fellowship, University of Sydney

2006     Young Tall Poppy Award, Australian Institute of Policy and Science

2005      Senior Medical Scientist Award, Asthma and Allergy Research Institute

2004      Scientific Visits to North America, Australian Academy of Science

2001       Johnson & Johnson Research Postdoctoral Research Award, Australian Society of Medical Research (ASMR)

1998       CJ Martin Fellowship, NHMRC

1996        Martin Hardie Research Fellowship, Asthma Foundation of NSW

1990        Australian Postgraduate Award, ARC                                                                             

1989        Young Investigator's Award, Royal North Shore Hospital

Syd Ascione is a PhD student in the UTS Fish Ecology Lab, where their research investigates the ecology, life history, and conservation priorities of ghost pipefish (Solenostomidae). 

Before joining UTS, Syd spent four years as a research biologist with Project Seahorse at the University of British Columbia, Canada, where their conservation-oriented research investigated the impacts of illegal wildlife trade and bottom trawling on marine fishes, and led analyses underpinning updated IUCN Red List assessments for syngnathoid species. Her work and papers on threats to marine species have recieved international coverage in outlets including The New York Times, Smithsonian Magazine, and Mongabay.

Syd graduated from the University of British Columbia in 2022 with a Bachelors of Science in Biology (with Distinction). 

Dr Barbara Brito Rodriguez is a UTS Visiting Fellow and Veterinary Research Officer NSW DPI (Biosecurity & Food Safety).  

She is interested in supporting the design of animal disease control measures and surveillance using the results of scientific studies. Her research areas are quantitative epidemiology, animal disease modeling, and molecular epidemiology (pathogen genetics) of infectious animal diseases. She is also interested developing advanced skills in epidemiology, statistics, and sequence data analysis, with particular focus in metagenomics.

Maéva Brunet is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Faculty of Science at the University of Technology Sydney and a member of the Climate Change Cluster (C3). Her research focuses on microbial ecology, with particular emphasis on phytoplankton-bacteria interactions at the microscale. Her work seeks to understand how microorganisms interact, respond, and adapt within complex aquatic environments, and how these interactions influence broader ecological and biogeochemical processes.

A.Prof. Emma Camp is an award-winning marine biologist internationally recognised for her pioneering research on coral reef resilience, reef restoration and her advocacy for gender equity in STEM. As Team Leader of the Future Reefs Program within the Climate Change Cluster at UTS, A. Prof. Camp leads interdisciplinary research focused on the physiology, ecology, and biogeochemistry of coral reef systems.

Her work explores the adaptive capacity of corals to environmental stress, with a particular emphasis on highly tolerant 'super corals' that may hold the key to reef survival under climate change. She is also a co-founder of the Coral Nurture Program, a collaborative initiative between scientists and the tourism industry aimed at enhancing reef stewardship on the Great Barrier Reef.

Since 2013, Emma has received or been shortlisted for over 30 prestigious awards. These include receiving the 2025 Mid-Career Researcher Medal from the Australian Coral Reef Society, named a Young Leader from the World Economic Forum, a 2023 WINGS WorldQuest Women of Discovery Award, the 2021 Macquarie University Eureka Prize for Outstanding Early Career Researcher, and recognition as a Next Generation Leader by Time magazine in 2020. She is also a L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Fellow, a recipient of the Australian Academy of Science’s Max Day Award and the Tall Poppy Science Award, and was named a STEM Women’s Game Changer in 2020.

In 2018, she was appointed a Young Leader for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and awarded an ARC DECRA Fellowship. Dr Camp is also a National Geographic Explorer and is deeply committed to public engagement, aiming to connect communities with science to drive meaningful action for the planet.

Andrew is an Associate Professor and Academic Director of the Biologics Innovation Facility (BIF) within the School of Life Sciences at UTS. His research innovatively combines synthetic biology and nanomedicine to re-engineer biologically-derived nanoparticles for drug delivery and vaccines. He holds a PhD in Chemistry and Biomolecular Sciences from Macquarie University and has previously held independent research fellowships - Cancer Institute NSW Early Career Fellowship and UTS Chancellor's Research Fellowship. Andrew engages actively with industry, was a Chief Investigator in the ARC ITRC IDEAL Hub, and received the UTS Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Excellence through Collaboration and Partnership for work with the hub.

Andrew's teaching and learning philosophy focusses on active student engagement, particularly through immersive research experiences. He has experience in whole curricula development as a Postgraduate Program Director in the Faculty of Science and has been recognized for incorporating a Work Integrated Learning (WIL) approach into his teaching. Andrew also established and coordinated UTS teams participating in the inter-university Australasian Synthetic Biology Challenge, leading to the creation of the science-meets-design magazine SYNTHESIS. Andrew’s ongoing commitment to quality higher education and innovative learning has earned him a UTS Vice-Chancellor’s T&L Citation and multiple UTS Faculty of Science Dean’s Awards.

As the Academic Director of the Biologics Innovation Facility (BIF), Andrew is passionate about providing high-quality teaching and training to students and professionals, equipping them with advanced knowledge and hands-on skills for immediate entry into the rapidly expanding biomanufacturing sector.

I graduated with a medical degree in China (2002) and a PhD in neuroscience from the University of Melbourne in 2006, followed by a postdoctoral research position at UNSW (2006-2008). My academic career started in 2008 when I joined UTS as a lecturer. I am an award-winning educator. My teaching focuses on human physiology and pathophysiology (including diseases in the endocrine, digestive, and nervous systems) and pharmacology (anti-diabetic drugs and anti-obesity medications). 

As a researcher, I am a leading authority on the effects of the adverse in-utero environmental risks (e.g. (e-)cigarettes or air pollution) on the health of offspring. My groundbreaking discoveries have influenced the policy on e-cigarette sales in Australia. My current research focuses on environmental toxin exposure-induced chronic diseases, including in-utero and direct exposure. My recent endeavours have been into early-onset dementia due to air pollution exposure and ageing-related dementia due to Alzheimer's Disease (AD), utilising diverse in vitro and in vivo models. The hallmark achievements of my investigations lie in the comprehensive assessment of neurocognitive dysfunction, neuroinflammation, mitochondrial dysfunction, epigenetic regulation, blood-brain barrier integrity, and glial hemichannel homeostasis

A/Prof. Louise Cole is a plant and fungal cell biologist that has over three decades of microscopy experience. She carried out her Masters degree at Oxford University where she investigated endocytosis and vesicle trafficking in cultured plant cells using a range of light and fluorescence microscopy methods. She then moved to Oxford Brookes University to carry out her PhD research on the role of fungal extracellular matrices in the Vicia faba-Botrytis plant host-pathogen interaction that involved light and electron microscope studies. In 1996, she came to Sydney to take up a postdoctoral position studying the role of pleiomorphic vacuoles of the filamentous fungus Pisolithus tinctorius in long distance transport, again using a variety of light, fluorescence and electron microscope methods. Five years later she transferred to The University of Sydney to carry out postdoctoral and imaging research on plasmodesmata and cell-cell communication in plants. During 2004-6, she was employed as the Light and Laser Optics Manager for the Australian Key Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis at the University of Sydney and from 2006-2017 she managed and led the Advanced Microscopy Facility at the Bosch Institute, School of Medical Sciences at The University of Sydney. A/Prof. Cole started at UTS in Feb 2018 as an Associate Professor and Director of the Microbial Imaging Facility. She was the President of the Australian Microscopy and Microanalysis Society from June 2022-July 2025 inclusive and has a genuine passion for facilitating research as well as teaching the next generation of microscopists.

She is an expert in a wide-range of imaging modalities including transmitted light, fluorescence, laser microdissection, optical tweezers, confocal and multiphoton, light-sheet, super-resolution, transmission electron and cryo-electron microscopy. In addition, she has extensive experience in specimen preparation of plants, animals and microbes for both light and electron microscopy.

Dr Pauline M.L. Coulon is a driven and accomplished researcher specialising in microbiology and molecular biology. With a PhD from the Armand-Frappier Health and Biotechnology Research Centre - INRS, Canada, and a Master's degree from Université Bretagne Sud, France, she brings a wealth of expertise to her work such as quorum sensing and virulence, phase variation, genomic and proteomic analyses especially in Burkholderia gram negative bacteria.

In 2021, she joined Dr Scott laboratory at Peter Doherty Institute (Melbourne) to study the involved of Quorum sensing in O-glycosylation in B. cenocepacia. In 2022, she had the opportunity to join Prof Stinear laboratory (PDI, Melbourne) to finish her project about phase variation in Burkholderia ambifaria that she designed during her PhD, as a side project.

Since September 2023, she is working with Prof Garry Myers to find target project to design mRNA vaccines, while studying Burkholderia phase variation.

She has contributed to numerous peer-reviewed publications and has presented her findings at prestigious conferences worldwide. Dr Pauline M.L. Coulon leadership extends beyond her research, as evidenced by her involvement in organising research events and serving on academic committees. During her PhD and her first two years as an ECR she has actively engaged in volunteer work to promote STEM education and public understanding of microbiology.

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.

Soroosh Danaee is a researcher in environmental biotechnology and sustainable bioprocess engineering, with a focus on developing innovative biological technologies for resource recovery, wastewater treatment, and the circular use of waste streams. His research integrates microalgae, microbial systems, biofilms and bioprocess engineering to transform environmental wastes into recoverable resources and higher-value products.

 

His current research focuses on developing scalable microalgae-based and biological processes for circular resource recovery from low-grade waste streams. One application of this work is the sustainable recovery of copper and other critical metals from mining-impacted and secondary resources. His broader research spans wastewater remediation, microplastic biodegradation, bioelectrochemical systems and nutrient recovery, with an emphasis on improving the environmental and economic sustainability of biological processes.

 

Soroosh has experience across fundamental and applied research, including research project management, postgraduate research supervision, process design, techno-economic assessment, and multidisciplinary collaboration. His work aims to bridge laboratory-scale biological innovation with scalable environmental and industrial applications, integrating technical performance, economic feasibility and sustainability considerations.

Dr Yvonne Davila is a terrestrial ecologist specialising in plant-pollinator interactions and networks, plant reproductive ecology, and plant ecological responses to environmental change. She leads the Pollination Ecology and Plant Conservation lab, which explores the ecological processes that underpin successful plant reproduction, including pollination, mating systems, and species interactions. Combining experimental and observational field-based techniques, Yvonne’s research examines how local and global drivers affect flowering plants and pollinator assemblages at population and community scales to support evidence-based biodiversity conservation. Yvonne has broad interests in plant ecology across diverse habitats and collaborates on projects spanning urban, alpine, temperate, arid, and semi-arid ecosystems. Through these collaborations, she aims to better understand and conserve the ecological relationships that sustain plant and pollinator diversity.

Yvonne is an award-winning science educator whose student-centred approach is grounded in transition pedagogy, shaping both her educational design and practice. She is the Program Director for the undergraduate Environmental Biology and Environmental Sciences courses at UTS. Yvonne's outstanding contributions to higher education teaching have been recognised through international professional status of Senior Fellow with Advance HE (SFHEA), an Australian Award for University Teaching Citation, and UTS Learning and Teaching Awards.

Master of Science (Research) candidate in the School of Life Sciences. I received my Bachelor of Environmental Biology in 2024 from the University of Technology Sydney. I am the recipient of The Australian Government’s Research Training Program Fees Offset (RTPFO) Scholarship, and my research is funded by the Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship.