Molecular Engineering Research Laboratory in Sippy Downs, Queensland | Commercial and industrial

Molecular Engineering Research Laboratory

Locality: Sippy Downs, Queensland

Address: Sippy Downs Drive 4556 Sippy Downs, QLD, Australia

Website: www.usc.edu.au/explore/structure/faculty-of-science-health-education-and-engineering/faculty-of-science-health-education-and-engineering-staff/dr-joanne-macdonald

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• Commercial and industrial
• Biotechnology company

25.01.2022 Now this is some pretty awesome and novel biotech - tatoos that change colour as blood sugar rises!

25.01.2022 Celebrating student success is always fun. Congratulations to Leah Clyne for receiving a University Medal at her Graduation this year. Leah spent her third year project in our group helping us progress our rapid test for Barmah Forest virus.

24.01.2022 Our Honours student Genevieve Kerr had a great interview with the Australian Geographic today - discussing our spider silk research published in Biology Open. Congratulations Genevieve!!

23.01.2022 Now heres an interesting idea - using external DNA to protect your own DNA from mutating due to sun exposure!

22.01.2022 Delighted that our latest publication Repeated reuse of deoxyribozyme-based logic gates has been accepted in NanoLetters. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.nanolett.9b02326 #DNAzymes #DNAcomputing #syntheticbiology GeneCology Centre for Genetics, Ecology & Physiology

21.01.2022 Heres a biotech revolution in the making: cultured meat! "Doesnt involve intensively farming and slaughtering animals, nor the associated environmental and animal-cruelty costs, not to mention the risks of human contamination with disease, antibiotics, pesticides and in the oceans mercury and plastics." What do you think? Would you eat it?

20.01.2022 Those of you near the Gold Coast may be interested in getting involved in the paddle innovation games, to create a greener environment by reducing landfill and waste. There are some great molecular solutions for this type of thing, some of which we are working on ourselves. Also, getting involved gets you working with industry/businesses, and you never know how that might lead to future work and employment! The Paddl Innovation Games is looking for students and graduates to ...take part in the upcoming Innovation Challenge focusing on reducing Australias landfill and responsible waste management. This is a great opportunity to build critical workplace experience, put your skills into practice and expand your professional network in a fun and creative environment! Join us on August 21st in the Gold Coast! Apply Today! https://www.paddl.com/jobs/742

20.01.2022 Amehs Ebola test on 9News

18.01.2022 Anyone following the Russian spy nerve agent attack may be interested in hearing Joanne chatting about nerve agents and her research on Radio National: ~6.15 AEST or ~5.15 Qld time.

18.01.2022 Those of you interested in methods to rapily amplify DNA without a PCR machine may be interested in our latest comprehensive review published in Analyst. https://pubs.rsc.org//c/articlelanding/2019/an/c8an01621f

17.01.2022 Those of you near Brisbane may be interested in attending Health Hack this year. https://www.healthhack.com.au/ HealthHack is a free event that brings researchers, students and healthcare professionals together with other scientists, software developers, educators, engineers and designers to create innovative solutions to interesting problems. HealthHack is strictly not for profit, run by volunteers and everything created at the event is open sourced for others to use.

17.01.2022 Sunshine Coasters: Watch channel 9 at 6pm tonight to hear more about our Dengue research progress. Madeeha Ahmed and Nina Pollak from our group were interviewed this morning, due to the increase in mosquitoes here on the coast with all the wet weather weve been having!

17.01.2022 One of the best part of our work is watching students grow and learn and become accomplished scientists. Last week we celebrated Karla Van Huysteeens graduation with 1st class honours. Karla has been working with us this year looking at the reliability of our Malaria test. Congratulations Karla and thank you for all your hard work and dedication!

16.01.2022 An absolutely fascinating look at the physics behind insect flight.

15.01.2022 Scientists might be interested in a new method we have developed for genetically typing Enteroviruses from water samples, developed by one of our PhD students Emily Rames. https://www.sciencedirect.com//artic/pii/S0168170218300534

15.01.2022 Look at this beauty! This is an Australian rainforest golden orb spider (Nephila pilipes) being collected ready for us to study its amazing silk - courtesy of Joannes back yard!

14.01.2022 Heres the 9 News story about mosquitoes on the Sunshine Coast, featuring Madeeha and Nina discussing our progress in developing a rapid Dengue test.

13.01.2022 Watch your local news on Channel 7, 9 or 10 tonight to see the latest new on our rapid Ebola test. The test was developed by PhD student Ameh James, and published in Virology Journal this month.

13.01.2022 We are very excited to welcome a new member to our team: Nina Pollak has arrived with a splash, winning a prestigious CSIRO fellowship to begin some Synthetic Biology research. Congratulations Nina!

12.01.2022 Those of you interested in our rapid diagnostic technology may be interested in our new article that explores how we might sensitively detect multiple genetic biomarkers in a single reaction. Congratulations to our former PhD student Jia Li, and our current Post-doc Nina Pollak for their hard work on this paper! https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsomega.9b01097

11.01.2022 In conversation with our #Synbio expert @ninampollak: Vision for a cleaner #environment using #Synbio #stemcells #3dprinting - Future #BioTech https://synthetic.com/in-conversation-dr-nina-pollaks-visi/

10.01.2022 Those of you on the Sunshine Coast who are interested in an update on our Molecular Engineering work are welcome to come to a free public lecture by Joanne Macdonald TONIGHT (March 22): Buderim Tavern 6PM https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/the-public-lecture-series-w

09.01.2022 Any scientists/health workers out there who would like to help volunteer their time and services and reagents to helping Australia do more COVID-19 testing?

09.01.2022 One of the most delightful things we get to do is celebrate when our students graduate. A big congratulations to Ameh James for being awarded his PhD today - its been a fantastic journey having you in our lab the last few years. During his time with us, Ameh developed rapid tests for diseases like TB, Ebola and Chlamydia. Well done Ameh!! We wish you well on the next part of your research journey :-)

07.01.2022 Synthetic jellyfish to the rescue. Read about our research done at #USC, #UQ and #csiro. https://blog.csiro.au/how-synthetic-jellyfish-could-be-use/

06.01.2022 Delighted that our latest publication 'Repeated reuse of deoxyribozyme-based logic gates' has been accepted in NanoLetters. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.nanolett.9b02326 #DNAzymes #DNAcomputing #syntheticbiology GeneCology Centre for Genetics, Ecology & Physiology

06.01.2022 We are very excited to announce that one of our rapid diagnostic tests was recently published in the journal Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology. This publication explores how to detect viruses in wastewater - which are notoriously difficult to detect but often resistant to disinfection processes. Congratulations to our former PhD student Emily Rames for her fantastic hard work on this paper. https://link.springer.com/artic/10.1007/s00253-019-10077-w

06.01.2022 Scientist out there - If you were amazed watching China build a hospital in 10 days, you should also check this out. BGI also recently built in Wuhan - to create a diagnostic testing centre capable of processing 10,000 samples a day. The building was completed in 5 days!! Construction began on January 31 and the building started operating on February 6. "The laboratory will provide scientific support for the detection of suspected cases and the examination of high-risk popula...tions, and help relieve the worry and panic among the community." Wouldnt it be awesome to have the lab of your dreams built only in 5 days!!? The lab includes 30 biological safety cabinets, 12 automated nucleic acid extraction platforms, as well as separate sample preparation rooms and other ancillary services. https://www.bgi.com//new-emergency-detection-laboratory-r/ See more

05.01.2022 Anyone interested in hearing Joanne speaking about protein engineering - you are welcome to come along to this Free workshop at the University of Queensland, Friday September 29.

05.01.2022 For those of you that missed it, heres the podcast of Joannes interview on ABC Radio National: discussing what are Nerve agents and how do they work, in response to the tragic attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal in the UK on the weekend. Joanne has been researching novel experimental antidotes to Nerve agent and organophosporous pesticide poisonings, with several published articles in this space. http://www.abc.net.au//programs/drive/what-are-ner/9528380

05.01.2022 Really enjoyed reading this article by Dr. Arun Richard Chandrasekaran on intelligent biosensing. The article not only covers some of our groups technology, but also shows how what we are doing fits with what others are working on. "In a not-so-distant future, such graphical readouts will be used as intelligent sensing devices for unambiguous detection of diseases as well as molecular computers that can process information on an industrial scale."

04.01.2022 Our lab featured on WIN News tonight.

03.01.2022 Great 7 News footage of our Honours student Genevieve with her spiders!

03.01.2022 Amehs Ebola assay on 7 News Sunshine Coast

02.01.2022 Some interesting details on gene editing viable human embryos to cure disease.

02.01.2022 The ABC asked me to explain my article on COVID-19 testing yesterday. You can listen to the interview here. https://www.abc.net.au//molecular-engineer-descr/12028880

02.01.2022 Good news! Our January article reviewing a method for rapidly amplifying DNA (recombinase polymerase amplification) - was one of the top 10 reads in the journal Analyst during the last quarter. Its nice to know our research is helping other scientists learn more about new technologies. http://blogs.rsc.org//top-10-most-accessed-analyst-articl/

01.01.2022 Some days in the lab are definitely more fun than others! In this picture, Joanne Macdonald is visiting the PC3 insectary at #QIMRBerghofer to test if our rapid assay technology can detect Malaria-infected mosquitoes. Going into a PC3 insectary means wearing full lab suits with hoods, eye goggles, shoe covers, double gloves, and a face mask!

01.01.2022 Those of you at USC with some free time at 1PM today are welcome to come hear our new PostDoc Nina Pollack talk about her awesome new project. Room H2.09. Heres a video backstory of her work: https://www.facebook.com/7NewsSC/videos/1562557977134964/?hc_ref=ARSyKq2CbZdAQ9jMxrPgtGtkfBB7fWAJWuN1aX_kCsLuMlIv-pKIQkR0zMGzcuN8t8U&pnref=story