Professor Alex Johnson – Principal investigator
johnsa@unimelb.edu.au
• GradCert – University Teaching (University of Melbourne, 2016)
• PhD – Horticulture (Virginia Tech, 2001)
• MSc – Horticulture (Virginia Tech, 1998)
• BA – Biology (Gustavus Adolphus College, 1996)
Alex has long-standing interests in plant biotechnology and uses a variety of tools including metabolic profiling, genetic engineering and gene editing to develop biofortified crops. He teaches into several undergraduate and postgraduate subjects at the University and is actively involved in postgraduate student supervision. He sits on the board of the University of Melbourne Botany Foundation and is a Fellow of Ormond College.
Dr Oscar Fung – Research Fellow in Plant Molecular Biology
o.fung@unimelb.edu.au
• PhD – Plant Biotechnology (University of Melbourne, 2025)
• MSc – BioSciences (University of Melbourne, 2020)
• BSc – Genetics (Monash University, 2018)
Oscar researches plant genomics and utilises gene technologies to improve the nutritional value and resilience of staple crops. During his PhD, Oscar trained in wheat transformation and generated hundreds of CRISPR-Cas9 genome edited wheat populations at the John Innes Centre in the UK. He now supervises student projects and characterises transgenic and genome-edited wheat plants. A key focus is plants with mutations in upstream Open Reading Frames (uORFs), which fine-tune the translation of genes involved in iron and vitamin C metabolism.
Nathan Leckie – PhD student
leckien@student.unimelb.edu.au
• MSc – BioSciences (University of Melbourne, 2022)
• BSc – Biotechnology (RMIT University, 2020)
Nathan’s research focusses on the identification of metabolic biomarkers in grain crops that correlate with enhanced grain nutrition under elevated atmospheric CO2 and improved resistance to heat stress. As part of this research, Nathan is developing engineered symbiotic soil microbes with increased production of plant growth promoting compounds.
Rucha Patil – PhD student
ruchap@student.unimelb.edu.au
• MSc – BioSciences (University of Melbourne, 2021)
• BSc (Blended) – BioSciences (Savitribai Phule Pune University, 2019)
Human iron deficiency is a major problem in countries where micronutrient-poor cereal products such as bread are consumed as staple foods. Rucha’s PhD project aims to improve bread Fe bioavailability through targeted manipulation of phytonutrients and antinutrients derived from a diverse range of bread wheat and soybean genotypes. She is also investigating the effect of AM fungi–wheat symbioses on Fe bioavailability in bread wheat.
Matty Poels – MSc student
matty.poels@student.unimelb.edu.au
• BSc – Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (University of Melbourne, 2024)
Iron deficiency negatively impacts plant health and agronomic performance. In wheat, iron homeostasis is maintained through a coordinated iron deficiency response. In closely related species such as rice, upregulation of genes involved in this response has resulted in increased iron uptake. Matty’s research aims to identify putative cis-regulatory elements in iron deficiency response genes as novel targets for gene editing. Alongside this, she is isolating and characterising mutations in negative regulators of the iron deficiency response and investigating their effects under glasshouse and hydroponic conditions.
Lily Tarry-Smith – Research Assistant
l.tarrysmith@unimelb.edu.au
• MSc – BioSciences (University of Melbourne, 2024)
• BSc – Plant Science (University of Melbourne, 2022)
Lily Tarry-Smith is a research assistant in Professor Alex Johnson’s Lab, where she recently completed a Master of Science (BioSciences). Her research focuses on understanding and engineering the iron (Fe) deficiency response in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) to improve plant performance under nutrient-limiting conditions and enhance grain nutritional quality.