RESEARCHER PROFILE
Associate Professor Amy McCart Reed (Filmed June 2024)
Senior Principal Research Fellow,
Centre for Clinical Research
University of Queensland,
Australia
Associate Professor Amy McCart Reed holds a PhD in molecular biology from The University of Queensland. She is a Fellow of the Faculty of Science of the Royal College of Pathologists Australasia. Her early postdoctoral work focused on understanding the genetic basis of colorectal cancer using experimental disease models, as part of a Cancer Research UK-funded colorectal cancer program led by Professors Ian Tomlinson and Andrew Silver.
After returning to Australia, she was recruited to the Molecular Breast Pathology group at UQ’s Centre for Clinical Research and has undertaken a series of studies investigating the genomic landscape of breast cancer special types. Amy’s research program includes studies on Metaplastic breast cancer and Invasive Lobular Carcinoma, two breast cancer special types in need of targeted therapy options.
Assoc Prof McCart Reed is the scientific lead on an MRFF-funded (Medical Research Future Fund) genomics program investigating the potential for the application of Whole Genome Sequencing in the breast cancer care pathway in Australia, ‘Q-IMPROvE’. She applies genomics and spatial transcriptomics methodologies to archival clinical samples to understand the differences between tumour types and their potential for treatment. Amy is passionate about clinical research, biobanking and precision oncology. In addition to her breast cancer research portfolio, she is on the steering committee for the Brisbane Breast Bank and the Scientific Advisory Board for Breast Cancer Trials.
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Engineered proteins to repair or regrow damaged heart muscle cells and tissue
Associate Professor Dan Hesselson leads the Centre for Biomedical AI at the Centenary Institute.
He is an internationally trained research leader in regenerative medicine, focusing on cells and organs affected by heart disease, diabetes and cancer. His work uses insights from the study of basic regenerative processes to identify novel therapeutic targets for these devastating diseases.
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Using Gut Microbes to Reduce Blood Pressure
Professor Francine Marques is an National Health and Medical Research Council Emerging Leader, Viertel Charitable Foundation, and National Heart Foundation Fellow.
She leads the Hypertension Research Laboratory at Monash University and has published more than 120 peer-reviewed papers in journals such as Nature Reviews Cardiology, Nature Medicine, Nature Cardiovascular Research, and Circulation.
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Metabolic phenotyping, lipidomics & bioinformatics in dementia
Dr Luke Whiley is a dementia researcher whose work focuses on understanding how the body’s metabolism, particularly the biology of fats known as lipids, influences our health throughout ageing.
His research explores how the body responds to illness, lifestyle, and environmental stress at a chemical level, and how these responses shape longterm disease risk. Using advanced blood-based measurement technologies, Dr Whiley studies thousands of small molecules at once to build a snapshot of a person’s metabolic health. By combining these measurements with data science approaches, his work identifies biological pathways that become disrupted in disease, providing insight into why some people are more vulnerable to conditions such as dementia.
