She is a professor, Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology and NHMRC Investigator at the University of Western Australia, heading a research group at the Telethon Kids Institute.
[1][2] Specializing in biochemistry and molecular biology, she has made contributions to the understanding of human mitochondrial genetics in health and disease.
[4] Between 2003-2005 she completed postdoctoral training as a New Zealand Foundation for Research, Science and Technology Fellow at the MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit in Cambridge, the United Kingdom, before relocating to Australia in 2006 as a National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC) Howard Florey Fellow.
Dysfunction of mitochondria contributes to a variety of debilitating human diseases including neurodegenerative, cardiovascular and metabolic disorders, as well as cancer.
[3][6] During her postdoctoral work, she explored the use of compounds targeting mitochondria as a means to reduce oxidative stress in cells during aging and disease.