I am a Senior Lecturer in Bioinformatics and Director of Studies (Bioinformatics Engineering) with the School of Computer Science and Engineering.

My main research interest is in the engineering of computer methods and software to better understand the immune system and especially the basis for the "memory" of the immune system and vaccines.

This includes software for analysing immunoglobulins, both at the genetic level and at the protein level.

I am especially interested in the design of algorithms for analysing large datasets of rearranged immunoglobulin genes for the purpose of understanding genetic variation in these genes, diversity generation events, and binding specificity.

I am also more widely interested in applications of computational methods to molecular biology, especially to gene expression, and, in collaboration with Professor Sri Parameswaran, the development of specialised hardware for bioinformatics analysis.

Professional Organisations and Consulting Positions

I am very active in the promotion and advocacy for the disciplines of computational biology and bioinformatics, through involvement in the leading professional societies and conferences in the field:

• International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB): Director and Co-chair of the Affiliates Committee 
• Intelligent Systems in Molecular Biology (ISMB) conference (2017-present): Steering Committee Member

Past Appointments and Contributions

• 2017-2021: Treasurer and Executive Committee Member, International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB)
• 2008-2019: Executive Committee Member, Asia-Pacific Bioinformatics Network (APBioNet)
• 2016-2019: Operational Board Member, Global Organisation for Bioinformatics Learning, Education and Training (GOBLET)
• 2006: Conference chair, Bioinformatics Australia conference (Sydney)
• 2005-2010: Management committee, Bioinformatics Australia
• 2002: Advisory Board, Thailand National Bioinformatics Helpdesk
• 2001-2002: Adjunct Lecturer, School of Molecular and Microbial Biosciences, University of Sydney 
• 1999-2001: Adjunct Lecturer, School of Microbiology, University of Sydney 
• 1999-2001: Director of Education and Senior Scientist, eBioinformatics Pty Ltd (re-named Entigen Inc)
• 2000: Adviser/consultant for the Biotechnology program of the Thailand-Australia Science and Engineering Assistance Project 
• 1993-1998: Liaison Officer and Education Officer, Australian Genomic Information Centre, University of Sydney.
• 1991-1993: Post-Doctoral Research Officer, Heart Research Institute, Camperdown, NSW

Program Committee member for conferences and workshops including Pattern Recognition in Bioinformatics, International Conference on Bioinformatics (InCoB), GIW, Computational Models for Life Sciences, and International Conference on Intelligent Sensing and Information Processing, International Conference on Artificial Immune Systems

Manuscript reviewer for PLoS Computational Biology, Bioinformatics, Briefings in Bioinformatics, BMC Bioinformatics, Journal of Theoretical Biology and Comparative and Functional Genomics