Executive Team members
Professor Peter Currie, Director of Research
Emeritus Professor Claude Bernard AM
Professor Graham Lieschke AM, Group Leader
Professor Edwina McGlinn, Group Leader
Associate Professor Jennifer Zenker, Group Leader
Dr Dianne Ruka, Institute Manager
Professor Peter Currie
DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH
Peter D. Currie received his PhD in Drosophila genetics from Syracuse University, New York, USA.
He undertook postdoctoral training in zebrafish development at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (now Cancer Research UK) in London, UK. He has worked as an independent laboratory head at the UK Medical Research Council Human Genetics Unit in Edinburgh, UK and the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute in Sydney, Australia where he headed a research programme focused on skeletal muscle development and regeneration.
His work is centred on understanding how the small freshwater zebrafish is able to build and regenerate both skeletal and cardiac muscle.
In 2016 he was appointed Director of Research of the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. He is a recipient of a European Molecular Biology Organization Young Investigators Award and a Wellcome Trust International Research Fellowship and currently is a Principal Research Fellow with the National Health and Medical Research Council in Australia.
Emeritus Professor Claude Bernard AM
Emeritus Professor Claude Bernard
Professor Bernard is internationally recognized for his leading research on the pathogenesis and regulation of autoimmune diseases, more specifically Multiple Sclerosis (MS). His discoveries have significantly enhanced our understanding of cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the cause of MS, which have led to the development of novel therapies to treat MS. He has published over 300 journal articles, reviews, conference proceedings and book chapters.
Among Professor Claude Bernard many seminal contributions, is the establishment of the first multiple sclerosis (MS) mouse model, the elucidation of the role of immune cells (T and B cells) in the pathogeny of MS, the discovery that a minor component of the central nervous system (the myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein) is a critical target antigen in MS, and was together with his research team, the first in establishing human cell lines from people with MS. These human cell lines have become invaluable research tools to investigate MS and develop new therapies.
After graduating from La Sorbonne, in Paris (1968), Professor Bernard undertook a Master of Sciences in Microbiology and Immunology in the Faculty of Medicine, Montreal and then completed a PhD in the same area of research (1973). He furthered his studies by completing a “Doctorat es Sciences d’Etat” at the University Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France in 1978.
His extensive research and teaching career includes working at the Hospital Saint Antoine in Paris, the Institute of Microbiology and Hygiene of the University of Montreal, Canada, the Faculty of Medicine, University of Alberta, Canada, the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Australia, the Basel Institute for Immunology, Switzerland, La Trobe University, Australia, the Monash Immunology and Stem Cell Laboratories and the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute, Monash University.
Professor Bernard’s sabbaticals encompass stints at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel (1985), the Department of Neurology & Neurological Sciences, Stanford University, USA (1991); the San Raffaele Scientific Institute Milano, Italy (1998) and the Immunology Laboratory, Faculty of Medicine, Nancy, France (1998), the Department of Neurology, UCSF, San Francisco, USA (2004).
He was a Fulbright Scholar within the Department of Neurology at the University of California, San Francisco (1999), a Distinguish Visiting Professor, Department of Neurology, UCSF, San Francisco (2004) and held the title of Guest Professor at Kunming Medical University (2011-2023), China and the Bayi Brain Hospital, General Hospital of Beijing Military Command, China (2011–2014), and a Senior Visiting Fellow from The Australian Academy of Science, AMRITA Hospital, Kochi, India (2013).
Professor Bernard was the Interim Deputy Director of ARMI between May 2016 and April 2018.
Professor Graham Lieschke AM
GROUP LEADER, THE AUSTRALIAN REGENERATIVE MEDICINE INSTITUTE
graham.lieschke@monash.edu
Lieschke Group
Professor Graham Lieschke is a clinical and research haematologist. He is internationally recognised for his research into blood disorders and cancer using zebrafish and mice. He is also a clinical haematologist at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. His work seeks to exploit the unique strengths of the zebrafish model in genetics, embryology, and for visualizing cell behaviour in vivo to understand blood cell development and diseases. Professor Lieschke’s awards include: the John Maynard Hedstrom Research Fellowship of the Cancer Council of Victoria, a Howard Hughes Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for Physicians, a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellowship, and an NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship. The Ludwig Institute awarded him its inaugural George Hodgson Medal for Medical Science.
Professor Edwina McGlinn
GROUP LEADER, THE AUSTRALIAN REGENERATIVE MEDICINE INSTITUTE
edwina.mcglinn@monash.edu
McGlinn Group
Edwina McGlinn is an EMBL Australia Partner Network Lab Group Leader, based at the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute, Monash University. Edwina completed a PhD in developmental and molecular biology (1999-2004) with Associate Professor Carol Wicking at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience UQ, identifying novel downstream effectors of Sonic hedgehog in the developing mouse limb. She then became a research fellow in the laboratory of Professor Clifford Tabin, Harvard Medical School USA (2004-2010), elucidating genetic networks involved in patterning the vertebrate limb and axial skeleton.
Associate Professor Jennifer Zenker
GROUP LEADER, THE AUSTRALIAN REGENERATIVE MEDICINE INSTITUTE
jennifer.zenker@monash.edu
Zenker Group
In 2018, Jennifer Zenker was appointed Group Leader at the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute, Monash University in Melbourne. Prior to establishing her research group, Jennifer undertook her postdoctoral studies at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology at A*STAR in Singapore and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) Australia located at Monash University in Melbourne. She was the first scientist based in Singapore to receive the prestigious Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2015. In 2012, she received her PhD in Neurobiology from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland.
During her postdoctoral studies, Jennifer used non-invasive imaging technologies to visualize the real-time dynamics of the cytoskeletal system within single cells of the mammalian embryo. She discovered new insights into how the microtubule and actin cytoskeleton are required for the development of a healthy embryo.
Dr Dianne Ruka
INSTITUTE MANAGER
+61 (3) 9902 9609
Dianne Ruka has extensive experience in scientific research, project and research management, science outreach and event coordination, as well as teaching and learning. Joining the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute, Monash University as Institute Manager in 2024, she previously worked as the Centre Manager of the ARC Training Centre for Cell and Tissue Engineering Technologies within the Faculty of Engineering.
Dianne completed a PhD in Materials Engineering at CSIRO and Monash University, after which she was Project Manager of SEAMS (Strengthening Engagement and Achievements in Mathematics and Sciences), a collaborative program led by Monash University and the University of Melbourne. Dianne later held the role of Senior Education and Training Coordinator at the ARC Centre of Excellence in Future Low-Energy Electronics Technologies. Dianne is interested in interdisciplinary research, data analysis and presentation, science communication, STEM education and training and research management.