Science, Technology and Engineering

Ryan Laboratory

Department of Biochemistry

Biosketch - Professor Mike Ryan

Mike completed his Bachelor of Science in 1991 with 1st class Honours in Biochemistry at La Trobe University. He undertook a PhD working on molecular chaperones and mitochondrial stress under the principal supervision of Peter Hoj and co-supervision of Nick Hoogenraad (at La Trobe and The University of Adelaide). After this, Mike was awarded an Alexander von Humbolt Fellowship and worked for 3 years in the laboratory of Prof Klaus Pfanner in Freiburg, Germany. His research focussed on the analysis of the protein import machinery of mitochondria in yeast. In 2000, Mike returned to La Trobe, initially as an ARC fellow. He was appointed to Lecturer in 2001 and Associate Professor in 2006. In 2006, Mike received the Roche Medal from the Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Mike was appointed to Professor in 2010 and subsequently became Head of Department in the same year.

His research is supported by grants from the National Health & Medical Research Council, Australian Research Council and the Wellcome Trust. 

Note:   If you are a highly qualified German scholar aged up to 38 and holding a doctorate and wish to undertake research in Mike's lab, you can apply for a Feodor Lynen Research Fellowship through the AvH Foundation . Please contact Mike for further details.

Selected Publications:

• Stojanovski D., Koutsopoulos O., Okamoto K. & Ryan M.T. (2004). Levels of human Fis1 at the mitochondrial outer membrane regulate mitochondrial morphology. J. Cell Science 117 1201-1210.
• Wiedemann, N., Kozjak, V., Chacinska, A., Schönfisch, B., Rospert, S., Ryan, M.T., Pfanner, N., and Meisinger, C. (2003). A machinery for protein sorting and assembly in the mitochondrial outer membrane. Nature 424, 565-571.
• Kirby, D.M., Boneh, A., Chow C.W., Ohtake A., Ryan, M.T., Thyagarajan, D., Thorburn, D.R. (2003). Low mutant load of mitochondrial DNA G13513A mutation can cause Leigh Disease. Ann. Neurol. 55, 58-64.
• Johnston, A.J, Hoogenraad, J., Dougan, D.A., Truscott, K.N., Yano, M., Mori, M., Hoogenraad, N.J., & Ryan, M.T. (2002). Insertion and assembly of human Tom7 into the preprotein translocase complex of the outer mitochondrial membrane. J. Biol. Chem. 277, 42197-42204.
• Zhao, Q., Wang, J., Levichkin, I.V., Stasinopoulos, S., Ryan, M.T. & Hoogenraad, N.J. (2002). A mitochondrial specific stress response in mammalian cells. EMBO J. 21, 4411-4419.
• Wiedemann, N., Pfanner, N., and Ryan, M.T. (2001). The three modules of ADP/ATP carrier cooperate in receptor recruitment and translocation into mitochondria. EMBO J . 20, 951-960. 
• Model, K., Meisinger, C., Prinz, T., Wiedemann, N., Truscott, K.N., Pfanner, N., and Ryan, M.T. (2001). Multistep assembly of the protein import channel of the mitochondrial outer membrane. Nature Struct. Biol. 8 , 361-370.
• van Wilpe, S.*, Ryan, M.T.*, Hill, K., Maarse, A.C., Meisinger, C., Brix, J., Dekker, P.J.T., Moczko, M., Wagner, R., Meijer, M., Guiard, B., Hönlinger, A., and Pfanner, N. (1999). Tom22 is a multifunctional organizer of the mitochondrial preprotein translocase. Nature 401, 485-489. (* denotes equal contribution)
• Kurz, M., Martin, H., Rassow, J., Pfanner, N. & Ryan, M.T. (1999). Biogenesis of Tim proteins of the mitochondrial carrier import pathway: differential targeting mechanisms and crossing over with the main import pathway. Mol. Biol. Cell 10, 2461-2474.
• Hill, K., Model, K., Ryan, M.T., Dietmeier, K., Martin, F., Wagner, R. & Pfanner, N. (1998). Tom40 forms the hydrophilic channel of the mitochondrial import pore for preproteins. Nature 395, 516-521.