Expatriate takes up key role in biosciences
A new and rare posting at La Trobe that links laboratory and computational-based research in the quest for answers to human and animal diseases has brought Professor Liam O'Connor back to Melbourne.
The challenge of a new and rare posting at La Trobe University that links laboratory and computational-based research in the quest for answers to human and animal diseases has brought Liam O’Connor back to Melbourne.
After eleven years overseas where he worked in the pharmaceutical industry, Professor O’Connor took up his role as Chair of Systems Biology and Bioinformatics at the La Trobe Institute for Molecular Sciences and the Biosciences Research Centre in July.
Announcing the appointment, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), Professor Tim Brown, said Professor O’Connor’s innovative research focus will spearhead Victorian studies into human health and disease and the biology of important agricultural animals.
‘Professor O’Connor is a dynamic Australian with a high international profile who will bring valuable expertise to the biotechnology industry,’ Professor Brown said.
He said Professor O’Connor’s work would boost Victoria’s research profile and the University’s status in molecular science, biotechnology and nanotechnology.
Professor O’Connor was most recently based in the USA as Director of Quantitative Biology at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research where he had global responsibility for computational and systems biology. He said he was attracted to the La Trobe position because of ‘its broad scale approach to biology and academic research.’
‘Since the completion of the Human Genome Project and the genomes of other species, modern biological research has increasingly become dependent on computers to process the huge amount of information being generated.’
Professor O’Connor will divide his time between the Biosciences Research Centre and the La Trobe Institute for Molecular Sciences.
The $230 Biosciences Research Centre (BRC) is a joint initiative between the Victorian Government, through the Department of Primary Industries, and La Trobe University. It will be a world-class facility for agricultural biosciences research and development. Work on the project began in June, with Premier John Brumby turning the first sod on the site.
The $97 million La Trobe Institute for Molecular Sciences (LIMS) will be a leader in molecular science, biotechnology and nanotechnology research and research training, creating 220 extra research positions to overcome critical shortage of bioscientists in Australia.
Both centres are expected to be fully operational in 2012.
Professor O’Connor began his career in computer science and mathematics before switching to biology. After his PhD at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne and postdoctoral work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Centre for Cancer Research, he joined Incyte Genomics and MDS Proteomics before his appointment at Novartis Pharmaceuticals.