Staff profile

Professor Robin Anders

Emeritus Professor, Lab Head

Faculty of Science, Technology and Engineering

School of Molecular Sciences
Department of Biochemistry

Physical Sciences 4, Room 417, Melbourne (Bundoora)

 

Qualifications

BAgrSc, PhD (Melbourne)

Area of study

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Brief profile

Robin completed his Bachelor of Agricultural Science degree in 1961 at the University of Melbourne and after a short time working as an Agricultural Officer in Papua New Guinea returned to Melbourne to undertake his PhD studies in Biochemistry under the supervision of Dr Richard Jago. In 1965 Robin returned to Papua New Guinea and for almost 10 years taught at the medical school in Port Moresby, which in 1970 became the Faculty of Medicine in the new University of Papua New Guinea. After leaving Papua New Guinea in 1974 Robin spent two years in Oslo, Norway, working on amyloid proteins with Professor Jacob Natvig, before returning to Melbourne to work at The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute where he stayed until moving to La Trobe University in 2000. In 1978 Robin joined the Immunoparasitology Laboratory headed by Graham Mitchell and since that time his research has largely focused on malaria. 

Over the last twenty years Robin has been involved in the characterization of a large number of parasite proteins that induce anti-malarial antibodies. He has been involved in assessing the vaccine potential of some of these proteins in preclinical studies and early clinical trials. He currently heads a project aiming to develop a vaccine incorporating the merozoite surface protein MSP2.

For 15 years Robin was chairman of the organizing committee for the Lorne Protein Structure and Function Conference. He has served as an advisor to the World Health Organisation on malaria vaccine development and has been a member of the Editorial Boards of Microbial Pathogenesis and Cellular Microbiology.

Older publications

Pearce JA, Mills K, Triglia T, Cowman AF, Anders RF. (2005) Characterisation of two novel proteins from the asexual stage of Plasmodium falciparum, H101 and H103. Mol Biochem Parasitol. Feb;139(2):141-51.

Cortes A, Mellombo M, Masciantonio R, Murphy VJ, Reeder JC, Anders RF. (2005) Allele specificity of naturally acquired antibody res23 July, 2006 1. Infect Immun. Jan;73(1):422-30.

Pearce JA, Hodder AN, Anders RF. (2004) The alanine-rich heptad repeats are intact in the processed form of Plasmodium falciparum MSP3. Exp Parasitol. Nov-Dec;108(3-4):186-9.

Fluck C, Smith T, Beck HP, Irion A, Betuela I, Alpers MP, Anders R, Saul A, Genton B, Felger I. (2004) Strain-specific humoral response to a polymorphic malaria vaccine. Infect Immun. Nov;72(11):6300-5.

Healer J, Murphy V, Hodder AN, Masciantonio R, Gemmill AW, Anders RF, Cowman AF, Batchelor A. (2004) Allelic polymorphisms in apical membrane antigen-1 are responsible for evasion of antibody-mediated inhibition in Plasmodium falciparum. Mol Microbiol. Apr;52(1):159-68.

Pearce JA, Triglia T, Hodder AN, Jackson DC, Cowman AF, Anders RF. (2004) Plasmodium falciparum merozoite surface protein 6 is a dimorphic antigen. Infect Immun. Apr;72(4):2321-8.

Nuttall SD, Humberstone KS, Krishnan UV, Carmichael JA, Doughty L, Hattarki M, Coley AM, Casey JL, Anders RF, Foley M, Irving RA, Hudson PJ. (2004) Selection and affinity maturation of IgNAR variable domains targeting Plasmodium falciparum AMA1. Proteins. Apr 1;55(1):187-97.

Rekas A, Adda CG, Aquilina JA, Barnham KJ, Sunde M, Galatis D, Williamson NA, Masters CL, Anders RF, Robinson CV, Cappai R, Carver JA. (2004) Interaction of the Molecular Chaperone aB-Crystallin with a-Synuclein: Effects on Amyloid Fibril Formation and Chaperone Activity. J Mol Biol. 340(5):1167-1183

Stanisic D.I., Martin L.B., Anders R.F. and Good M.F. (2004) Plasmodium falciparum asexual blood-stage vaccine candidates: current status. In Levine M, ed. New Generation Vaccines New York: Marcel Dekker: 875-885.

Casey J.L., Coley A.M., Anders R.F., Murphy V.J., Humberstone K.S., Thomas A.W., Foley M. (2004) Antibodies to Malaria Peptide Mimics Inhibit Plasmodium falciparum Invasion of Erythrocytes. Infect Immun. 72, 1126-1134.