Destiny vs disease

Douglas Ormonde Butler Memorial Lecture - Destiny vs disease

What role do genetics play in the way we experience disease? As our understanding of the genome grows, are better prevention, treatment and health care personalisation just around the corner?

Don’t miss a renowned interdisciplinary panel of UQ experts as they discuss everything from susceptibility and severity to vaccine efficacy and the treatment of life-threatening illness – all in the context of your genetic make-up.

Nature vs nurture. Who wins in the battle against pandemics, chronic disease and ‘lingering’ disorders like immune deficiency and Long COVID?

From left: Professor Gabrielle Benz, Associate Professor Kirsty Short, Associate Professor Loic Yengo, Tegan Taylor and Professor Trent Munro.

Professor Gabrielle Belz, Chair of Immunology, UQ Frazer Institute

Trained in veterinary medicine and surgery, Gabrielle Belz has made major contributions to the field of immunology, for which she has been awarded a Gottschalk Medal (AAS), a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator Award and, in 2024, an ARC Laureate Fellowship.

A Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher, Gabrielle seeks to understand the cellular and molecular factors shaping innate and adaptive immune responses that lead to long-term protective memory. Using sequencing approaches, her research group is unravelling the immune system to discover what impacts homeostasis, how to protect against infectious organisms and how dysregulation results in both local and systemic disease.

Associate Professor Kirsty Short, NHMRC Principal Research Fellow, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences

Kirsty Short has spent over a decade studying influenza pandemics and she has helped governments globally to make informed public health decisions. In 2013, she was awarded the prestigious NHMRC CJ Martin Early Career Fellowship and, in 2017/18, received an ARC DECRA to start her independent research groups in UQ’s School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences.

Kirsty’s research plays an important role in shaping public policy, with her work on pandemic preparedness featured on Prevention Web, the United Nation’s cite for disaster risk reduction. Her findings on the role of children in SARS-CoV-2 transmission were picked up by numerous media outlets and influenced Australian and UK government policy around the reopening of schools during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Associate Professor Loic Yengo, Group Leader, Statistical Genomics, UQ Institute for Molecular Biosciences

Loic Yengo is a professor of statistical genetics and an accomplished researcher who develops and applies novel statistical methods to discover how genes contribute to disease onset and progression. His work has led to the identification of novel genetic variants tied to multiple traits and diseases.

Recipient of the Australian Academy of Science 2022 Ruth Stephens Gani Medal for outstanding contributions to research in human genetics, Loic was also named one of 11 Nature Medicine 2022 Yearbook early-career ‘researchers to watch’. In 2024, he was awarded a Snow Medical Research Foundation Fellowship to accelerate genomic risk prediction and increase the benefit of genomic medicine in under-represented populations. He is also the 2024 recipient of the American Society of Human Genetics Early Career Award, a recognition never previously awarded outside the US.

Professor Trent Munro, Senior Group Leader, Munro Group, Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology

Trent Munro has over 25 years’ research and development experience, including as an executive with multinational biopharmaceutical company Amgen. He has worked across many of the world’s leading innovation centres, spanning Australia, USA, Germany, India and the UK.

Trent has held several leadership roles in Australia including Senior Vice President of Therapeutics at Microba, leading the therapeutic development strategy, Director of the National Biologics Facility (NBF), Program Director of CEPI-funded Rapid Response Vaccine Pipeline, ARC Centre for Biopharmaceutical Innovation (CBI) Director and Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) Senior Group Leader. He is Chair of Life Sciences Queensland, scientific co-founder of Cassowary Pharma and sits on the Macrobiome Therapeutics Scientific Advisory Board. He is an Industry Professor and Director of Innovation in Biotechnology at UQ.

Tegan Taylor, Science reporter, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)

Tegan Taylor is a multi-award-winning health and science reporter for the ABC. She hosts shows including Radio National’s Health Report, Quick Smart and What’s That Rash? She’s received a Walkley Award, the Eureka Prize for Science Journalism and her work has appeared in the Best of Australian Science Writing.

About Douglas Ormonde Butler Memorial Lecture

The presentation is made possible through the Douglas Ormonde Butler Lecture endowment.

Host or Publisher Faculty of Science, The University of Queensland