Prof Marilyn Renfree

Prof Marilyn Renfree's research has been almost all on marsupials, because of their intrinsic interest and for the opportunities they provide as biomedical models for the understanding of mammalian reproduction and development. Her laboratory is known internationally for its study of these unique Australian animals, especially in early mammalian development, and sexual differentiation. Marilyn is a graduate of ANU, and has held NHMRC, Fulbright, Ford Foundation and Royal Society research fellowships. She was appointed to the Ian Potter Chair of Zoology in 1991 and was Head of Department until 2003. She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, a Laureate Professor of the University, and held an Australian Research Council Federation Fellowship from 2003-8. She is now Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Kangaroo Genomics.

Assoc Prof Andrew Pask

Assoc Prof Andrew Pask’s doctoral study led to the isolation of the novel marsupial Y-linked ATRY gene, a homologue of the human ATRX gene. His first postdoctoral position was in the Department of Zoology at The University of Melbourne in 1999 where he learnt developmental biology, and in particular that of the tammar wallaby.  He was successful in obtaining a NHMRC project grant to continue his investigations into the marsupial ATRY gene, and a CJ Martin Fellowship in conjunction with the MD Anderson Cancer Centre at the University of Texas, Houston.  Dr Pask has returned to Australia for the final two years of his CJ Martin Fellowship and in 2006 was awarded an R.D. Wright NHMRC Fellowship to support his research for 5 years.  In 2008 he took an appointment as Associate Professor at the University of Connecticut, USA, where he continues his research in comparative developmental biology.

During his postdoctoral career he has published over 35 papers in peer reviewed journals and is first author on 15 of these. One first author paper was published in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Science and another on the cover of Molecular Endocrinology, the top ranked endocrinology journal. He is also a co-author of the playpus genome paper, published as a cover story in Nature.