
B.Sc. (hons 1) in Zoology & Biochemistry, School of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, UNSW, Sydney, 1988.
Ph.D. in Molecular Cell Biology, School of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney. 1996.
Curriculum Vitae 104kb [PDF]
I completed a BSc (hons I) in Zoology and Biochemistry from the School of Biological Sciences at the University of NSW, Sydney, and subsequently obtained my PhD in Molecular Cell Biology (on proto-oncogene c-fos gene regulation and signal transduction) as an external student of the Department of Pathology, School of Medicine of the University of NSW. The laboratory work for my doctoral degree was performed in the group of Prof. Alfred Nordheim, who was then at the Institute of Molecular Biology at the Medizinische Hochschule Hannover, in Germany. After doing my PhD and follow-up postdoc work in Hannover I spent one year as a postdoctoral Scientist working on Fos-family gene regulation at The John Curtin School of Medical Research at the Australian National University in Canberra, where I was introduced through a guest lecture by Professor Keith Williams to the then emerging field of Proteomics. Working in the field of signal transduction, I was then trying to identify kinases that anonymously phosphorylated my target proteins, only to frustratingly vanish unidentified back into the cloaking shadows of the unchartered cytoplasm from whence they had appeared. This field of proteomics offered new strategies to tackle the biology cell signalling, and indeed the broad panorama of cell biology.
These were exciting developments, and I decided immediately that I wanted to work in proteomics because it showed the potential to eventually address just the questions that I was trying to ask in my own research. At that stage (in 1996) the Australian Proteome Analysis Facility (APAF) had just been established, and I assessed that there was no chance of my securing funds in Australia to work on proteomics. Therefore I moved back to Germany where my Ex-PhD supervisor, Alfred Nordheim, had just accepted a Professorship at the Department of Molecular Biology, Interfaculty Institute of Cell Biology at the University of Tuebingen, and he offered me the opportunity to initiate proteomics activities in his brand new and empty institute. Those activities were the direct genetic ancestor of the modern Proteomics Centre at Tuebingen, which was founded in 2000.
However before that centre was officially opened I had left academia. Realising that proteomics techniques detected only a fraction of all cellular proteins, I was working on strategies to improve protein detection: involving a vision of large two-dimensional protein separation gels combined with sensitive multiplexed radioactive protein detection. This led to my co-foundation of a proteomics-based biotechnology company in February 2000. One year later that company underwent a corporate merger to form ProteoSys AG, based in Mainz Germany, where I initially served on the managerial board and as Chief Research Officer and co-founding scientist until I left to return to Australia in 2007. At ProteoSys, with the support of a talented team of colleagues, we were able to develop the technological proteomics platform envisioned in the business plan and to experimentally focus those newly acquired tools onto several cancer systems. Those methods in turn revealed exciting cell biology, which closed the circle on my professional interests of oncogenic signal transduction. In 2008 I ‘moved back home’ by re-entering academic life in Australia as a biochemistry lecturer at Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga, where the climate and landscape are similar to Wellington NSW, where I grew up. And here I am.
Teaching philosophy
I teach using a blended learning approach where students have access to multiple media and avenues to achieve their learning objectives. These range from face to face lectures, podcasting, linking to online e-resources, lab practicals, problem based learning modules, and one-on-one mentoring, as well as answering student queries by email, telephone, BLOG thread, or chat. My door is always open to students, but they are advised to make an appointment if they want to be certain that I am available.
Current subjects taught
Honours coordinator
Additionally, I am the honours course coordinator for the School of Biomedical Sciences, including coordination of
I am a Key Researcher at the CSU Centre For Inland Health, in the research grouping Cell Biology, Genetics & Immunology In Health & Disease
At ProteoSys AG, a proteomics-centred company which I co-founded, I headed cancer research. After that indication area was discontinued due to insufficient funds I could choose any result in the then current cancer portfolio to pursue in an academic career. By far the most promising protein in the cancer portfolio of ProteoSys, the veritable jewel in the crown, was the protein Progesterone Receptor Membrane Component 1 (PGRMC1), which we had detected to be differentially phosphorylated between breast cancers differing in expression levels of the estrogen receptor. Whereas these results had been submitted for patent applications between 2004-2007 (WO2006029836; WO2007039189; WO2008037449), a chronic internal funding shortage for the project within the company had prevented the level of biological characterisation that will be necessary to elucidate the precise role of PGRMC1 in cancer. That elucidation represents my current research priority. Although it is a small protein, PGRMC1 has been implicated in a wide variety of biological functions (See Cahill 2007). In fact it is highly likely that PGRMC1 is involved at a crucial nexus position in a convergent inter-regulated yet hitherto undescribed signalling system (which includes the regulation of steroid synthesis) whose activity determines the survival prognosis of cancer cells (Neubauer et al., 2008). PGRMC1 also regulates the steroid-mediated onset of vasculogenesis that is so crucially important in metastatic biology (Neubauer et al., 2009), and is induced at the time and place in cancers where it regulate the onset of oxygen-independent tumour-specific energy metabolism (Figure 1)
Figure 1. The induction of PGRMC1 (red) in the hypoxic zone (redox stress) surrounding the necrotic core (central dark green staining) of a ductal carcinoma in situ from a breast cancer patient tissue section. The estrogen receptor (outer green staining) stains in a halo surrounding the hypoxic zone but is downregulated where PGRMC1 is upregulated; From Neubauer et al., (2008). In the same paper we showed that PGRMC1 phosphorylation differed between breast cancers, and that phosphorylation site mutants protected cancer cells from redox induced death. |
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There are several potential research projects available to study the role of this exciting protein in cancer and cell metabolism. Methods involve cell imaging, cloning, mutagenesis, cell culture, and general cell molecular biological techniques. Students interested in pursuing Honours or Doctoral studies in a stimulating scientific environment working on the mechanistic molecular cell biology of cancer or pharmacology are encouraged to contact me. The commitment to either undergraduate or postgraduate study is a vitally important step that hones the future career path of any student. The PGRMC1 signalling project offers a scientific environment and a compellingly urgent research topic that will enable students who are willing to apply themselves to reach their scientific potential at this crucial stage of their careers. The School of Biomedical Sciences is also a great place to work, and we have a lot of fun here too!
The earliest stories passed down to us in myths and sagas contain reference to secret and powerful treatments that could prolong the ageing process in those that took them, or to extremely long lived gods or royal characters. These include the Indo-European gods (e.g., the apples of the Hesperides and Ambrosia in Greek, the apples of Idun and Mead for the Germanic Aesir, Homa and Soma for the early Indo-Iranians), Manetho’s long lived early predynastic Egyptian kings, the Epic of Gilgamesh (the earliest attested literature, where the survivor of Noah’s flood had the secret of immortality), and the related flood account in Genesis, where Noah’s immediate male ancestors all lived many hundreds of years, including Methuselah, the oldest of them all (“But what good is livin’, when no girl will give-in to a man who is 900 years”). Clearly, this theme has long aroused the excitement of many story tellers.
Since the late 1990’s I have been interested in ageing models in model organisms. Over the past two decades these have revealed evolutionarily conserved pathways that affect the rate of ageing in organisms from yeast, roundworms, and fruit flies to mice (Guarente & Kenyon, 2000; ), and leading to speculation that ageing may be a treatable phenomenon in the future (Hadley et al., 2005). One such pathway involves the mTOR (mammalian Target Of Rapamycin) signalling pathway. Experimental results in model organisms over the last 20 years have led to the recent demonstration that inhibiting mTOR in mice with the dug rapamycin indeed delays the rate of ageing of those mice (Harrison et al., 2009). Although the effect was relatively modest, and rapamycin is an immune immunosuppressant that destroyed the immune systems of those mice, this represented a veritable landmark result that demonstrated both proof of concept and proof of mechanism that ageing can be pharmacologically addressed in mammals. These are the two major acceptance criteria for the pharmaceutical industry to accept a project into their high throughput screening pipelines. It is quite feasible (but don’t hold your breath) that in the foreseeable future humans may age more slowly, so that a 65 year old person may have the body of a modern twenty year old. The advent of antibiotics after WWII heralded a medical revolution of similar importance, and such a breakthrough in ageing research is quite within the realms of possibility in the coming years. These are exciting times, and just perhaps there will one day be middle-aged men many centuries old who women will still find attractive.
Book Chapters
Peer-reviewed Publications
Patent Applications
§ Wozny et al. 2007 & patents DE102004038076, WO2005078124 & WO2006125580 led to a multicenter clinical trial with the title: “Annexin A3 (ANXA3) as Protein-Based Marker for Non-Invasive Molecular Diagnostics of Prostate Carcinoma” with Identifier: NCT00400894: http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct/gui/show/NCT00400894
These patents were licensed to bioMérieux Clinical Diagnostics (Marcy l'Etoile, France) in September 2008.
§ See also Am. Urol. Assoc. annual meeting 2007: Webcast of Prof. Fritz H. Schroeder, M.D. (slides 9-11):
http://webcasts.prous.com/aua2007/pop_up_bio.asp?sid=220&id=194&q=auto&v=auto&webcast=highlights&CID=&CLID=2
Invited Presentations
Grant body |
Ref |
Status |
Applicants |
Title |
Period |
Σ value |
Charles Sturt University Competitive Grants |
A105-900-639-40002 |
funded |
M. Cahill |
Structures of the protein pgrmc1 in complex with its ligands heme and progesterone |
2009-2010 |
AU$ |
Charles Sturt University Publication Assistance Scheme |
CSU A105-900-639-30007 |
funded |
M. Cahill |
Stable Isotope based Proteomics: An Approach for unbiased quantification and quality control |
2009 |
AU$ |
Charles Sturt University Grant-writing Assistance Scheme |
CSU A105-900-639-40003 |
funded |
M. Cahill |
Anti-ageing properties of plants (Grant writing assistance) |
2009 |
AU$ |
ProteoSys AG was also involved in the following grants, which I either co-planned or managed within the company:
Granting body |
Grant Title |
Reference Number |
Period |
Financial Sum approved |
MY ROLE |
||||
European FP6 |
Development of new technologies for low abundance proteomics: Application to cystic fibrosis. (NEUPROCF) |
LSHG-CT-2005-512044 |
1.6.2005 – 31-5-2008 |
300,000.00 € |
I AUTHORED AND COSTED THE PROJECT APPLICATION FOR PROTEOSYS |
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European FP6 |
Role of Mitochondria in Conserved Mechanisms of Ageing (MIMAGE) |
LSHM-CT-2004-512020 |
1.1.2005 – 31.12.2010 |
571,405.00 € |
I AUTHORED AND COSTED THE PROJECT APPLICATION FOR PROTEOSYS |
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European FP5 |
Development of UltraSensitive methods for proteome: application to cystic fibrosisProposal Acronym : (EUROPROCF) |
European FP5 Proposal Nr. QLRT 2000-01335 |
1.9.2001 – 31.8.2004 |
715,415.00 € |
I COAUTHORED AND COSTED THE PROJECT, & SUPERVISED THE PROJECT AT PROTEOSYS. |
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European FP5 |
Prostate disorders: procurement of biomarkers & Pharmaceuticals (ProCure BioPharm) |
European FP5 Proposal Nr. QLRT-2000-00159 |
1.1.2001 – 31.12.2004 |
214,291.00 € |
I PLANNED & COAUTHORED THE PROTEOMICS PROJECT, & REPRESENTED PROTEOSYS AG WITHIN THE CONSORTIUM. |
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German Human Genome Project§ |
Proteomanalyse von Brustkrebsgenen. |
01 KW0102 |
1.9.2001 – 30.6.2005 |
554,595.75 € |
I COAUTHORED & PLANNED THE PROTEOMICS, & WAS CONSORTIUM COORDINATOR. |
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BMBF |
Fraktionierung und Gewinnung von „Low Abundandance“ Proteinen in der Proteomanalytik. |
0312831 |
1.11.2001- 31.12.2003 |
678,304.00 € |
I CONCEIVED & AUTHORED THE PROJECT, & WAS CONSORTIUM COORDINATOR. |
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§ I was consortium coordinator of these grants.
(Joint proteomics applications with Prof. Alfred Nordheim)
Granting body |
Grant Title |
Reference Number |
Period |
Financial Sum approved |
MY ROLE |
||||
Deutsche Forschungs Gesellschaft (DFG) Mass-Spectrometry Initiative. |
Medizinische Proteomanalyse: massenspektrometrische Identifizierung von Proteinen klinischer Biopsate. |
DFG 120/11-1 |
October 1999 |
DM 719,000 |
I COAUTHORED THE GRANT WITH PROF. NORDHEIM. -> PE Biosystems Q-STAR purchase. |
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University Clinics of Tuebingen |
MALDI TOF Purchase. |
Tuebingen Clinics internal |
August 1998 |
DM 400,000 |
I COAUTHORED THE GRANT WITH PROF. NORDHEIM. |
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