Professor Matt Trau

ARC Australian Laureate Fellow

Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology

ARC Laureate Fellow

School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences
Faculty of Science

Overview

Professor Matt Trau is currently a Professor of Chemistry at The University of Queensland (UQ); and is also Senior Group Leader and co-founder of the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology. Since graduating from the University of Sydney (BSc Hons I, University Medal) and the University of Melbourne (PhD in Physical Chemistry, 1993), he has held positions in industry and academia across the globe. These include a Fulbright Research Fellowship at Princeton University, USA; and a research scientist at Dow Chemical and ICI Pty Ltd. Professor Trau has been a Visiting Professor at two of the largest Cancer Research Centres in the world: The Dana Farber Cancer Research Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston (2000); and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre, Seattle (2008). Professor Trau is internationally recognised for his innovative and cross-disciplinary research at the interface between chemistry, nanotechnology, biology and medicine. He has co-authored more than 200 refereed publications, many of which appear in the highest impact journals in his field, e.g., eleven Science and Nature family publications. His major awards and honours include an ARC Federation Fellowship (one of the most prestigious scientific fellowships in Australia), a Fulbright Research Fellowship to the USA; a Queensland Young Tall Poppy Award; a UQ Foundation/Vice Chancellor’s Research Excellence Award; a Paul Harris Fellowship; and a Pink Circle Award for breast cancer research excellence.

Research Impacts

Research

Nanoscience, Nanotechnology, Molecular diagnostics.

Leadership of major multi-disciplinary international programs

Professor Trau has raised more than $22 million in competitive national and international grant funding in the past 10 years. In the last five years, Professor Trau has initiated and led several large international programs that involve close collaboration between leading nanotechnologists, molecular biologists, geneticists and commercial researchers - with the goal of creating cutting edge diagnostics. These include a $4 million National and International Research Alliances Program (NIRAP) grant from the Queensland government ("International Partnership for preventative and Personalised Medicine)"; and two consecutive $5 million multidisciplinary collaborative grants from the National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF): "Novel strategies for Prediction and Control of Advanced Breast Cancer via Nanoscaled Epigenetic-Based Biosensors", 2008-2013; and "Enabling Clinical Epigenetic Diagnostics: The Next Generation of Personalized Breast Cancer Care", 2013-2018. These grants involve research collaborations with some of the highest calibre scientists in the world, e.g., Dr Lee Hartwell (2001 Nobel Laureate) from Seattle was a co-chief investigator on the NIRAP grant, and each of the NBCF grants include leading geneticists, pathologists and oncologists from across Australia and around the world. In the past five years, he has been a consultant for a range of national and international companies such as Merck, Digene, Beckman Coulter, Panbio and A.I. Scientific, as well as being the founder and Director of Nanomics BioSystems Pty Ltd (a spinoff company from his laboratory).

Major plenary lectures and international conferences

Since 2003, Professor Trau has presented more than 60 invited plenary/keynote lectures at major international conferences spanning the disciplines of Chemistry, Nanotechnology, Chemical Engineering, Cancer and Diagnostics. Recent examples include: the 4th International NanoBio Conference, (Seattle) 2012; the 14th International Colloid & Surface Science Conference, (Japan) 2012; "Cancer Nanotechnology" Gordon Research Conference, (USA) 2011; the WA Cancer Conference 2011; Sydney Cancer Conference, 2010. In the past 10 years, Professor Trau has played the role of conference convenor, chair, co-chair and symposium chair for 10 major international conferences. Recent examples include: immediate past chair of the 1st International Conference on BioNano Innovation, (Brisbane) 2012; co-chair of the 5th International NanoBio Conference scheduled for Brisbane in 2014.

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy, University of Melbourne
  • Bachelor (Honours) of Science (Advanced), University of Sydney

Publications

View all Publications

Supervision

View all Supervision

Publications

Book

Book Chapter

  • Wang, Jing, Trau, Matt and Wuethrich, Alain (2023). A microfluidic SERS assay to characterize the phenotypic heterogeneity in cancer-derived small extracellular vesicles. Microfluidic systems for cancer diagnosis. (pp. 241-253) edited by Jose L. Garcia-Cordero and Alexander Revzin. New York, NY, United States: Humana Press. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-3271-0_17

  • Korbie, Darren and Trau, Matt (2022). Multiplex PCR design for scalable resequencing. PCR Primer Design. (pp. 143-158) edited by Chhandak Basu. New York, NY, United States: Humana Press. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-1799-1_11

  • Wuethrich, Alain, Dey, Shuvashis, Koo, Kevin M, Sina, Abu A. I. and Trau, Matt (2021). Simultaneous BRAFV600E protein and DNA aberration detection in circulating melanoma cells using an integrated multimolecular sensor. Melanoma. (pp. 265-276) New York, NY, United States: Humana Press. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-1205-7_20

  • Ng, Benjamin Y.C., Wee, Eugene J.H., West, Nicholas P. and Trau, Matt (2019). Nucleic Acid Detection of Tuberculosis Via Innovative Point-of-Care Nanotechnologies Targeted for Low Resource Settings. Revolutionizing Tropical Medicine. (pp. 584-599) Hoboken, NJ United States: John Wiley & Sons. doi: 10.1002/9781119282686.ch33

  • Ibn Sina, A. A., Koo, K. M., Ahmed, M., Carrascosa, L. G. and Trau, M. (2018). Interfacial biosensing: direct biosensing of biomolecules at the bare metal interface. Encyclopedia of interfacial chemistry: surface science and electrochemistry. (pp. 269-277) Amsterdam: Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/b978-0-12-409547-2.14188-5

  • Lane, Rebecca E., Korbie, Darren, Trau, Matt and Hill, Michelle M. (2017). Purification protocols for extracellular vesicles. In Winston Patrick Kuo and Shidong Jia (Ed.), Extracellular vesicles: methods and protocols (pp. 111-130) New York, United States: Humana Press. doi:10.1007/978-1-4939-7253-1_10

  • Wee, Eugene J. H., Shiddiky, Muhammad J. A. and Trau, Matt (2013). Detecting DNA methylation for cancer diagnostics and prognostics. Microfluidics, nanotechnology and disease biomarkers for personalized medicine applications. (pp. 117-132) edited by Muhammad J. A. Shiddiky, Eugene J. H. Wee, Sakandar Rauf and Matt Trau. New York, NY, United States: Nova Publishers.

  • Shiddiky, Muhammad J.A., Wee, Eugene J.H., Rauf, Sakandar and Trau, Matt (2013). Preface. Microfluidics, nanotechnology and disease biomarkers for personalized medicine applications. edited by Muhammad J. A. Shiddiky, Eugene J. H. Wee, Sakandar Rauf and Matt Trau. Hauppauge, NY, United States: Nova Science Publishers.

  • Battersby, B. J., Chen, A., Kozak, D. and Trau, M. (2012). Biosensors for disease biomarker detection. Biosensors for medical applications. (pp. 191-216) edited by Seamus Higson. Oxford, United Kingdom: Woodhead Publishing. doi: 10.1016/B978-1-84569-935-2.50007-3

  • Pattemore, J. A., Trau, M. and Henry, R. J. (2008). Nanotechnology : the future of cost-effective plant genotyping. Plant genotyping II : SNP technology. (pp. 133-153) edited by R. J. Henry. Wallingford, United Kingdom: CABI Publishing. doi: 10.1079/9781845933821.0133

  • Battersby, Bronwyn J., Grondahl, Lisbeth, Lawrie, Gwendolyn A. and Trau, Matt (2004). Colloids for encoding chemical libraries: Applications in biological screening. Colloids and Colloid Assemblies. (pp. 507-560) edited by F. Caruso. Weinheim: Wiley VCH. doi: 10.1002/3527602100.ch17

Journal Article

Conference Publication

Edited Outputs

Grants (Administered at UQ)

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Current Supervision

  • Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

  • Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

  • Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

  • Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

  • Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

  • Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

  • Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

  • Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

  • Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

  • Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

Completed Supervision