Professor Trent Munro

Industry Professor

Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology
t.munro@uq.edu.au
+61 7 334 64100

Overview

Professor Trent Munro is a Biotechnology and Biopharmaceutical professional with extensive experience in the CMC development of a wide array of biological and synthetic therapeutic modalities.

He is currently a Senior Group Leader at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN), The University of Queensland where he is Director of the NCRIS Funded National Biologics Facility and Program Director for the CEPI funded Vaccine Rapid Response pipeline. In this role has been part of the UQ team developing a clinical stage vaccine candidate for COVID-19

Professor Munro’s research is focussed on the development, engineering and production of complex therapeutics using biological system. This includes engineering mammalian cells in order to improve their efficiency and utility in the production of complex proteins, with a focus on biopharmaceuticals.

Prior to this, he was Executive Director of Process Development at Amgen Inc., based in California. In this role, Trent was involved in the translation of molecules from research, through clinical trials and multiple commercial product launches.

Prof. Munro has a PhD in Protein Biochemistry from UQ and completed postdoctoral studies in cell biology and developmental genetics at the Department of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School and the Wellcome Trust and Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge. From 2006-2013 he was an Associate Group Leader and Queensland Smart Futures fellow at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) at the University of Queensland.

Research Interests

  • Biopharmaceuticals
    Professor Munro’s research is focussed on the development, engineering and production of complex therapeutics using biological system. This includes engineering mammalian cells in order to improve their efficiency and utility in the production of complex proteins, with a focus on biopharmaceuticals.

Publications

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Grants

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Supervision

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Available Projects

  • Developing high throughput approaches which allow the rapid selection of clones which stably express high levels of the desired biopharmaceutical.

  • Developing transient protein expression systems which will allow researchers to rapidly produce larger amounts of protein needed for pre-clinical characterisation and testing.

  • Current approaches and treatments for venomous bites and stings use outdated technologies due to the complexity of the toxins. We are interested in the creation of novel recombinant approaches as treatments. We have several projects in this space and are currently seeking PhD studdents

View all Available Projects

Publications

Book Chapter

  • Munro, Trent P., Pilbrough, Warren, Hughes, Benjamin S. and Gray, Peter P. (2019). Cell line isolation and design. Comprehensive biotechnology. (pp. 144-153) edited by Murray Moo-Young. Oxford, United Kingdom: Pergamon. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-444-64046-8.00013-6

  • Codamo, Joe, Munro, Trent P., Hughes, Benjamin S., Song, Michael and Gray, Peter P. (2012). An optimised transfection platform for the Epi-CHO transient expression system in serum-free media. Proceedings of the 21st Annual Meeting of the European Society for Animal Cell Technology (ESACT), Dublin, Ireland, June 7-10, 2009. (pp. 19-23) edited by Nigel Jenkins, Niall Barron and Paula Alves. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-94-007-0884-6_3

  • Hou, Jeff Jia Cheng, Song, Michael, Munro, Trent P. and Gray, Peter P. (2012). Analysis of protein expression via alternate 3’ Untranslated Region (UTR) signals through the use of site specific recombination. Proceedings of the 21st Annual Meeting of the European Society for Animal Cell Technology (ESACT), Dublin, Ireland, June 7-10, 2009. (pp. 47-51) edited by Nigel Jenkins, Niall Barron and Paula Alves. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-94-007-0884-6_8

  • Munro, Trent P., Pilbrough, Warren, Hughes, Benjamin S. and Gray, Peter P. (2011). Cell line isolation and design. Scientific Fundamentals of Biotechnology. (pp. 169-178) edited by Murray Moo-Young, Michael Butler, Colin Webb, Antonio Moreira,, Bernard Grodzinski, Z. F. Cui and Spiros Agathos. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-08-088504-9.00024-6

Journal Article

Conference Publication

Other Outputs

  • Seldon, T. A., Munster, D. J., Hart, D. N., Jones, M. L., Munro, T. P., Mahler, S. M., Zhou, Y. and Marks, D. (2013). Anti-CD83 antibodies and use thereof.

  • Gray, Peter, Monteiro, Michael John and Munro, Trent Phillip (2013). Release Media. US9587104.

  • Munro, Trent Phillip (2001). A2RE-mediated RNA transport. PhD Thesis, School of Molecular and Microbial Sciences, The University of Queensland. doi: 10.14264/uql.2020.832

Grants (Administered at UQ)

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Current Supervision

Completed Supervision

Possible Research Projects

Note for students: The possible research projects listed on this page may not be comprehensive or up to date. Always feel free to contact the staff for more information, and also with your own research ideas.

  • Developing high throughput approaches which allow the rapid selection of clones which stably express high levels of the desired biopharmaceutical.

  • Developing transient protein expression systems which will allow researchers to rapidly produce larger amounts of protein needed for pre-clinical characterisation and testing.

  • Current approaches and treatments for venomous bites and stings use outdated technologies due to the complexity of the toxins. We are interested in the creation of novel recombinant approaches as treatments. We have several projects in this space and are currently seeking PhD studdents

  • Using modern ‘omics’ approaches to gain better understanding of cellular metabolism which will allow maximal protein expression by mammalian cell cultures.