Our People
Contact
- Project consultations:
- Bioinformatics and machine learning:
Please contact Dr. Esmaeil Ebrahimie at E.Ebrahimie@latrobe.edu.au or genomics@latrobe.edu.au - Next generation sequencing:
Please contact Asha Haslem at a.haslem2@latrobe.edu.au or genomics@latrobe.edu.au
- Bioinformatics and machine learning:
- General enquiries:
- All general enquiries can be directed to the genomics platform at genomics@latrobe.edu.au.
Our Team
Professor Mathew Lewsey - Director, Genomics Platform
Profile: La Trobe Scholar, Google Scholar
As the Genomics Platform director, Prof Mat Lewsey provides scientific leadership to the Platform and oversees the operations of the Platform under the guidance of a steering committee.
Mat completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge and was a Marie Curie Fellow at the Salk Institute (La Jolla, USA) with Prof Joe Ecker and at the Centro Nacional de Biotecnología (Madrid, Spain) with Prof Roberto Solano. He then joined La Trobe University in 2016 to further his interests in genomics and systems biology.
In 2017 Mat became Director of the La Trobe Genomics Platform. He is also the Co-Deputy Director of the ARC Industrial Transformation Research Hub for Medicinal Agriculture since 2019 and was the Director for Research and Industry Engagement for the School of Life Sciences from 2020 to 2022. Most recently he has helped establish the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space, which studies plant design and bioresource production to enable off-Earth habitation and provide solutions for improving on-Earth sustainability. He now serves as the La Trobe University Plants for Space Node Leader.
Dr. Esmaeil Ebrahimie - Bioinformatician
Profile: La Trobe Scholar, Google Scholar
Dr. Esmaeil Ebrahimie is an Associate Professor and Senior Bioinformatician at La Trobe University, an Adjunct Associate Professor at The University of Adelaide, and an Honorary Principal Fellow at The University of Melbourne, boasting 21 years of experience in bioinformatics, machine learning, and biostatistics. In 2019, Dr. Ebrahimie was awarded the prestigious Accredited Statistician certificate from the Statistical Society of Australia.
He has a proven track record in the innovative application of machine learning (Artificial Intelligence), advanced statistical pipelines, and high-performance computing in biomedical research and drug repurposing. His work spans cancer research, infectious diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, calorie restriction, and anxiety.
Dr. Ebrahimie developed a new statistical pipeline that integrates meta-analysis and machine learning to combine data from multiple sources. This pipeline effectively handles heterogeneous patient data, leading to the discovery of robust predictive biomarkers of disease progression and drug response.
Dr. Ebrahimie has published 176 peer-reviewed journal articles in prestigious journals such as Nature Medicine and Computers in Biology and Medicine. In 2023 alone, his papers were cited 709 times according to Google Scholar. His h-index in Scopus is 30, with 56% of his papers published in top-tier (Q1) journals based on CiteScore.
Asha Haslem - Senior Technical Officer
Asha coordinates and conducts a range of next generation sequencing technical services for the Genomics Platform. She completed her Bachelor of Science degree at La Trobe University in 2000, majoring in Microbiology and Genetics. In 2006 Asha moved to Darwin to study the potentially fatal disease Melioidosis caused by the bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei at Menzies School of Health Research. After returning to Melbourne, she began working at the Royal Children's Hospital establishing and validating molecular tests for the monitoring of minimal residual disease in leukaemia patients before moving to the Australian Genome Research Facility working in the Next-Generation Sequencing division. In 2016 Asha joined the Genomics Platform at AgriBio.