Professor
College of Science and Engineering
Dr Abbott received her Ph.D from the University of Sydney in 1997 during which she cloned and sequenced the gene for the protease dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP4) in the pre- human genome era. Her discovery of the protease homologues, DPP8 and DPP9 during her post-doctoral studies at the Centenary Institute, Sydney was pivotal to translating selective DPP4 inhibitors such as Sitagliptin safely from the laboratory to the clinic for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes. In 2001, she moved to the School of Biological Sciences, Flinders University, where she has maintained her passion for this family working on their structure and function using DPP inhibitors and DPP substrate discovery to study the role of these proteases in diseases such as cancer, inflammation and metabolism. She is internationally recognized as an expert in the DPP field and is a member of the Flinders Centre for Innovation in Cancer.
BSc, University of Adelaide 1986
PhD, University of Sydney 1997
Graduate Diploma in Education ( Higher Education), Flinders University 2015
1981 represented the N.T in the National Capital Seminar sponsored by the Queen Elizabeth Silver Jubilee Trust.
1989 awarded Queen Elizabeth Silver Jubilee Trust for Young Australians Scholarship to work in Netherlands
1990 awarded Institute of Molecular Pathology Travel Grant
1990 awarded NATO Travel Grant
1994 awarded Queen Elizabeth Silver Jubilee Trust for Young Australians Scholarship travel grant
1996 awarded Glaxo/Gastroenterological Society of Australia Travel Award
1999 awarded Pharmacia Upjohn/Gastroenterological Society of Australia Senior Travel Award
2006 awarded Australian Academy of Sciences North American Travel Award.
College of Science and Engineering HDR Coordinator 2017-2019
Deputy Chair of University Higher Degrees by Research Committee 2018-2019
Member of Unisuper Consultative Committee 2011-2019
Equal Opportunity Contact Officer 2009-2019
Current PhD supervision (3)
Primary Supervisor: Lisa Pogson, Robert Qiao; Associate Supervisor:Cassie Hoepner
PhD- 14 completions
2018: Dr Simone Jaenisch (Associate)
2015: Dr Usma Munawara
2014: Dr Babak Esmeelian
2014: Dr Dono Indarto -Sebelas Maret University, Indonesia.
2013:Dr Nurdin Samsara- Lumpung University, Indonesia.
2012: Dr Maresa Bruhn-2013 Research Assistant QEH, Adelaide
2012:Dr Patrick Laffy- 2013 Post-doc AIMS, Townsville, Australia
2012:Dr Claire Wilson- 2012 Post-Doc at Center for Cancer Biology, Adelaide. 2014-2018 NHMRC Biomedical Research Fellow,UniSA.
2010:Dr Melanie Sulda: 2010-Post-Doc, Department of Haematology, FU, 2011-Post-Doc fellowship at Uni of Texas-MDA Anderson Cancer Centre, US. 2013- Research Associate FMC
2010:Dr Rino Donato: 2010 Post-Doc, Gastroenterology, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Adelaide
2009: Dr Roger Yazbeck: 2009 -10 Post-Doc Gastroenterology, WCHl, Adelaide; 2011-2014 NHMRC Biomedical Research Fellow UniSA. CMRK Research Fellow at Flinders 2015-2019.
2009: Dr Melissa Pitman: since 2008 Post Doc at Center for Cancer Biology, Adelaide.
2008: Dr Tong Chen- 2008 -2009 research assistant Flinders University ; 2010-11 Alzheimers Association post-doc fellowship in Abbott Laboratory. 2012- Research Assistant FMC
2005: Dr Michael Sanderson-
BSc Honours (19 completions)
2002 Tong Chen,Dave Greig (Biotechnology)
2003 Yvonne Tan Hsiao Wei
2003 Mark Geier
2004 Melissa Pitman,Claire Wilson, Roger Yazbeck
2005 Melanie Sulda
2006 Alex Staudacher -
2008 Kym McNicholas- Research Assistant FMC, Adelaide
2009 Andrew Lorbeer (Biotechnology) -co-sup Karen Burke Da Silvia
2010 Tanya Blazewizc (Biotechnology) -co-sup Karen Burke Da Silvia
2010 Hayley Rumble- co sup with Dr Michael Michael
2010 (Kent) Ching-Yao Yang - co-sup with Jian Qin
2011 Lisa Pogson
2013-14 Robert Qiao
2016-17 Cassie Hoepner-co-sup Karen Burke Da Silvia
2017-18 Paul Liew, Heidi Bitzer -co-sup Roger Yazbeck, Jackson Doherty co-sup James Harris/David Stone,
Masters of Biotechnology -6 completions
2006 Dr Dono Indarto; 2009 Ruoyang Wang; 2013/2014 Kalyani Suryavanshi and Charndeep Chahal, 2017 Arphaphorn Dokphut and Nguyen Ngoc Thuan Nguyen