Professor Robert Moore
Professor of Biotechnology
Professor of Biotechnology
ONPS2186 - Science Project
ONPS2186 - Science Project
His research portfolio encompasses studies on bacterial pathogens, vaccination, genomics, gut microbiota, and probiotics.
Professor Moore leads an active research group that publishes widely, secures funding from industry and government, and works with a wide network of collaborators. Over the last decade the research in his laboratories has been largely industry supported by funding through the Australian Research Council Linkage Program, Poultry Cooperative Research Centre, Poultry Hub Australia, Australian Eggs, AgriFutures Australia, and various collaborations with commercial partners. He is currently working with several industry partners to commercialize various aspects of his work on Necrotic Enteritis and Spotty Liver Disease of chickens, vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics. It is anticipated that these commercial developments will deliver tools to the industry to allow the control and management of these important diseases.
Professor Moore is a regular invited speaker at a range of local, national, and international conferences and has been on the Organizing Committees of 4 international conferences and 5 national conferences and has participated in a fully funded tour of veterinary research establishments in China, aimed at developing linkages between Australia and China. He was a founding member of the Executive Committee of the Victorian Infection and Immunity Network, an organization that aims to facilitate collaboration and interaction between researchers in these fields of research. He has reviewed for national and international granting agencies and has peer reviewed manuscripts for more than 75 journals. He is an editor for Frontiers in Microbiology, Scientific Reports, the Journal of Animal Science and Biotechnology, and Applied and Environmental Microbiology. Dr Moore has a network of research collaborators both nationally and internationally, including in Belgium, UK, USA, Canada, and Brazil.
Prof Moore has supervised 17 PhD students and 2 Masters students to completion and currently supervises 7 PhD students. He has mentored a number of post-doctoral researchers who have gone on to now lead their own independent research groups within CSIRO, one post-doc has gone on to establish their own independent university research group and risen to professor, and another now works in industry. Prof Moore has hosted year-long placements for visiting senior scientists from Japan, Brazil and China.
Professor Moore works closely with industry partners, consulting for a number of companies and undertaking research projects with others. He has worked on a series of projects with Bioproperties Pty Ltd, an Australian company that researchers, develops, manufactures, and sells live veterinary vaccines in the global market. He also works with Terragen Biotech, an Australian company that develops, manufactures, and markets microbial products to enhance agriculture. He has a long and ongoing relationship with Scolexia Pty Ltd, and animal and avian health consultancy, working with them to undertake fundamental research on avian diseases and provide animal disease models used to evaluate veterinary products for other companies.
Before joining RMIT University Professor Moore worked at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and in the R&D department of a multi-national animal health company.
His research has been supported by industry funding from AgriFutures Australia, Australian Eggs, and Poultry Hub Australia.
Professor Moore undertakes research to investigate host-pathogen interactions, studying both fundamental aspects of bacterial pathogenesis and characterising the host response to specific pathogens. Working with his collaborators he has made significant research contributions in the understanding of the pathogenesis of Necrotic Enteritis and Spotty Liver Disease in chickens.
Most of his work on host response has been done in the chicken. The chicken is both a valuable experimental system in which to work but also has the added benefit of being an important target in its own right, because of the significance of the poultry industry to food security. Chicken production is by far the most efficient and ecologically friendly way to produce meat for human consumption.
A range of bacteria, including Clostridium perfringens, Campylobacter jejuni, Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae, Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis, and the newly identified pathogens, Campylobacter hepaticus and Campylobacter bilis, have been studied. The main interest being the identification and study of key virulence factors and potential vaccine antigens. Trials to test vaccines, probiotics, and other therapeutic agents are carried out in the animal disease induction model systems that he has established, often for difficult to reproduce diseases.
Professor Moore has ongoing research to develop strains of Lactobacillus and both benign (commensal) and attenuated pathogenic strains of E. coli and Salmonella as delivery vehicles for a range of biologically active recombinant proteins including, cytokines, bacteriocins, digestive enzymes, and vaccine antigens. It is anticipated that these strains will offer effective alternatives to address a number of health and productivity issues in chickens.
His research group is applying novel experimental approaches to the isolation, identification, and characterisation of probiotic strains of bacteria for use in the poultry industry.
Professors Moore’s laboratories were early adopters of next generation sequencing for characterization of complex microbial populations in the gut. Microbiota studies are directed towards understanding the role that the gut microbiota has in health and energy utilization of animals and humans and developing ways to manipulate the gut microbiota for positive impact.
Microbiology, Pathogen, Necrotic Enteritis, Spotty Liver Disease, Clostridium perfringens, Campylobacter jejuni, Campylobacter hepaticus, Lactic Acid Bacteria, Epidemiology, Probiotic, Genomics, ELISA, PCR, Microbiota, Next Generation Sequencing, Vaccination, Disease Model, Chicken, Poultry, Bioinformatics
Publications
Supervisor projects
Grants
Veterinary Microbiology 199: 85-90
Van, T.T.H., Elshagmani, E., Gor, M.C., Anwar, A., Scott, P.C., and Moore, R.J. (2017).
BMC Genomics 19: 379
Lacey, J.A., Allnutt, T.R., Vezina, B., Van, T.T.H., Stent, T., Han, X., Rood, J.I., Wade, B., Keyburn, A.L., Seeman, T., Chen, H., Haring, V., Johanesen, P.A., Lyras, D., and Moore, R.J. (2018).
PeerJ 8: e10117
Chau, K.M., Quyen, D.V., Fraser, J.M., Smith, A.T., Van, T.T.H., and Moore, R.J. (2020).
Acknowledgement of Country
RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Sentient' by Hollie Johnson, Gunaikurnai and Monero Ngarigo.
Acknowledgement of Country
RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business.
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