Professor Peter Smooker

Research interests

• Development of therapeutic proteins
• Identifying candidates for poultry vaccines
• Development of vaccines for parasites
• Expression of recombinant proteins in various systems
• Structure and function of proteins
• Recombinant vaccines using commercial Salmonella and Influenza vaccines

Research accomplishments

In the past five years Professor Smooker has been awarded grants well in excess of $1M to research a variety of projects, focusing on vaccines and the development of therapeutic proteins. These funds have come from the Poultry CRC, ACIAR, the ARC and from industry. These projects have attracted and trained post-doctoral fellows and a number of PhD projects (twelve completions since 2004). Honours students and Master of Biotechnology students undertaking research projects are also trained in the laboratory. Professor Smooker also hosts research scientists on sabbatical leave into the laboratory. The Biotechnology laboratory is a vibrant, multicultural laboratory. If you would like to join, please send him an e-mail. We are looking for excellent students (with the potential to obtain scholarships!).

Collaborations

Companies

• Nocturne. Research partnership. Developing recombinant toxin molecules as therapeutic proteins, Commenced 2009.
• BioDiem. Research partnership. Recombinant influenza as a vaccine delivery system. Commenced 2011.
• Tall Bennet. Research partnership. Profiling of yeast additives used in the dairy industry. Commenced 2010.
• Bioproperties. Research partnership/ co-supervision of students. Developing a vaccine against campylobacter. Commenced 2009.
• Orica. Research partnership/ co-supervision of students. Identification of bacteria that degrade explosive residues. Commenced 2009.

Institutes

• Prince Henry's Institute for Medical Research. Co-supervision of postgraduate students
• Burnett Institute. Co-supervision of postgraduate students
• Institute for Biotechnology, Hanoi, Vietnam. Research partnership.

Universities

• Miyagi University, Sendai, Japan. Research partnership, staff and student exchange. Conference chair.
• Monash University. Research partnership.
• Thammasat University, Bangkok, Thailand. Research partnership, student exchange.
• Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand. Research partnership, student exchange.
• Ramamalga University, Bangkok, Thailand. Staff training.
• Danish Technical University, Copenhagen, Denmark. Student exchange, research partnership.
• Member of the Scientific Advisory board for a large, multi-country Campylobacter vaccine project, CamVac. This project is headquartered at DTU.

Summary of responsibilities

• Biotechnology Laboratory Head
• Program Leader, Master of Biotechnology
• Core member and research group leader (with Dr Anna Walduck) Health Innovations Research Institute
• School of Applied Sciences Research Strength Leader (Infection and Disease)
• Co-convener, Bundoora Protein group
• International Postgraduate Recruitment

Specialty expertise areas

• Antigen discovery
• Vaccine delivery systems
• Molecular parasitology
• Molecular microbiology
• Protein expression, structure and function

Teaching activities

Professor Smooker teaches into a variety of postgraduate and undergraduate programs, and am coordinator of Immunology and Bioinformatics courses. He has also undertaken the provision of short courses both internationally, and hosting international scientists in Australia. Please contact him if your institution is interested in training courses in molecular biology, molecular microbiology, food science, or bioinformatics.

The Master of Biotechnology program that Professor Smooker leads has a large intake of both local and international students; please feel free to contact him for information on the program.

• Bachelor of Science (Honours), Monash University, 1983
• PhD, Monash University, 1988