My name is Jonathan and I am a PhD Candidate in Cell Biology and Biochemistry at the University of Sydney based in the Charles Perkins Centre.

I began my work in the David James group as a Summer Research Scholar in 2018/19 interrogating differences in substrate specificity between the isoforms of Protein Kinase B (Akt). I then completed my honours year with the lab in 2019 studying the effect of a conserved disulfide bond on Akt activity, graduating from the Bachelor of Science (Advanced) with first class honours in Biochemistry.

In 2020 I began my PhD candidature with the lab initially studying the relationship between Oxidative Stress and Insulin resistance and later shifting focus to elucidating novel mechanisms of insulin signalling. The primary driver of my current research is to understand the phosphorylation events that occur upon insulin stimulus and describe the feedback loops and pathway crosstalk that underpin the array of cellular processes regulated by insulin.

I work closely with Dr James Burchfield to combine high content screening, phosphoproteomics and machine learning approaches to untangle the complexities of the insulin signalling network. It is my hope that this research will serve as a foundation of knowledge that will be utilised by translational researchers to refine therapeutic treatments and improve clinical outcomes.