Head of facility

Dr Belinda Schiller
Dr Belinda Schiller
Head of Macquarie Analytical & Fabrication Facility

Belinda leads the passionate and energetic team of technical experts across the Macquarie Analytical and Fabrication Facility (MAFF).

Belinda’s career moved from research, to project management, into the pharmaceutical industry and world of compliance, and then back to the higher education setting where she is incredibly happy to be working again with her passion of supporting research and teaching.

Our facility teams

Australian Proteome Analysis Facility

Meena Mikhael
APAF Manager

Meena is an experienced proteomics, biomolecular and mass spec facility research manager with over 15 years in the scientific field. Partnering with researchers to enable many sophisticated chemical and biochemical analyses plus multiomics research, Meena’s expertise covers LCMS systems, commercial laboratories.

    Dr. David Cantor
    Dr. David Cantor
    Technology Manager – Protein Analysis

    David manages a team of highly-skilled scientists, focused on delivering a range of services for APAF’s Australian and International clients. 

    With over 10 years’ experience in the field, Dr. Cantor is a multi-disciplinary researcher who has worked with academics and industry to provide new technical capabilities for APAF.

    Dr Gene Hart-Smith
    Dr Gene Hart-Smith
    Technology Manager – Protein Interactions

    Gene manages a team of scientific experts, who provide innovative capabilities for characterising proteins, proteoforms, and their biomolecular interactions.

    He has been awarded several Australian Research Council grants and fellowships to study biomolecular interaction networks using non-traditional proteomics methodologies. At APAF, he is making these methodologies available to the broader research community.

    Dr Ignatius Pang
    Technology Manager – Bioinformatics
    Ignatius leads the bioinformatics team with over a decade of experience collaborating with researchers on diverse projects. His expertise spans bioinformatics and data analysis, specializing in integrative analysis of multi-omics data, including proteomics, phosphoproteomics, genomics, transcriptomics, and metabolomics. His team collaborates closely with the protein interactions and mass spectrometry teams.
    Anita Stone
    Anita Stone
    Quality Systems Officer
    Anita has over 20 years experience working in laboratory facilties accredited to NATA and ISO/IEC 17025, starting out as an analytical chemist in environmental testing before discovering a passion for quality management systems. She previously delivered the Laboratory Quality Systems unit for Macquarie University and has supported NATA assessments as a technical assessor in the environmental field. 
    Matthew Fitzhenry
    Matthew Fitzhenry
    Senior Analytical Technician – Mass Spectrometry
    Matthew has more than 13 years experience as a scientist in the mass spectrometry laboratory. He has extensive experience with MALDI, LC-MS and all aspects of proteomic analysis. His research interests lie in top-down proteomics and native MS.
    Dr Karthik S Kamath
    Dr Karthik S Kamath
    Senior Analytical Technician – Mass Spectrometry

    With over a decade of experience in the field of mass spectrometry and biochemistry, Dr. Karthik Kamath passionately develops quantitative proteomics technologies, to help Australian and international researchers in their biological research. 

    In particular, Dr. Karthik works on designing and implementation of a number of quantitative proteomics methodologies. 

    Dr Will Klare
    Senior Analytical Technician – Bioinformatics
    Will is a multi-disciplinary researcher, with over a decade of both wet and dry lab experience across multiple biological domains. Will provides a wealth of technical expertise for computational 'omics, drawing on his background in data science for both life sciences and quantitative finance.

    Macquarie Engineering and Technical Services

    Material Characterisation and Analysis Facility

    Macquarie University Centre for Analytical Biotechnology

    Aleksei Marianov
    Senior Analytical Technician

    Dr Aleksei Marianov is a Senior Analytical Technician at the Macquarie University Centre for Analytical Biotechnology and NMR. 

    He completed a PhD at the MQ School or Engineering (2020), in which he conducted research into the applications of electrocatalysis for the conversion of CO2 into syngas and other value-added products.

    Before joining MAFF in 2023 Aleksei held postdoctoral appointments at Macquarie University (2020-2022) and at the University of Sydney (2022-2023) working on the development of systems for CO2 electroreduction and enantioselective hydrogenations. During this time, he acquired a wealth of experience in instrumental methods of analysis, physical chemistry, data science as well as mechanical engineering and 3D design. 

    Aleksei specialises in challenging small-to-medium scale research projects and enjoys his role in delivering high-quality technical services for the researchers, students, and external clients.

    Microscopy Unit