Our people

Dr Zeynep Sumer-Bayraktar

I have done my PhD study in Prof. Nicki Packer’s Lab in Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia (2012-2016). The main focus of my PhD research was the identification of structural and functional roles of human protein N-glycosylation. I then joined Dr. Morten Thaysen-Andersen’s Analytical Glycoimmunology Group in Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia where I investigated paucimannosylation in Sandhoff disease (2016). Later on, I have joined Prof. Stuart Cordwell’s Microbial Proteomics Laboratory at The University of Sydney, Australia as a postdoctoral research associate and focused on exploring the glycomics and glycoproteomics of human intestine colonization of Campylobacter jejuni (2016-2019).

In 2020, I joined Analytical Glycoimmunology Group as a visiting fellow and remotely worked for Dr. Tadashi Suzuki’s Glycometabolic Biochemistry Laboratory at RIKEN, Japan as a postdoctoral scientist where my study focused on the non-lysosomal glycan degradation pathway. In 2021, I secured a two-year Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) International Postdoctoral Fellowships for Research in Japan jointly given by Australian Academy of Science and JSPS to understand the role of free glycans in colorectal cancer onset and progression.

Dr Julian Ugonotti

I received my B Medical Sciences in 2018, my Master of Research in 2019 and my PhD in 2023 from Macquarie University.

I joined the Analytical Glycoimmunology group as an MRes candidate in 2019. During my MRes and subsequent PhD candidature, facilitated by advanced mass spectrometry-based glycomics-assisted glycoproteomics, I investigated the fascinatingly complex neutrophil N-glycoproteome. These efforts revealed new insights into the structures, biosynthesis and potential receptors of the unusual paucimannosidic N-glycans that decorate key microbicidal proteins such as myeloperoxidase.

Following on from this, my current post-doctoral research aims to develop methods to identify and characterise paucimannosidic glycan-binding proteins, understand the biological roles of paucimannosylation in the innate immune system and explore the consequences of dysregulated glycosylation in neutrophil-related disorders.

Dr Sayantani Chatterjee

I received my BSc in Microbiology (Honours) in 2015 from St. Xavier’s College (Autonomous), India and my Master of Research in Chemistry and Bio-molecular Sciences in 2017 from Macquarie University, Australia. I joined the Analytical Glycoimmunology Group as a PhD candidate in 2018. During my PhD, I focused on structural characterisation of mannose-terminating glycoproteins involved in human cancer, innate immunity (granular neutrophils and lysosomes) and pathogenic infections using glycomics and glycoproteomics workflows and advanced mass spectrometry.

In 2022, I relocated as a Post-Doctoral Associate to Prof. Joseph Zaia’s research group at Boston University, USA. My research focused on investigating viral glycoproteomics, particularly of Influenza and SARS-CoV-2, using ion mobility mass spectrometry.

In 2024, I moved back to Sydney and joined the Analytical Glycoimmunology Group as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow. My current research encompasses cancer glycoimmunology.

Dr Andras Komaromy

Andras completed his MSc degree in biochemical engineering at Budapest University of Technology and Economics. Later he moved to Australia and obtained his Ph.D. in biochemistry from Monash University under supervision of Prof. Milton Hearn. In his research project he investigated the interactions of globular proteins with reversed-phase (RP) and hydrophobic interaction chromatographic (HIC) materials.

In his current postdoctoral research fellow position at Macquarie University Andras works under supervision of A/Prof Morten Andersen and contributes to a joint product development project with Merck. He performs HPLC runs to test porous graphitized carbon (PGC) columns, which display a unique retention and selectivity characteristic of polar and charged compounds, such as complex carbohydrates (glycans) and has been extensively used to separate glycan isomers in the emerging field of glycomics.

A/Prof Rebeca Kawahara Sakuma

Rebecca received her PhD in Functional and Molecular Biology in 2015 from University of Campinas, Brazil. Enabled by multiple competitive Brazilian fellowships, she then completed a postdoctoral position with a focus on molecular cancer research in the Glycoproteomics group of Prof Giuseppe Palmisano, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil (2015-17) meanwhile also experienced other high profile (glyco)proteomics laboratories including Prof Michael MacCoss, University of Washington (2014), Prof Martin R. Larsen, University of Southern Denmark (2016) and, lately, Dr Morten Andersen and Prof Nicki Packer, Macquarie University (2017-18) as a visiting fellow.

Rebeca joined the Analytical Glycoimmunology Group in 2019 as a Cancer Institute NSW Early Career Fellow (2019-22). Her focus was to understand how protein N-glycosylation modulates the tumour microenvironment and impacts the immune- and cancer-related anti- and pro-inflammatory processes in colorectal cancer.

View publications of Dr Rebeca Kawahara Sakuma on:
Google Scholar PublicationList.org

Dr Rachana Pathak

I am a biotechnologist with a passion for multidisciplinary research. I received my PhD in Protein Chemistry from the University of Melbourne, where I studied the effects of processing on the molecular, structural and nutritional aspects of dairy proteins. My PhD was a part of the ARC dairy Innovation Hub which was a collaboration between the University of Melbourne, the University of Queensland, and Dairy Innovation Australia, supported by the ARC Industrial Transformation Research Program.

I am currently a Postdoctoral Fellow for Proteomics and Glycomics at the ARC ITTC for Facilitated Advancement of Australia’s Bioactives (FAAB) at Macquarie University. I work across multiple FAAB projects, coordinating with the Analytical Glycoimmunology and Glycobiology (Gylco@MQ) groups for specialised methods in glycan molecular biology. My current projects include studying dairy proteins and peptides; fish proteins; effects of dietary changes on colonic mucin glycosylation; and carbohydrates in non-dairy milk emulsions.

Dr Kristina Bienes

Kristina is a Researcher at the Institute for Glyco-core Research (iGCORE), Nagoya University, Japan. She was awarded with a fully funded scholarship for her graduate studies (2017-2019, 2019-2022) by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). She then joined the Applied Microbiology Laboratory of Kyushu University in Fukuoka, Japan under the supervision of Dr. Kaoru Takegawa, where she obtained her Master’s (2019) and PhD (2022). Her study was about the characterization of novel endo-β-N-acetylglucosaminidase from Bacteroides nordii that hydrolyzes multi-branched complex type-N-glycans.

Kristina is currently with the Clinical Glycoproteomics group at iGCORE since 2023, together with Dr. Morten Andersen and Dr. Rebeca Kawahara. Their group focuses on developing and applying advanced mass spectrometry-based glycomics and glycoproteomics technologies in large cohorts of clinical samples. At present, they are working on creating a glycoproteome map of 17 different tissues from both male and female mice, as well as glycoprofiling of extracellular vesicles for early detection of ovarian cancer.

Mrs Anastasia Chernykh

Mr Kevin Chau

I received my Bachelor of Advanced Science majoring in Chemical and Biomolecular – Cognitive and Brain Sciences in 2019 at Macquarie University.

I joined the Analytical Glycoimmunology Group as a research volunteer in 2018. I finished my MRes candidature in April 2022 and commenced my PhD candidature in July 2022. Utilising advanced mass spectrometry based techniques like Glycomics and Glycoproteomics, my current research project focuses on understanding Platelet Glycobiology and exploring the difference in the glycome and glycoproteome profiles expressed by human resting and activated platelets and granules.

Ms Hayley Goodson

I received my Bachelor of Medical Sciences in 2019, and my Masters of Research in 2022 from Macquarie University.

In July 2022 I commenced my PhD candidature in the Analytical Glycoimmunology Group. My research project aims to explore the glycosylated immunopeptides displayed on professional antigen presenting immune cells, aiming to understand the complexity of glyco-antigen processing and presentation.

Ms Priya Dipta

Mr Aynal H. Rana

I did my bachelor's degree in 2010 in Molecular medicine and Bioinformatics at the University of Development Alternative, Dhaka, Bangladesh. My thesis was on studying different secondary plant metabolites to treat hypoglycaemic Swiss albino mice. Afterwards, I did a research fellowship at the Narayana Hrudayalaya Tissue Bank and Stem Cell Research Centre (NHTB-SCRC), Bangalore, India, in 2014. In 2018, I completed my master's in Human biology from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, where I worked on tumour infiltrating lymphocytes or TILs-based immunotherapy as my thesis. I have also worked at the Department of Molecular Biology at Umeå University, Sweden. Besides, I have FELASA (ABD) license and additional training to conduct experiments on mice and rats in Denmark and Sweden.

I started with the Analytical Glycoimmunology group as a PhD candidate at Macquarie University in October 2022, intending to explore the dynamics and roles of glycosylation on the neutrophil surface in health and disease. In this process, I will use OMICS technology, particularly glycomics and glycoproteomics, to dig deeper into the glycans along with FACS technology.

Ms Naaz Bansal

I obtained my Bachelor of Biochemistry from Panjab University, India in 2019 and received my Master of Biotechnology in 2022 from Macquarie University.

I joined the Analytical Glycoimmunology Group as an MRes student in 2022 where I explored tumour microenvironment of colorectal cancer by investigating glycan distribution. I commenced my PhD in July 2023 and my project aims to address analytical challenges in mass spectrometry-based N-glycomics and N-glycoproteomics approaches through improvements in current methods to enable complete glycan release and enrichment.

Mr Liam Caulfield

I received my Bachelor of Medical Science in 2019, my Master of Biotechnology and Business in 2021 at Macquarie University, and my Masters of Research in 2023 from Macquarie University.

I joined the Analytical Glycoimmunology group as an MRes candidate in 2022 and commenced my PhD candidature in July 2023.

My current project aims to utilise glycomics, glycoproteomics and functional assays to explore the glycopeptidome of sepsis to better elucidate a more comprehensive understanding of the disease.

Mr Thomas Reilly

I obtained my Bachelor of Commerce at Macquarie University in 2021 followed by a Master of Biotechnology at Macquarie University in 2023. During this time, I undertook a practical lab placement within the Analytical Glycoimmunology Group.

Currently, I'm an MRes candidate with the Analytical Glycoimmunology Group  under joint supervision with Benjamin Heng of the neuroinflammation group within Macquarie University’s Medical Faculty.

My current project uses glycoproteomics to find potential biomarkers for Myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), or chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), a patient cohort currently lacking biological diagnostic markers and potential therapeutic targets. I will also attempt to automate the glycoproteomics sample preparation workflow to allow for future high throughput and consistent glycoproteomics to be performed.