SBEI2026 Speaker Biographies

Professor Daniel MacArthur is a human genomicist with over two decades of experience at the interface between human biomedicine, large-scale genomics, and data science. From 2012-2019 he served as Co-Director of the Medical and Population Genetics Program at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and led the development of the Genome Aggregation Database (gnomAD), the world's largest accessible resource of human genetic data. In 2020 he returned to Australia as the inaugural Director of the Centre for Population Genomics, a joint initiative between the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Sydney and Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Melbourne, focused on leveraging large-scale genomic and analytical tools to build a more equitable foundation for genomic medicine. He also leads the Australian Alliance for Secure Genomics and AI in Rare Disease (AASGARD) consortium, a national effort to validate and apply new analytical tools in the diagnosis of severe genetic diseases.

Michael Stumpf is Professor for Theoretical Systems Biology, an ARC Laureate Fellow, and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science. Michael studied physics and mathematics in Germany and he completed his DPhil in Statistical Physics at Oxford. After this he jumped disciples and became a biologist, first in Zoology at Oxford and then, until 2018 as Professor for Theoretical Systems Biology at Imperial College London. He moved to the University of Melbourne in 2018 and in 2024 he co-founded Cell Bauhaus together with Megan Coomer.

His academic group is using theoretical physics to learn how cells make decisions; the Cell Bauhaus team is using computer models of cells to tackle some of the biggest problems in biotechnology, synthetic biology, and climate change. Outside of research he loves spending time with his family, and he enjoys running, rowing, and judo.

Professor Lyn Griffiths AM is a Distinguished Professor in molecular genetics with more than 30 years’ research experience in this field. She is also Director of the Centre for Genomics and Personalised Health at QUT which is focused on discovering better methods of diagnosing disease, developing targeted treatments based on genetic information, and training the next generation of genomics scientists. In addition, she is a passionate advocate of the translation of medical research through commercialisation and is currently the Director of the industry-led Bridge and BridgeTech programs, undertaking commercialisation training for the pharmaceutical and medical devices-technology fields across Australia, respectively.

Her own research at the Genomics Research Centre has involved population and translational genomics with a focus on identifying the genes involved in common complex traits and disorders including migraine, concussion, memory and CVD risk traits. This research has involved case-control cohorts, large multigenerational pedigrees and also a cohort from the Norfolk Island genetic isolate. Her research has led to diagnostic breakthroughs for several neurogenetic disorders, including familial migraine, ataxia, epilepsy and hereditary stroke. Her genomics research continues to focus on neurovascular disorders and analysis of multiomics data from the Norfolk cohort as well as a new study focused on the genetics of metabolic health disorders in Pasiika communities in Australia. Her research has appeared in more than 480 peer-reviewed international journals, and she has been awarded significant competitive and industry research funds to support her molecular and population genetics research.

A/Professor Jimmy Breen is the Chief Data Scientist of the Indigenous Genomics research group at The Kids Research Institute Australia in Adelaide. His group is the primary curator of multiomics datasets produced in the South Australian Aboriginal Diabetes Study (PROPHECY - Predicting Renal, Ophthalmic, and Heart Events in the Aboriginal Community), a project aimed at assessing the levels of complications in Aboriginal people with Diabetes. He has 20 years experience working as a Bioinformatician, primarily in Australia and Europe, working on diverse areas such as Plant Genetics, Ancient DNA, Viticulture, Reproductive Biology, Clinical Oncology and Precision Healthcare.

Adam Heterick is a Wiradjuri man, originally from Central NSW, and is Australia’s first Indigenous bioinformatician. Adam is a Bioinformatics Officer at Black Ochre Data Labs (The Kids Research Institute, Australia) and the National Centre for Indigenous Genomics (Australian National University). His work focuses on helping Indigenous communities develop ethical, culturally informed ways to govern and use genomic data. He is also involved in pharmacogenomics research, studying how genetic differences affect drug metabolism in Indigenous populations to improve health outcomes. Additionally, Adam contributes to the Marine Biomass Innovation Project, where he helps develop data systems and governance processes for the Mi’kmaw people of Western Newfoundland, ensuring Indigenous leadership in research and that Indigenous communities have control over their data and benefit from research outcomes. Previously, he worked with the Queensland Aboriginal and Islander Health Council (QAIHC), supporting Indigenous healthcare providers with data-driven solutions.

Dr Simon Sadedin is the Head of Clinical Bioinformatics and Data Science at the Victorian Clinical Genetics Services, and the Head of Clinical Bioinformatics at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute. Combining a career in software engineering with retraining through a PhD in Bioinformatics, Dr Sadedin has become one of Australia's most experienced practitioners in Clinical Bioinformatics. Over the last ten years he has led numerous projects implementing large scale translational projects, bringing the latest genomic technology to bear on pressing challenges in clinical genomics. Recently, he has spear headed dual efforts to introduce accredited long read sequencing as a whole genome test, alongside pioneering pathways towards use of artificial intelligence to support clinical genomics testing.

A highly motivated and accomplished scientific professional with over two decades of experience across human pathology, genetic diagnostics, and laboratory quality management. With a strong foundation in genetics and cytogenetics, I have built a career around delivering high-quality, patient-focused services while maintaining rigorous compliance with accreditation standards such as ISO 15189 and ISO 17025. My career spans leadership roles in operational management, quality and risk, and accreditation, where I’ve demonstrated my ability to lead teams, manage complex projects, and drive continuous improvement. I thrive in environments that value innovation, collaboration, and excellence in service delivery, and I am passionate about contributing to the future of diagnostic science through quality systems and regulatory expertise.

Professor Mathew G. Lewsey studies how plants perceive and interact with the world around them through regulation of their genes. His lab at the La Trobe Institute for Sustainable Agriculture and Food (La Trobe University, Australia) is home to a diverse team of engineers, computational biologists, plant and genome scientists. Their work spans from the fundamental to the applied, with particular interests in seed biology and in specialized metabolism. Mat completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge then was a Marie Curie Fellow at the Salk Institute (La Jolla, USA) and at the Centro Nacional de Biotecnología (Madrid, Spain). He joined La Trobe University in 2016 where he has established several major research initiatives. As Director of the Australian Plant Phenomics Network at La Trobe University, he leads a team that provide advanced plant phenotyping services to academic and commercial researchers. Most recently, he established the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space with colleagues from Adelaide University, the University of Melbourne, the University of Western Australia and Flinders University, which studies plant design and bioresource production to enable off-Earth habitation and provide solutions for improving on-Earth sustainability.

Dr Clare Sloggett is the lead of AusTrakka platform development at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity. Her career has spanned research, teaching, infrastructure development, and software development. She began her research career with a PhD in computational physics before moving into genomics research at Melbourne Bioinformatics. She played a founding role in Australia's Genomics Virtual Laboratory project, establishing cloud-based Galaxy infrastructure as a core research service in Australia and a part of the international bioinformatics community. She now leads the development team designing, building and maintaining the AusTrakka platform, supporting secure data exchange and pathogen surveillance among public health laboratories in Australia and New Zealand.

Dr Monica Nolan is an applied medical epidemiologist with extensive international experience in clinical and applied public health research. Her current work focuses on domestic and international applications of wastewater surveillance. She is Director of Promoting Health4All, a WHO consultant, and supports delivery of the Australian CDC National Wastewater Surveillance Program through the Aus-SWEEP Collaboration. 

Dr. Anna Quaglieri is a Senior Bioinformatics Data Scientist at Mass Dynamics working to make omics data more accessible to the broader community of scientists, with a particular focus to mass spectrometry based proteomics. She has a background in mathematical statistics and over 12 years of experience utilising statistics and software to make sense of various types of ‘omics data including population genetics, genomics, epigenetics and proteomics in both academia and industry.

Anna is a passionate advocate of the Bioinformatics and Proteomics communities that she operates in bioinformatics having co-organised the R-Ladies Melbourne group for over 6 years, chaired for the Bioconductor Code of Conduct committee and a member of the HUPO Marketing and Outreach committee.

Greg Bass is a Senior Scientist in Translational Bioinformatics at CSL, where he supports target validation and drug development through computational and data-driven approaches. He holds a PhD in Biomedical Engineering with a focus on mathematical modelling and image analysis. His research interests include disease biology, spatial omics, and the application of AI to derive biological insights from imaging and molecular data in immune-mediated and cardiovascular diseases.

James Bradley is a Bioinformatics Data Engineer at Children's Cancer Institute, where he architects and maintains the Databricks platform underpinning the ZERO Childhood Cancer program — a nationwide precision medicine initiative delivering molecular profiling and personalised treatment recommendations for children with cancer across Australia and New Zealand.

His work spans lakehouse architecture provisioned with Terraform and cloud infrastructure, distributed Spark pipelines for high-throughput variant analysis, and query layers that put billions of genomic variants alongside real-time clinical data. Alongside the platform work, he mentors undergraduate and postgraduate student teams.

James is drawn to data and ML systems that run reliably at population scale, where biological complexity and clinical impact are tightly coupled. He holds a background in Software Engineering, Bioinformatics and Data Science from UNSW.