Dr Lisanne Spenkelink is an NHMRC Investigator EL1 Fellow based at Molecular Horizons, UOW’s premier life sciences research institute. She leads the Single-molecule Biophysics lab, which develops and uses single-molecule imaging techniques to study protein dynamics in complex biological systems, focusing on two program areas: DNA replication and Evolution & Diagnostics.  Sitting at the interface of physics, chemistry, and biology, this research has clinical relevance for major health challenges such as cystic fibrosis, cancer, tuberculosis, sepsis, and antimicrobial resistance. Recent innovations from the lab include a fast, low-cost fluorescent biosensor and a new method for evolving sensors based on single-molecule performance. 

Dr Spenkelink obtained her BSc (2011) and MSc (2013) in physics at the University of Groningen. Then, following a move from the Netherlands to Australia in 2015, she obtained her joint PhD in biophysics at the University of Groningen and the University of Wollongong (2018).

Since establishing her own research group in 2022, Dr Spenkelink has secured research income of $6.5M as principal investigator (>$9.5M career total) from competitive (e.g., ARC, NHMRC, NIH) and industry sources. Her work has been published in high-impact molecular biology journals (e.g., Molecular Cell; Nucleic Acids Research) and multidisciplinary journals (e.g., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)).