Our Team

Vi grew up in Canberra, Australia, did his undergraduate degree at the University of Melbourne, followed by PhD and postdoctoral work with Ron Laskey, FRS and CBE, and Ashok Venkitaraman at the University of Cambridge, UK (2003-2016). He started his laboratory at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, Australia in mid-2016 and holds a joint appointment with the Department of Biochemistry and Pharmacology at the University of Melbourne. He is a veski Innovation Fellow and the inaugural Moderna Australia Fellow.

William (Billy) Hamilton is a Senior Research Officer in the Wickramasinghe lab. His work has a strong focus on implementing novel biochemical techniques to address fundamental questions pertaining to the molecular underpinnings of cell identity. He did his undergraduate studies at N.U.I. Galway followed by an MSc at Baylor College of Medicine, Tx. U.S.A. From here he undertook his PhD work in the labs of Profs. Mike Tyers and Tilo Kunath looking at how mitogenic signalling affects lineage specification in mouse development. Following his PhD studies, he moved to Copenhagen, Denmark, to continue his postdoctoral work in the lab of Prof. Joshua Brickman and held a joint position at the Danish Stem Cell Centre, Danstem (now ReNew Global), and the Centre for Stem Cell Decision Making (Stemphys) at the Niels Bohr Institute. Dr. Hamilton’s work in the Wickramasinghe lab aims to understand on how RNA export regulates embryonic totipotency and cancers which reactivate embryonic gene expression networks. Dr. Hamilton was the recipient of a 2024 NH&MRC Ideas Grant to expand this work and is eager to hear from enthusiastic students who may be interested in working at the intersection of Developmental and Cancer biology.

Kirstyn Carey is a post-doctoral researcher who undertook PhD studies in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Monash University exploring the molecular pathway driving Glucocorticoid Induced Cell Death (GICD) in mouse thymocytes. Following this she worked in the laboratory co-headed by Professor Neil Watkins and Dr Jason Cain at the Hudson Institute examining how loss of “Hypermethylated in Cancer 1” (HIC1) gene activity promotes cancer initiation and progression.

Her current research focuses on understanding the molecular basis of selective mRNA processing and export from the nucleus, how deregulation of these processes contributes to human cancer and the potential for identifying opportunities for therapeutic intervention. She is currently working on a number of projects to develop small molecule inhibitors targeting mRNA export. Comprehensive characterisation of these small molecule inhibitors will facilitate our understanding of mRNA processing and export and will hopefully lead to development of pharmacologically relevant compounds which can eventually advance to clinical trials as cancer therapeutics.

Linh is a Senior Research Assistant in the Wickramasinghe lab. She did a Bachelor in Biomedical Science with Honours, majoring in Developmental Biology and Neurobiology at Monash University. After working as a research assistant at the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute, Monash, Melbourne, and the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research, Perth, Linh joined Vi’s lab in 2016. Apart from the traditional RA roles, Linh enjoys performing hand-on experiments to find out how things work at the cellular and molecular level. The focus of Linh’s project has been on circular RNA, and recently, the work on the nuclear export of circular RNA has been published in Nature.

Marc is a postdoctoral fellow in the Wickramasinghe lab. He graduated and obtained a Diploma in Clinical Biology in Spain. He was captivated by RNA biology when studying long non-coding RNA in a molecular lab during an internship in Norway. He next moved to the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (Germany) for a Master's in Biology and the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence, where he explored how personal traits are inherited in a population. Then, he undertook a joint PhD in Immunology between the University of Melbourne, Australia, and Bonn, Germany, where he deciphered a new way immune cells detect infectious diseases and cancer. He continued propelling his discoveries to develop novel immunotherapeutics with several patented inventions while at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity in Australia. After the surge of new-generational RNA-based vaccines, he joined the Wickramasinghe Laboratory in 2024 to combine RNA biology with immunity and explore fundamental RNA processes that drive acquired immunity.

Emily (Em) is a Research Assistant who undertook undergraduate studies at the University of Melbourne. She undertook honours studies in the Wickramasinghe laboratory and was awarded the Grimwade Prize for the highest achieving honours student in her year.