Our Team

Dr Lilia C. Carvalhais is a biologist driven by a curiosity to understand the factors that affect beneficial and detrimental interactions between plants and microbes, as well as the diversity of soil and plant-associated microbial communities. Her purpose is to make use of nature’s arsenal to tackle problems that threaten environmental conservation and food security. She has worked with a range of beneficial and pathogenic microbes across model, grain, tree, and horticultural plant species, grown in managed and natural habitats in many different countries, including Brazil, Germany, Australia, USA, and Papua New Guinea. Lilia has expertise in molecular biology, plant nutrition, microbial ecology, biological indicators of soil health, bio-prospection of natural products produced by microbes, plant biotechnology, molecular diagnostics and plant pathology.

I am a PostDoc Researcher currently investigating the agricultural applications of microalgae as a source of EPA, DHA protein for livestock and aquaculture feed supplement.
I have 13 years experience in Halophilic Dunaliella open pond production, livestock effluent biological treatment and nutritive value of microalgae in aquaculture ecosystem.

During my PhD research I discovered a new technology for water treatment, oil separation and food processing. The patent has been secured worldwide and I am currently working with our industry partners on a collaborative research & development project to commercialize the new filtration technology.

I am interested in developing biological control agents and strategies; and further extending current understanding of the mechanisms involved during plant-microbe and plant defence interactions. For my PhD, I worked to discover natural biological suppression of soil-borne diseases and growth promotion using biological control agents; how plants defend themselves against pathogens at the cellular and whole plant level. I studied biocontrol capabilities of soil bacterial isolates in plants to identifying plant molecular marker genes involved in disease suppression to Phytophthora capsica, by performing plant disease-suppressing assay. Apart from that, I also studied the mechanism of actions of plant-growth promotion bacteria using various biochemical assays and chromatography analysis and how they might be used commercially for various purposes.

I am a visiting research scholar undertaking my Ph.D. from The University of Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan. At the moment, I am working with Prof. Peer Schenk and Dr. Anthony Young in “Schenk lab” at School of Agriculture and Food Sciences (SAFS), The University of Queensland, Australia.
I am working on the management of tomato early blight disease by means of sustainable approaches i.e. biocontrol agent and plant nutrients. I came here specifically to identify the potent protein from Bacillus subtilis responsible for the inhibition of early blight pathogen Alternaria solani.

An International student from Indonesia, finishing my bachelor’s degree (Hon) at University of Queensland. Currently focusing on protein extraction of micro-algae using Aqueous Two-Phase Separation method.

I am an International student from Nepal doing my Masters in Agricultural Science. I am currently studying plant-microbe interactions focusing on soil-borne pathogen Phytophthora and its biocontrol using PGPRs. Apart from working on plant-microbe interactions, I have also worked on identification of putative biomarkers of Type II Diabetes during my undergraduate study in Biotechnology, along with developing invitro plants, plant disease diagnosis and rice quality analysis.

My research focuses on developing and optimizing methods for harvesting microalgae and oil extraction using hydrate gel filtration systems. I also assist the hydrate gel filtration team in developing prototypes and new possible applications for Schenklab's patented filtration technology.

Adi is a consulting process engineer. He is working on a study to establish effective ways of utilising industrial flue gas during algae cultivation. With a passion for responsible stewardship of the environment, his interests are in turning current efforts towards carbon footprint reduction into commercially viable projects in order to ensure sustainability and acceleration of technology take-up.

I completed Professional Masters of Biotechnology mid-2018 at the Schenk Lab, with my research focusing on use of the hydrate filtration system to separate oil from algal lysate and from ethanol solvent extraction. I am currently volunteering two days a week at the Schenk Lab, in between work, where I am continuing to test the hydrate's oil separation capabilities under different conditions.

PGPRGs are plant growth promoting rhizobacteria that live in the soil and can promote plant growth or elicit antibacterial effects against pathogenic bacteria. I am exploring the biocontrol potential of some of these rhizobacterial strains to treat plant diseases such as Cacao black pod rot, and Rice blast. These diseases are caused by the pathogens Phytophthora palmivora and Pyricularia Oryzae, respectively. They have worldwide importance and are of especial interest to me as they affect two of the key crops in my country (Ecuador). I am also focusing on Bacterial speck, a disease caused by Pseudomonas syringae in tomato. Previous research carried out in this lab identified promising bacteria able to reduce disease symptoms, so my focus is on optimizing the application of biocontrol control.

my research focuses on efficient harvesting techniques and mechanism from various microalgae. I am also interested in aqua-feed using microalgae.