Curriculum Vitae

Employment History:

English Consultant (Freelancer)  Cactus Communications, Dec 2019 - current 

• On-site English consultant at Chiba University Academic Link Center (engineering, social, natural and medical sciences).
• One-on-one editing sessions with graduate students/researchers and teaching English writing skills and grammar.

Editorial Support Edanz, Jan 2020 - current 

• Examine documents for editing and assigning to appropriate English/Scientific editors

Scientific English Editor (Freelancer) Cactus Editage, Feb 2018 - current 

• Proofreading and standard English editing for medical, humanities, social sciences, biology manuscripts, abstracts, posters, documents and letters.
• Edited over 250 documents (> 1,000,000 words) as freelancer.

JSPS Postdoctoral Researcher: Department of Evolutionary Studies of Biosystems, The Graduate University of Advanced Studies, Japan (April 2016 - current) Supervisor: Professor Yoko Satta, collaborator: Takeshi Igawa.

   Studying immunogenetics of Japanese frogs to help elucidate why they are resistant to a deadly fungal disease.

Postdoctoral Researcher: Department of Evolutionary Studies of Biosystems, The Graduate University of Advanced Studies, Japan (May 2014 – current). Supervisor: Professor Yoko Satta.

   Project investigating the co-evolution of HLA (human leukocyte antigen) alleles with pathogens, including further study of mechanisms proposed for pathogen-driven         polymorphism at HLA loci, and exploring MHC self-recognition mechanisms. Developed skills in bioinformatics including basic PERL and python.

Research Assistant: Wildlife infectious diseases research group, University of Sydney (Casual, September 2012 – May 2014). Supervisor: Dr. Damien Higgins.

   Projects included studying koala retrovirus (KoRV) by optimising quantitative PCR for a number of koala-specific cytokines and immune cell markers. In addition, I performed     genetic characterisation of MHC class II in Australian sea lions.

Demonstrator: School of Biological Sciences, Concepts in Biology (BIOL1001) and Molecular Biology and Genetics (MBLG1001/2072), University of Sydney (March 2011-May 2014). Supervisors: Dr. Danny Liu, Dr. Penny Smith.

   Assisted large class laboratories in a diverse range of topics in biology , ran tutorials for small groups, and marked scientific reports, practical books, exams, skills tests, theory-based assignments.

Research Assistant: Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Diabetes and Obesity program, Darlinghurst (February 2006 – February 2007). Employer: Professor Edward Kraegen, Dr. Mark Cleasby.

   Experiments in rodents using novel techniques (in vivo gene expression) to examine the effects on insulin metabolism. Laboratory work involved western blotting, DNA isolation, PCR and immunohistochemistry.

Education:

2007 – 2012     PhD in Immunology, Faculty of Veterinary Science, The University of Sydney: “Expression and diversity of major histocompatibility complex class II (MHCII) of koalas” Supervised by Dr. Damien Higgins and Professor Paul Canfield (Awarded PhD May 2013).

Thesis included identification of cellular expression and stimulation of MHCII in koala lymphocytes, characterisation of koala MHCII genes and the diversity in populations across Australia, and associations between MHCII and infectious disease. Techniques developed include PCR, molecular cloning, flow cytometry, lymphocyte and chlamydial cell culture, genotyping assays, DNA/RNA extraction, ELISA, primer design, basic bioinformatics and phylogenetics. Also assisted undergraduate and PhD students in their research projects (Australian sea lion immunogenetics, macropod vaccine immunology, and koala cytokine genetics).

2002-2005     Bachelor of Animal Science, The University of Sydney Honours Class 1

Completed honours thesis under the supervision of Associate Professor Peter Wynn. Thesis publication: “Identification of gastrointestinal biological activities in bovine colostrum”. Studied the effects of bovine colostrum on gastrointestinal cell permeability and proliferation using in vitro cell culture, mouse in vitro foetal intestinal models, and chicken in ovo administration.

Academic Achievements:

Publications

Conference presentations (underline denotes presenter):

Lau, Q., Igawa,T., Satta, Y. “Immunogenetics of Japanese frogs- MHC and antimicrobial peptides”. The 87th annual meeting of the Genetics Society of Japan, Sendai, Japan. September 2015.

Lau, Q., Yasukochi, Y., Satta, Y. “Further investigations of co-evolution of HLA and pathogens”. The 86th annual meeting of the Genetics Society of Japan, Nagahama, Japan. September 2014.

Maher, I., Lau, Q., Griffith, J.E., Higgins, D.P. “Koala Retrovirus and immune suppression”. Wildlife Disease Association (WDA) Australasia conference, The Grampians, Victoria, Australia. October 2013.

Lau, Q., Jaratlerdsiri, W., Griffith, J.E., Gongora, J., Higgins, D.P. “MHC class II diversity of koala populations across their range”. Genetics Society of AustralAsia (GSA) conference, Sydney, Australia. July 2013.

Lau, Q., Gongora, J., Griffith, J.E., Higgins, D.P. “Low MHCII DAB and DBB diversity in southeastern, relative to northeastern, koala populations in Australia”. Wildlife Disease Association (WDA) Australasia conference, North Stradbroke Island, Queensland, Australia. September 2012.

Higgins, D.P., Lau, Q., Maher, I.E., Griffith, J.E. “Chlamydia in koalas: new pieces to the puzzle”. National Koala Conference, Port Macquarie, NSW, Australia. May 2013.

Higgins, D.P., Lau, Q., Maher, I.E. “Koala immunology and KoRV”. Koala Retrovirus Conference, San Diego Zoo, USA. April 2013.

Poster presentations:

Lau, Q., Jaratlerdsiri, W., Griffith, J.E., Gongora, J., Higgins, D.P. “MHC class II diversity and chlamydial disease association in koalas”. Meeting of Asia-Pacific Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics Association, Hong Kong. August 2013.

Higgins, D.P., Lau, Q., Butcher, L., Gray, R. “Use of immunophenotyping to assess the health of two vulnerable endemic Australian species: the koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) and the Australian sea lion (Neophoca cinerea)". International Wildlife Disease Association (WDA) Conference, Lyon, France. July 2012.