Merridee Wouters
Computational Biologist, Cancer Centre
Bsc Hons (Physics), PhD
merridee.wouters@telethonkids.org.au
After graduating with honours in physics from the University of Queensland, Dr Wouters worked for a year as a clinical physicist in radiotherapy at the Queensland Radium Institute where she decided to pursue research in molecular-based therapies. She did her PhD in biophysics at the University of New South Wales where she began research working towards an understanding proteins as machines. She has done extensive work on switches in proteins activated by reactive oxygen species in collaboration with Dr Naomi Haworth.
With the advent of the Human Genome Project, she expanded her research interests to genetics and genomics. Since 2015, she has focussed on cancer ‘omics.
Selected Publications
Wouters MA, Curmi PMG. An analysis of side chain interactions and pair correlations within antiparallel beta-sheets: the differences between backbone hydrogen-bonded and non-hydrogen-bonded residue pairs. Proteins 1995; 22:119-31.
Wouters MA, Fan SW, Haworth NL Disulfides as redox switches in protein structures Antioxidants and Redox Signalling 2010, 12, 53-91.
George RA, Liu JY, Feng LL, Bryson-Richardson RJ, FaThe Kidsn D, Wouters MA. Analysis of protein sequence and interaction data for candidate disease gene prediction. Nucleic Acids Res. 2006; 34:e130.
DB Sparrow, G Chapman, MA Wouters, NV Whittock, S Ellard, D FaThe Kidsn, PD Turnpenny, K Kusumi, D Sillence, SL Dunwoodie Mutation of the LUNATIC FRINGE gene in humans causes spondylocostal dysostosis with a severe vertebral phenotype American Journal of Human Genetics, 2006
MA Wouters, I Rigoutsos, CK Chu, LL Feng, DB Sparrow, SL Dunwoodie Evolution of distinct EGF domains with specific functions Protein Science 14 (4), 1091-1103
Find Dr Wouters on ORCID.
Education and Qualifications
- 1987 - BSc Hons, Physics, University of QLD
- 1996 - PhD, Bioinformatics, UNSW
Awards/Honours
- 2004 - Young Tall Poppy Award NSW
- 2002 - Freedman Foundation Post-doctoral Fellowship
- 1998 - Paul Korner Award, Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute
Projects
Kids are not small adults, Identifying age-dependent drug targets in paediatric oncology
Cancers in children are very different to cancers in adults. However, most therapeutic strategies are designed explicitly for adult cancers, and then used in children if proven safe.