Dr Jennifer Gunter

Biography

Jenni is a mid-career researcher, with a metabolic research background spanning almost 15 years. She leads a research team examining the metabolic plasticity of cancer cells with the aim of identifying therapeutic targeting strategies that extend patient survival. Jenni completed her PhD in 2005 at the Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism at Oxford University. Her thesis examined lipid metabolism in islet cell biology related to type-2 diabetes and the emerging 'lipotoxicity' hypothesis. She returned to Australia in 2006 with a University of Queensland Postdoctoral Fellowship at the UQ Diamantina Institute. Her project investigated a key enzyme in purine biosynthesis, with particular focus on the enzyme in adipocyte biology and newly described retinal-specific isoforms. During this work, she and her colleagues discovered a remarkable clustering of this enzyme into macrostructures regulated by intracellular levels of the pathway end-product, GTP. In 2010, Jenni  joined the Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, at QUT to research the intersection between chronic metabolic disorders and their emerging relationship to cancer. These studies were focused on the role of insulin and the relationship between the insulin and androgen signalling axes. Jenni has authored over 20 peer-reviewed manuscripts in high-impact journals, including 6 first or senior-author papers, 4 reviews and 3 book chapters and has been awarded over $7.9 million in competitive grants.