Dr. Stephen Fairweather

Biography

Stephen Fairweather is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Research School of Biology, Australian National University. His research focuses on the biochemistry and physiology of membrane transporter proteins which are essential for mediating the flux of nutrients, ions, and xenobiotics across biological membranes into living cells. He employs molecular biology and biochemical analytical chemistry methods to investigate the structure-activity relationships of these proteins. Current interests include elucidating the identity, function, and importance of amino acid transporters in major human pathogens from the Apicomplexa phylum, such as Toxoplasma gondii and Plasmodium spp. Fairweather enjoys working with molecular parasitologists, combining studies on isolated transporter proteins with genetics and cell biology methodologies. He is particularly interested in how membrane transporters play critical roles in the biological and physiological functions of entire organisms. Moreover, he aims to expand his research expertise into high-resolution metabolomic techniques, using methods like GC-QQQ and LC-MS/MS, as well as exploring the expression of apicomplexan membrane proteins in yeast and Xenopus laevis oocytes for high-resolution functional and structural analysis. Fairweather holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Biochemistry.

Research Interests