Richard Lobb specialises in extracellular vesicle biology, bioengineering and translational nanomedicine, developing precision diagnostic and therapeutic technologies for cancer and neurological disease.
Dr Richard Lobb is a Group Leader at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN), The University of Queensland, and an NHMRC Emerging Leadership Investigator Fellow. His research sits at the intersection of extracellular vesicle (EV) biology, bioengineering and translational nanomedicine. His program focuses on understanding how EVs encode and transfer biological information between cells and translating these principles into precision diagnostic and therapeutic technologies. His group develops advanced approaches for EV isolation, single-vesicle analysis and tissue-specific blood-based diagnostics, alongside bioengineering strategies to harness EVs for targeted therapeutic delivery. A major focus is making diseases of the brain more molecularly accessible, particularly brain cancer and neurological disease, by using circulating EVs to read disease activity and engineering their natural targeting properties for precision delivery.
Collaborations
International Prof Andreas Moller National A/Prof Shyuan Ngo A/Prof Alain Wuethrich Prof Matt Trau Prof Bryan Day A/Prof David Fielding Prof Ian Yang Prof Hui Gan Prof Mike Fay
Funding
Fellowships 2025 – NHMRC Emerging Leadership Investigator Grant 2019 – CSIRO Synthetic Biology Future Science Fellowship, CSIRO/The University of Queensland Research Grants 2026 – CytoFLEX Nano Flow Cytometer for High-Resolution Nanoscale Particle Analysis – 2026 UQ Research Infrastructure Investment Scheme (RIIS) 2025 – A new window into the brain: a simple blood test to spot chronic traumatic encephalopathy-related dementia early, Dementia Research Community Mid-Career Grant 2025 – Development of a platform to distinguish true GBM progression from pseudo-progression, Mark Hughes Foundation 2023 – Liquid biopsy array platform to monitor GBM progression, Mark Hughes Foundation 2021 – nanoIMPAC: Monitoring immune toxicities and tumour immune evasion in lung cancer, Cancer Australia 2020 – Brain Cancer Innovation Project Grant, Mark Hughes Foundation 2020 – One UQ Research Infrastructure Investment Scheme, The University of Queensland
Key Publications
Zhou, Q.†, Lobb, R.J.*†, Wuethrich, A., and Trau, M. (2026). Multifactor authentication in extracellular vesicle analysis: methods and approaches to address the heterogeneity problem. Nature Methods 23, 888–902. doi:10.1038/s41592-026-03068-z.
Zhang, Z.†, Lobb, R.J.*†, Tooney, P., Wang, J., Lane, R., Zhou, Q., Niu, X., Faulkner, S., Al-Iedani, O., Day, B.W., et al. (2026). Monitoring glioblastoma extracellular vesicle evolution using a nanodiagnostic platform to detect glioma stem cells driving recurrent disease. Science Advances 12, eadt2804. doi:10.1126/sciadv.adt2804
Lobb, R.J.*†, Zhou, Q. †, Fielding, D., Visan, K.S., Wuethrich, A., Wang, J., Hu, Y., Norris, E.L., Hastie, M.L., Everitt, S., et al. (2026). Early-stage multi-cancer detection through a plasma extracellular vesicle protein signature. Cell Reports Medicine 7, 102694. doi:10.1016/j.xcrm.2026.102694.
Zhou, Q., Niu, X., Zhang, Z., O’Byrne, K., Kulasinghe, A., Fielding, D., Moller, A., Wuethrich, A., Lobb, R.J.*, and Trau, M.* (2024). Glycan Profiling in Small Extracellular Vesicles with a SERS Microfluidic Biosensor Identifies Early Malignant Development in Lung Cancer. Advanced Science 11, e2401818. doi:10.1002/advs.202401818
Visan, K. S., LOBB, R. J*., Ham, S., Lima, L. G., Palma, C., Edna, C. P. Z., Wu, L. Y., Gowda, H., Datta, K. K., Hartel, G., Salomon, C., & Moller, A*. (2022). Comparative analysis of tangential flow filtration and ultracentrifugation, both combined with subsequent size exclusion chromatography, for the isolation of small extracellular vesicles. Journal of Extracellular Vesicles. doi:10.1002/jev2.12266