Professor Kristofer Thurecht
Professor Kris Thurecht is the Executive Director of the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) at The University of Queensland, where he leads more than 500 researchers and professional staff.
He has a particular focus on utilising advanced molecular imaging as a real time measure of how nanomaterials behave and influence biological systems, using complex multicellular in vitro systems and also in living animals. Recently, this has expanded into developing and understanding targeted radiopharmaceuticals for both imaging and therapy, and in this area, Professor Thurecht also acts as the Director of the ARC Research Hub for Advanced Manufacture of Targeted Radiopharmaceuticals. By bringing together partners across industry and academia, he has led the development of a targeted alpha therapy research facility at The University of Queensland to explore this emerging class of highly potent radiotherapeutic.
As AIBN Director, Professor Thurecht plays a central role in shaping the Institute’s strategic direction, nurturing a culture of innovation, building lasting career frameworks for early and mid-career researchers and supporting researchers to translate science into real-world impacts.
AIBN has a foundation built upon strong industry and government partnerships. Professor Thurecht has helped forge this strategy, with a focus on building collaborations that shape international science agendas, contribute to innovation in science and technology policies and drive industry investment in research and innovation. He has supported international initiatives that bring higher degree research students to UQ as part of multi-institutional programs, building upon the strategic focus of AIBN in national priority areas of health, energy and the bioeconomy.
Using AIBN as a key institutional vehicle for delivering The University of Queensland’s research and innovation objectives, Professor Thurecht has championed the establishment and expansion of strong platform technologies that underpin the innovation landscape at AIBN; accelerating translation, enabling interdisciplinary collaboration and scaling impact for the public good.
In addition to his role at AIBN, Professor Thurecht is an Associate Editor for the American Chemical Society journal, Molecular Pharmaceutics, and is a member of the ARC College of Experts.
Collborations and Industry Engagement
Professor Thurecht collaborates extensively across Australia and internationally. Within Australia, he works closely with a number of researchers within the nanomedicine field. In Sydney, this is primarily with Prof. Martina Stenzel and Prof. Maria Kavallaris. In Melbourne he works with researchers at the University of Melbourne (Prof. Frank Caruso, Dr Georgina Such and Prof. Stephen Kent) and at Monash University (Prof. Chris Porter, Dr Angus Johnston and Dr Kristian Kempe). Internationally, Prof. Thurecht has strongest ties with researchers in Europe, mainly Profs. Cameron Alexander, Steve Howdle and Derek Irvine in Nottingham University and Profs. Rachel O'Reilly and Andrew Dove at Birmingham.
Professor Thurecht has a strong focus on industry engagement. Within the ARC Research Hub for Advanced Manufacture of Targeted Radiopharmaceuticals (AMTAR), Prof Thurecht coordinates research spanning the radiopharmaceutical supply chain from radiometal production (CycloWest, AdvanCell Isotopes, ANSTO), to biologics discovery and manufacture (Cytiva, CSIRO) through to innovation in radiotherapeutic manufacture and evaluation (Telix Pharmaceuticals, Clarity Pharmaceuticals, Bayer, GlyTherix, Starpharma, iMAGINE-X) and provision of products to end users (GenesisCare).
Funding
Professor Thurecht has been CI on grants worth over $36M, including co-CI in two major ARC Centres. He has been lead CI (CIA) in successful research grants across various schemes, including: ARC Discovery, Linkage, LIEF and Future Fellowship; NHMRC Project grants; and funding from the National Breast Cancer Foundation
Key Publications
Ediriweera, G. R.; Simpson, J. D.; Fuchs, A. V.; Venkatachalam, T. K.; Van De Walle, M.; Howard, C. B.; Mahler, S. M.; Blinco, J. P.; Fletcher, N. L.; Houston, Z. H.; Bell, C. A.; Thurecht, K. J., Targeted and modular architectural polymers employing bioorthogonal chemistry for quantitative therapeutic delivery. Chemical Science 2020, 11 (12), 3268-3280.
Houston, Z. H.; Bunt, J.; Chen, K.-S.; Puttick, S.; Howard, C. B.; Fletcher, N. L.; Fuchs, A. V.; Cui, J.; Ju, Y.; Cowin, G.; Song, X.; Boyd, A. W.; Mahler, S. M.; Richards, L. J.; Caruso, F.; Thurecht, K. J., Understanding the Uptake of Nanomedicines at Different Stages of Brain Cancer Using a Modular Nanocarrier Platform and Precision Bispecific Antibodies. ACS Central Science 2020. 6(5), 727.
Daniel, S.; Houston, Z.; Fletcher, N.; Bell, C.; Atcheson, N.; Al-Najjar, A.; Howard, C.; Mahler, S.; Thurecht KJ. Canine PET-CT imaging with 64-Cu-Nanomedicines. Journal of Nuclear Medicine. 2020, 61, 3128.
Simpson, J. D.; Ediriweera, G. R.; Howard, C. B.; Fletcher, N. L.; Bell, C. A.; Thurecht, K. J., Polymer design and component selection contribute to uptake, distribution & trafficking behaviours of polyethylene glycol hyperbranched polymers in live MDA-MB-468 breast cancer cells. Biomaterials Science 2019, 7 (11), 4661-4674.
Amal J Sivaram, Andri Wardiana, Sheilajen Alcantara, Stefan E Sonderegger, Nicholas L Fletcher, Zachary H Houston, Christopher B Howard, Stephen M Mahler, Cameron Alexander, Stephen J Kent, Craig A Bell, Kristofer J Thurecht. Controlling the biological fate of micellar nanoparticles: Balancing stealth and targeting. ACS nano 2020, 14, 10, 13739-13753.
Barbara E Rolfe, Idriss Blakey, Oliver Squires, Hui Peng, Nathan RB Boase, Cameron Alexander, Peter G Parsons, Glen M Boyle, Andrew K Whittaker, Kristofer J Thurecht. Multimodal Polymer Nanoparticles with Combined 19F Magnetic Resonance and Optical Detection for Tunable, Targeted, Multimodal Imaging in Vivo. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2014, 136, 6, 2413–2419
Full list of publications available on espace