Dr Ellisdon is a mid-career researcher (PhD 2007) and Head of the Structural Biology of Signalling and Cancer Laboratory at the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute (BDI) where he runs a team of two postdoctoral research fellows, two research assistants, and one PhD student. His team has a particular research focus on capturing an atomic resolution view of “signalling in action” by observing protein complexes formed by critical tumour-suppressor proteins and oncogenes. This resolution is enabled by combining recent advances in single-particle cryo-electron microscopy with crystallography and classical biochemistry.

Current projects include characterisation of the activation of the metastatic factor P-Rex1 at the plasma membrane by G-beta gamma, gaining a mechanistic understanding of the inhibitory complex formed between the tumour-suppressor protein PTEN and P-Rex2, and understanding the structural basis of dysregulation of the tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC). The team is also part of a major research and development partnership with Roche towards the commercialisation of the anti-inflammatory activity of Interleukin-37 (Hoffman-La Roche, Switzerland; Prof Marcel Nold, Hudson Institute; Prof James Whisstock, Monash BDI). Other collaborations include structural characterisation of the gene-regulatory SAGA complex (A/Prof Hans Elmlund, Monash BDI), single-cell FRET studies to characterise GPCR signalling (Dr Michelle Halls, MIPS).