Dr Dustin Flanagan is a NHMRC Senior Research Fellow at the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute. Dustin leads the Cell Competition and Niche Signalling Laboratory in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. 

Dustin undertook his undergraduate (2004-2008) at the University of Melbourne, completing with first-class honours, where he was first introduced to the power of studying functional genomics in model organisms, such as Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly). Dustin combined single-cell labelling and microscopy to study candidate genes critical for the developing peripheral nervous system, which was accepted for publication. After completing a successful honours project, Dustin later trained as a doctoral student at the University of Melbourne (2012-2016) in the lab of Professor Elizabeth Vincan, where he developed and worked with genetically engineered mouse models (GEMMs) and 3D-organoid cultures to study the function and requirement of cell-surface Frizzled receptors in adult stem cell populations of the gut and stomach.

Upon completion of his doctorate, Dustin commenced his postdoctoral work at Cancer Research UK (CRUK) Beatson Institute in Glasgow under the mentorship of Professor Owen Sansom. Here, he again used cutting-edge GEMMs, but now to study how common tumour suppressor and oncogenes associated with gastrointestinal cancer impact stem cell fate. This work produced ground-breaking studies in the fields of stem cells, cell competition and intestinal tumourigenesis, insights into which are now being used to design drugs to treat patients with genetic pre-dispositions to developing colon cancer.

In September 2021, Dustin received a NHMRC Investigator Grant to start his lab at the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute in 2022. Dustin and his team continue to investigate stem cell regulation using GEMMs and 3D-organoid cultures, but have incorporated advanced microscopy, single-cell RNAseq and Proteomics to uncover novel cellular and molecular interactions that influence stem cell fate and how this impacts diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.