Matthew works in the Centre for Genetic Diseases, Hudson Insitute of Medical Research, as an ARC Future Fellow and Research Group Leader.

Following the completion of his PhD in 2002, Dr McKenzie undertook his post-doctoral research in the laboratory of Professor Michael Duchen, University College London. Here he investigated how mitochondrial membrane potential, calcium handling and ATP generation are disrupted in mitochondrial disorders using state of the art confocal imaging techniques.

In 2004, Dr McKenzie returned to Australia to work in the laboratory of Professor Michael Ryan, La Trobe University, Melbourne (now at Monash University). During this time he was awarded an NHMRC Peter Doherty Fellowship, and subsequently an NHMRC Career Development Fellowship, to study the biogenesis of mitochondrial complex I and how inherited defects can disrupt this process.

In April 2011 Dr McKenzie was recruited to the Hudson Institute of Medical Research (formerly Monash Institute of Medical Research) as a Group Leader in the Centre for Genetic Diseases. His current research focuses on mitochondrial fatty acid b-oxidation (FAO) and how this metabolic pathway interacts with mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS). He was recently awarded a prestigious ARC Future Fellowship and is currently supported by the Australian Mitochondrial Disease Foundation.