Role at ANSTO
Andrew Clulow is the senior scientist on the BioSAXS beamline at ANSTO’s Australian Synchrotron. BioSAXS is the high-flux solution scattering beamline that recently came online as part of the BRIGHT program. In addition to supporting user experiments, Andrew’s current focus is on the integration of sample environments that will allow automated, high-throughput solution scattering measurements and the measurement of rapid structural changes on BioSAXS. He has experience in a number of fields including explosives sensing, thin film organic electronics, milk lipid self-assembly during digestion and drug/nutrient delivery. The common thread in Andrew’s career to date has been the use of neutron and X-ray scattering techniques to study how underlying nanoscale structure drives the function of such applied materials.
Before joining ANSTO, Andrew was an ARC DECRA fellow at the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MIPS) studying the self-assembly of complex lipid mixtures designed to replicate the behaviour of breast milk during digestion. As milk fats are digested, they release amphiphilic (detergent-like) molecules, turning amorphous blobs of fat in the milk into intricately structured liquid crystals. These evolving fat structures interact with other fatty molecules including drugs and nutrients co-ingested with milk and this can lead to improved uptake of these molecules in the gut, triggered by digestion of the milk. Andrew’s work as part of the Pharmaceutical Milkshake Team in Ben Boyd’s lab aided the development of antimalarial formulations based on milk and infant formula and contributed to the team being awarded an Australian Museum Eureka Prize for innovative use of technology in 2020.
Andrew has been an active member of the research community having served in various capacities the local synchrotron and neutron user community committees, the Australasian Colloid and Interface Society (ACIS) and the early-mid career researcher committee at MIPS.
Expertise
Small angle X-ray and neutron scattering (SAXS/SANS), X-ray and neutron reflectometry (XRR/NR), lipid self-assembly, milk lipid digestion, colloidal drug delivery systems, thin film and interface characterisation, organic optoelectronics.
Qualifications & Achievements
- Australian Museum ANSTO Eureka Prize for Innovative Use of Technology (Monash Pharmaceutical Milkshake Team, 2020)
- American Oil Chemist’s Society Health & Nutrition Division New Investigator Research Award (2020)
- ARC DECRA Fellowship in Milk Mimicry - self-assembly in complex lipid mixtures during digestion (2019-2021)
- Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences Awards for Excellence in Research – Award for Research Impact (Monash Pharmaceutical Milkshake Team, 2018)
- Post-doctoral positions held at the University of Queensland (2013-2015) and the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (2016-2018)
- PhD in Organic Chemistry conferred by the University of Queensland (2013, supported by an Endeavour International Postgraduate Research Scholarship & a UQ Research Scholarship)
- Uniquest Trailblazer Award – UQ Open Category (2009)
- MChem in Chemistry conferred by the University of Oxford (2008)
Comittees, Affiliations & memberships
- Honourary Secretary, Australasian Colloid & Interface Society (2023-present)
- Adjunct Lecturer, Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (2021-present)
- Australian Synchrotron Users Advisory Committee (elected member 2018-2020, deputy chair 2020-2021)
- Australian Neutron Beam User Group Executive Committee (secretary 2018-2020)
- Australian Colloid & Interface Symposium 2019 conference organising committee (ECR rep/family liaison, 2019)
- Monash Parkville Early-Mid Career Researcher Committee (Parent’s rep 2017-2021)