Graham Jones

Graham has been involved in a wide range of research programmes applying basic chemical, biochemical and immunological techniques to the study of human biology. During an active research career spanning several decades he has characterised important polymorphic variants of human carbonic anhydrases and aldehyde dehydrogenases and contributed to a biological understanding of their fitness particularly in Australian Aboriginal populations. He characterised a variant Band 3 protein in PNG populations and showed how this variant protein serves to alter red cell shape to produce characteristic malaria resistant ovalocytes. He was part of the Saramane consortium developing peptide based immunogens as part of a malaria vaccine programme. He has developed protein fingerprints for hair analysis in humans and animals which may be of forensic interest. Projects involving Blackmores Aust as industry partner have focused on the role of antioxidants in the mitigation of skin damage after UV exposure.

More recent research interests have focused on investigations of the effects of antioxidant supplements on age related attenuation of the stress protein response as well as changes in this response in human breast cancer particularly with respect to the assembly of stress protein complexes in cell signal transduction.

Recently we have begun investigating useful bioactivities of native Australian plants used traditionally by Aborigines in wound healing.