Justin Yerbury AM

Justin Yerbury is a cell and molecular biologist studying of the origins of motor neurone disease at the Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute, University of Wollongong. Justin completed a BSc with first-class honours in 2004. He then undertook a PhD at the University of Wollongong with Prof Mark Wilson on extracellular chaperones before being awarded an international ARC fellowship to Post Doc with Prof. Christopher Dobson, University of Cambridge, UK, on biochemical analysis of protein aggregates. In 2009 Justin was awarded the Bill Gole MND Fellowship to train with Prof Iain Campbell in neuroinflammation. In 2011 he supervised his first honours student and was awarded the vice-chancellors emerging researcher prize. In 2012 Justin was awarded an ARC DECRA Fellowship to build his group around proteostasis defects in MND and in 2015 was awarded an NHMRC Career Development Fellowship to continue building in this area. Ten years after graduating with a PhD Justin was promoted to Professor in recognition of his contributions to the fields of proteostasis and MND. Justin was diagnosed with MND in 2016 and was awarded the Betty Laidlaw prize for contributions to the field of MND in 2018. He was Wollongong's 2019 Australia Day Citizen of the Year, and in 2020 was one of the Daily Telegraph's Most Powerful and Influential People in Wollongong, and that same year was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for his service to the MND and scientific communities.