We want to introduce you to A/Prof. Maria Di Biase, member of Phenomics Australia’s Scientific Director’s team and Co-Head of the Stem Cell Disease Modelling Laboratory at the University of Melbourne.
Meet Maria:
A/Prof Maria Di Biase is a neuroscientist dedicated to uncovering the neurobiological mechanisms underlying severe mental illness. She co-leads the Stem Cell Disease Modelling Laboratory at the University of Melbourne and holds an NHMRC Investigator Grant. She is an Al and Val Rosenstrauss Fellow, supported by the Rebecca L. Cooper Medical Research Foundation, and a 2025 recipient of the Metcalf Stem Cell Prize from the National Stem Cell Foundation of Australia.
“One of the most valuable contributions of Phenomics Australia is its support for high-quality, standardised biological inputs that underpin downstream discovery. For our node, this has enabled the establishment of reproducible, well-characterised stem cell resources that can be deployed across multiple platforms. This kind of coordinated infrastructure is critical for reducing variability and ensuring that national investments in omics and phenotyping translate into meaningful biological insight.”
Phenomics Australia provides a national centre of expertise and service provision to deploy a more comprehensive and sophisticated range of in vitro Genome Engineering and Disease Modelling capabilities to understand the functional consequences of DNA sequence variation in the human genome for health and disease while maintaining the expertise for in vivo disease modelling and genome engineering. To meet the high demand for adaptable and scalable disease-modelling platforms for improved diagnosis, Precision Medicine for genetic disorders, and therapeutic development by both academia and the biopharmaceutical industry, Phenomics Australia offers In Vitro services through a collaborative consortium of ten laboratories and facilities across Australia, operating at ANU (ANU Centre for Therapeutic Discovery), Perkins (Translational Cancer Research Program in Oncology), Monash (Monash Organoid Program & Monash Genome Modification Platform), MCRI (iPSC derivation & Gene Editing Facility), Peter Mac (Victorian Centre for Functional Genomics), UMelb (Centre for Stem Cell Systems & Stem Cell Disease Modelling Laboratory), UQ (In vitro Genome Engineering and Disease Modelling Service), and VCCRI (Stem Cell Production Facility iPSC Reprogramming Service)
