Professor Damien Keating

I have a research-only role as Head of Molecular and Cellular Physiology within the Centre for Neuroscience. I undertook a post-doc with Prof. Thomas Jentsch at the ZMNH, Hamburg, Germany and was then awarded the TM Ramsay Fellowship at Prince Henry's Institute, Melbourne. I was appointed Group Leader at Flinders University as a BioInnovation SA Research Fellow in 2006. In 2010, I was awarded both a NHMRC Career Development Fellowship (Level 1) and an ARC Future Fellowship and in 2015 was awarded a NHMRC Career Development Fellowship (Level 2).

My research is focused on understanding how cells send chemical signals to each other and how this is implicated in health and disease. We have published significant work in this area in leading international journals including PLoS Genetics, Molecular Psychiatry, Gastroenterology, Human Molecular Genetics, Journal of Neuroscience, Diabetes, Nature Communications and Cell Metabolism.

My lab webpage: Molecular and Cellular Physiology Laboratory

The focus within my lab is identifying the molecular mechanisms controlling cell signalling and how altered cell signalling relates to human diseases; most especially related to Type 2 Diabetes, metabolism and obesity. I utilise genetic mouse models and human tissue to identify novel genes underlying aspects of these diseases and combine this with cutting edge techniques for the measurement of neurotransmitter and hormone release from single cells. This work is supported with grants from the Australian Research Council, the National Health and Medical Reseaech Council and the Diabetes Australia Research Trust.