Lionel Hebbard

Lionel grew up on Moreton Bay in Southern Queensland and undertook his undergraduate studies in Science and Economics at Griffith University and the University of Queensland. He completed his PhD in tumour biology at the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology (https://www.kit.edu/english/), Germany, followed by Postdocs at the University Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland, and The Sanford Burnham Prebys Institute (https://sbpdiscovery), La Jolla, California, USA. In 2008, he returned to Australia and established the Liver and Metabolism Group at the Westmead Institute for Medical Research (https://www.westmeadinstitute.org.au/) and moved to James Cook University in 2015 to a tenured position.

He lectures on Metabolic Biochemistry and Oncology to first- and third-year medical students and leads an active research group. His current research focus is hepatocellular carcinoma, muscle health and disease. The lab employs gene sequencing, bioinformatics, advanced cell biology, histology, cell sorting and various primary and cell line culture systems. Lionel is a co-founder of the Bio-tech start-up Infinite Bioworks (https://www.infinitebioworks.com/).

Lionel mentors and co-mentors 6 PhD students and supports applications from motivated summer and Honours students. The lab has also supported interns from Switzerland and China and undertakes research with clinicians in the adjacent Townsville University Hospital.