Lionel Hebbard

Lionel grew up on Moreton Bay in Southern Queensland, Australia 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.

 

Lionel 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 (liver cancer), muscle and cardiac health and disease, and is a co-founder of the Bio-tech start-up Infinite Bioworks (https://www.infinitebioworks.com/).

 

The lab employs gene sequencing, bioinformatics, advanced cell biology, histology and various cell culture systems.

Lionel mentors and co-mentors 9 PhD students and supports applications from motivated summer students and Honours candidates. The lab has also supported interns from Switzerland and China and undertakes patient focussed research with clinicians in the adjacent Townsville University Hospital.

 

The team has published on work concerning the finding of new cancer driver genes and the corresponding therapeutics to treat cancers.

 

Briefings in Bioinformatics, Volume 26, Issue 3, May 2025, bbaf255,  https://doi.org/10.1093/bib/bbaf255

 

 And has developed A New Model to Investigate the Action of Radiation and Cigarette Smoke on Head and Neck Cancer Cells: Cancers 2025, 17(8), 1346; https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers17081346