Developmental Molecular Mechanisms

BIOGRAPHY

ACADEMIC POSITION:
Peter Koopman is head of the Division of Molecular Genetics and Development at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience.

MEMBERSHIPS:
He is on the editorial board of six international journals including Developmental Dynamics, Mechanisms of Development, Nature Reviews Genetics, Biology of the Cell and Sexual Development.

AWARDS:
Prof Koopman received the Julian Wells Medal in 1998, the Amersham-Pharmacia Biotech Medal in 2003, the President’s Medal of the Australia and New Zealand Society for Cell and Developmental Biology in 2005, the GSK Award for Research Excellence in 2007 and the Lemberg Medal in 2009. He is a Federation Fellow of the Australian Research Council and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.

RESEARCH INTERESTS:
His research focuses on genes that regulate embryonic development, with special emphasis on the control of sexual dimorphism and gonadal development. He was part of the team that discovered the Y-chromosomal sex-determining gene Sry, work that has led to the identification of many other genes important for normal sexual development, and to the discovery of the SOX family of developmental transcriptional regulators.