Staff profile: Andrew King
Andrew from the DNA Lab
Andrew King
© Australian Museum
- Position title:
- Technical Officer
- Section:
- DNA Laboratory
- Branch:
- Cultural Heritage & Science Initiatives
- Division:
- Research & Collections
- Phone:
- +612 9320 6292
- Email:
- Contact Andrew King using the form below
Profile
I studied Environmental Biology as part of an Applied Science Degree at the Institute of Technology (now UTS) in the early 80’s. A brief stint in the NSW public service led me to a position at CSIRO Division of Biotechnology at North Ryde in 1984.
Most of my experience has come from working in the Biotechnology field. I have worked on gene expression in macrophages, genotyping Human Papiloma Virus, developing and testing DNAzyme technology against cancer targets, developing Anti-viral therapeutics that incorporate Ribozyme and antisense technologies , preclinical characterisation of anti-HIV therapeutics, Hepatitis-C Viral RNA based drug screening and development of robotic high throughput gene expression screening assays.
After 24 years of biomedical research (mostly private industry) it was time for a change.
In 2008 I joined the Australian Museum as a Technical Officer working on termite genetics (Coptotermes lacteus and Nasutitermes exitiosus) at the Museum with Dr Nathan Lo.
Since then I have worked in the DNA Lab on a variety of projects. Some of which include: sequencing nuclear genes of freshwater isopods from Kakadu, genetic analysis of locally endangered White-Fronted Chats, generating reference data for bat species across Australia and forensic identification of bird/bat-strike from Australian airports.
I love the fact that after 25 years in research I still get a kick out of discovering something new about the natural world. You never know what discovery is around the corner.
