Toxinomics Foundation

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Prof. Richard J. Lewis

Toxinomics Foundation Advisory Board

Associate Professor
NHMRC Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience
The University of Queensland
Brisbane QLD 4702, Australia
Chief Scientific Officer at Xenome Ltd

E-mail: richard.lewis@toxinomics.org

Richard Lewis gained a BSc degree in Chemistry and Zoology at James Cook University before completing a PhD on the isolation and pharmacology of ciguatoxins at the University of Queensland under the supervsion of A/Professor Bob Endean. He joined the Department of Primary Industries in 1986 to continue research on the origins, chemistry, pharmacology and detection of ciguatoxins, the family of polyether toxins that accumulate in fish and act on sodium channels to cause ciguatera.

In 1994, he returned to the University of Queensland to initiate research into the discovery and characterization of venom peptides from Australian cone snails and currently heads an NHMRC Program grant utilising conotoxin to investigate pain pathways. He is a co-founder and CSO of Xenome Ltd, a biotechnology company developing peptide therapeutics from venoms. Current research interests include pain and the molecular pharmacology of conopeptides acting at voltage-sensitive sodium and calcium channels, nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, the noradrenaline transporter and the a-adrenoceptor.