My main research interests are understanding the genetic basis of blood cell disorders and developing therapeutic genome engineering systems for these disorders. Disorders such as lack (anaemia) or too much of (leukaemia) blood cells and defects in blood cell functions, affects wellbeing of people from all backgrounds and ages. They represent a significant global health challenge because treatments are either very expensive or unavailable, particularly in the developing world.
I began my career as a veterinary clinician in Nigeria, before completing a PhD under Prof. Graham Lieschke at the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute. My PhD thesis, “Zebrafish models for studying cell autonomous functions of neutrophils and macrophages”, details new zebrafish CRISPR-Cas9 systems and nuclear reporter lines that uses synthetic guide RNA for lineage-specific in vivo gene editing.
Working with Associate Professor Andrew Deans and members of the Genome Stability Unit at SVI, I am developing therapeutic in vivo genome engineering systems for preventing blood cell disorders, with the overall aim of improving health and wellbeing of people.
Key achievements
2022 Graduate Research Completion Award
2019-2022 Monash Graduate Scholarship; Monash International Postgraduate Research Scholarship
2009 Veterinary Council of Nigeria; Veterinary Licence
Selected publications
Isiaku, A. I., Zhang, Z., Pazhakh, V., Manley, H. R., Thompson, E. R., Fox, L. C., Yerneni, S., Blombery, P. and Lieschke, G. J. (2021). Transient, flexible gene editing in zebrafish neutrophils and macrophages for determination of cell-autonomous functions. Disease Models & Mechanisms 14(7). doi.org/10.1242/dmm.047431
Ratnayake, D., Nguyen, P. D., Rossello, F. J., Wimmer, V. C., Tan, J. L., Galvis, L. A., Julier, Z., Wood, A. J., Boudier, T., Isiaku, A. I. Berger, S., Oorschot, V., Sonntag, C., Rogers, K. L., Marcelle, C., Lieschke, G. J., Martino, M. M., Bakkers, J., and Currie, P. D. (2021). Macrophages provide a transient muscle stem cell niche via NAMPT secretion. Nature 591(7849), 281-287. doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03199-7
Mizoguchi, Y., Hesse, S., Linder, MI., Csaba, G., Tatematsu, M., Lyszkiewicz, M., Ziȩtara, N., Jeske, T., Hastreiter, M., Rohlfs, M., Liu, Y., Grabowski, P., Ahomaa, K., Maier, D., Schwestka, M., Pazhakh, V., Isiaku, A. I, Miranda, B.B., Blombery, P., Saito, M.K., Rusha, E., Alizadeh, Z., Pourpak, Z., Kobayashi, M., Rezaei, N., Unal, E., Hauck, F., Drukker, M., Walzog, B., Rappsilber, J., Zimmer, R., Lieschke, G.J and Klein, C (2023). Human genetic defects in SRP19 and SRPRA cause severe congenital neutropenia with distinctive proteome changes. Blood 141 (6) 645-658.
https://doi.org/10.1182/blood.2022016783
Genome Stability
We investigate the process of DNA repair, with applications in treatment of genetic disorders, cancer diagnosis and cancer therapy.
Lab head: Associate Professor Andrew Deans