Managing Executive
The AGTA Managing Executive comprises up to 15 members, including 7 office bearers and 8 ordinary members. Office bearer positions according to AGTA’s Constitution are: President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, Vice-Treasurer, Membership Secretary, Website/Communication Officer.
The committee is made up of senior scientists with significant expertise in their specific subdiscipline of genomics, genomic technologies or genomic data analysis who meet on a regular basis to discuss strategic and operational matters required for the day-to-day management and sustainability of the Association. The committee may, with a majority vote, co-opt up to three additional members for a term of up to 1 year without election, for specialised functions or purposes as may serve the needs of the Association (e.g.) conference co-convenor(s) and an industry officer
Mark Cowley
President
A/Prof Mark Cowley is Deputy Director (Enabling Platforms and Collaboration) at the Children’s Cancer Institute. His research program develops computational tools for precision medicine, mostly focussed on the … rapid, accurate analysis of whole genome, transcriptome and methylome data. He has made major advances, demonstrating unprecedentedly high rates of diagnosis of patients with genetic diseases and cancer. Mark plays a key role in the Zero Childhood Cancer Program, Australia’s leading precision medicine program for all children and young people with cancer.
Liz Christie
Vice President
Dr Liz Christie is a Group Leader in the Cancer Evolution and Metastasis Program at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne. Her lab uses multi-omics approaches to understand disease recurrence and treatment resistance …in ovarian and endometrial cancer.
Katherine Pillman
Treasurer
Dr. Katherine Pillman leads the Gene Regulation Bioinformatics Group at the Centre for Cancer Biology in South Australia. Her team takes a computational biology approach to understanding gene regulation and …transcriptomics in cancer, with a special emphasis on the children’s cancer neuroblastoma, as well as other epithelial cancers. She is a current Col Reynolds Fellows for The Kids Cancer Project and Mavis Robertson Fellow for NBCF.
Nadia Davidson
Vice Treasurer
Dr. Nadia Davidson is a Laboratory Head at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, jointly appointed within the Blood Cells and Blood Cancer and Bioinformatics Divisions. Her laboratory develops computational approaches for RNA …sequencing analysis, with a focus on fusion gene discovery and reference genome-free data analysis. She contributes to collaborative projects using bulk, single-cell and long-read technologies to investigate the drivers of diseases, including cancer.
Kirby Siemering
Secretary
Kirby is an experienced life sciences senior executive and director with a career spanning roles in ASX-listed, private, and not-for-profit biotechnology companies, academia, and government policy development. Kirby was most…recently Chief Executive Officer at Australian Genome Research Facility, Australia’s largest genomics services organisation. He is currently Managing Director of Double Helix Investments, a small private fund specialising in precision medicine and life sciences and principal at life sciences consultancy Simpatico Life Sciences.
Ruby Lin
Co-convenor AGTA 2026
Ruby Lin is an accomplished executive leader with over 25 years of experience in life sciences, biotechnology, and translational research. She has secured over AUD$17 million in funding, focusing on genomic medicine’s translation… clinical practice. A passionate advocate for women in STEMM, Ruby mentors students and scientists, and contributes to various initiatives, including serving as the Genomic Chair for Westmead Research Precinct, holds executive roles in the Australasian Genomic Technologies Association and an independent school in NSW. Her expertise encompasses genomics, cardiovascular disease, cancer biology, and infectious diseases with more than 120 high-impact publications. Ruby actively engages in community service, including mentoring and pro bono career coaching, while also serving on several scientific journal editorial boards.
Sandra Fitzgerald
Co-convenor AGTA 2026
Sandra is a Research Fellow at the University of Auckland, and her research focuses on developing highly sensitive technologies for the detection of circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) in the blood of cancer patients. She …collaborates extensively with researchers and oncologists from all over New Zealand to drive the translation of minimally invasive liquid biopsy technologies into clinical implementation.
Cath Moore
Industry Engagement
Dr Cath Moore is the CSO at AGRF leading the Science and Technology team, responsible for research partnerships and collaborations, and the Innovation and Development program. Cath holds a PhD in molecular genetics…and is passionate about how genomic technologies can be used to advance the goals of researchers, clinicans and industry. She joined AGRF in 2020 from QIAGEN where she led the ANZ genomics market development team tasked with engaging the research community to understand emerging needs, provide technical expertise and drive new partnerships.
Helena Mangs
Industry Engagement
Dr. Helena Mangs is the Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer of the Ramaciotti Centre for Genomics at UNSW Sydney. This core facility provides high-throughput genomic services …both within Australia and globally. Before her current position, she oversaw transcriptomics workflows and teams as a Service Manager at the Centre (2011-2021). Between 2008 and 2011, she was an NHMRC Early Career Research Fellow, conducting research on prostate cancer at the University of Sydney. She has extensive experience in genomics and is passionate about facilitating access to genomic technologies and educating the next generation of researchers.
Nicholas Blackburn
Communications Manager
Dr Nicholas Blackburn is a Senior Research Fellow in Hobart, Tasmania within the Menzies Institute for Medical Research, UTAS. He leads a Neurogenomics group that uses genomic and transcriptomic …technologies to understand human diseases, with a particular focus on rare genetic variation. His current research focuses on understanding the biology multiple sclerosis, through families with multiple cases of MS.
Pamela Soh
Executive Member
Dr. Pamela Soh is a Research Fellow in the Ancestry and Health Genomics Laboratory, led by Professor Vanessa Hayes, at the University of Sydney. She completed her PhD in 2021 at the University of Sydney on the topic of …genomic and metabolomic investigations of lymphoma in Border Collie dogs. Transitioning into human genomics, she now focuses on prostate cancer disparities in African populations, with expertise in population genetics, ancestry, disease risk, and GWAS.
Safaa Al Haj Hussein
Executive Member
Dr Safaa Al Haj Hussein is a postdoctoral researcher at the Children’s Cancer Research Unit, Kids Research, at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead. She completed her PhD in 2026 at The University of Sydney, investigating novel …germline variants that predispose children to developing cancer, through bioinformatics analysis and functional validation. Her current research extends her PhD project and applies bioinformatics analysis to explore next generation sequencing pipelines to detect and investigate low frequency variants from patient samples and disease models.
Luciano Martelotto
Executive Member
Dr Luciano Martelotto is Global Director of Market Development for Single Cell at Waters Biosciences and an internationally recognised pioneer in single-cell and spatial omics method development. He is a co-inventor …of STAMP, a technology that immobilises dissociated cells onto imaging slides compatible with the Xenium, MERSCOPE, and CosMx platforms, enabling sequencing-free single-cell profiling of RNA, protein, and cellular morphology simultaneously, from hundreds to millions of cells per experiment. His work has consistently translated novel techniques into widely adopted community tools, spanning reversible tissue fixation and dissociation, single-nucleus transcriptomics from FFPE archival tissue, multi-omic detection of somatic mutations in single cells, optical barcoding compatible with high-resolution imaging and flow cytometry, and standardised quality-control and benchmarking frameworks for imaging-based spatial transcriptomics. Prior to Waters Biosciences, Luciano was Head of the Development Laboratory at Adelaide Center for Epigenetic/SAIGENCI, Scientific Director of the Single Cell Laboratory at Harvard Medical School, Department of Systems Biology, and Lab Head at the Single Cell Innovation Lab at the University of Melbourne Center for Cancer Research. He’s also the co-founder of the Global Alliance for Spatial Technologies (GESTALT). He continues collaborating, educating and helping researchers worldwide.
Rory Bowden
Executive Member
The Head of the Advanced Genomics Facility at WEHI (currently 20 staff), Prof Rory Bowden and his team implement novel and modern omics technologies, seeking to optimise their availability to the research community. Prof Bowden …is an internationally recognised expert in the application of genomics, especially high-throughput techniques in conjunction with next-generation DNA sequencing, to solve problems in medicine and biology.