Elizabeth Harry

Career

Professor Harry obtained her PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Sydney. She then went to Harvard University as a U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH, USA) Postdoctoral Fellow. There she pioneered the development of fluorescence microscopy techniques for bacteria that enabled visualization of the subcellular proteins inside bacterial cells. These techniques have revolutionized our view of the internal organization of bacterial cells. They controlled in time and space. revealed that bacterial cells are highly organized, with proteins having specific cellular addresses that are exquisitely She then returned to Australia to be an Australian Research Council (ARC) Postdoctoral Fellow and then an ARC QEII Fellow in the School of Molecular Biosciences at the University of Sydney. She was then head-hunted to take up a position as Associate Professor at the ithree institute (then known as the Institute for the Biotechnology of Infectious Diseases) with the aim of building a team of bacterial biologists. She was promoted to Professor of Biology in 2010, and has played a leading role in the recruitment of several eminent Australian and international researchers to the institute, including that of our current Director, Professor Ian Charles.

Achievements

Professor Harry's research on bacterial cell division has had a significant impact on our understanding of how bacterial cells multiply, and how they control this process to ensure equal partitioning of chromosomes vital for survival. Her research has often changed the direction of thinking in the field, and has afforded excellent opportunities in antibacterial discovery. Her cutting-edge cell biology techniques including super resolution microscopy have provided unique insights in the mechanism and spatiotemporal control of the division process in bacteria. She made the surprising discovery that the cytokinetic ring, which is a polymer of the tubulin-like protein, FtsZ, forms at the division site at midcell as a result of the remodeling of a cytoskeletal helical assembly of polymers. Her research has shown that this Z ring is linked to the progress of the initiation phase of DNA replication, and gave rise to a new definition for the role of long-known sptatial regulators of bacterial division.

With the move to the ithree institute, Harry shifted some of her fundamental research focus on bacterial cell division toward bacteria that cause infectious disease, such as Staphylococcus aureus and Acinetobacter baumannii, and antibacterial discovery. Professor Harry has worked with industry in antibacterial discovery research for the development of novel antibiotics that target this process in pathogens, and to examine how natural products function as effective therapeutics for infectious disease.

Awards

Professor Harry was awarded the 2002 Australian Eureka Prize for Scientific Research, and also won the 2008 ASM Frank Fenner Award, awarded by the Australian Society for Microbiology in recognition of her distinguished contributions to Australian research in microbiology. She has had several plenary invitations to international conferences and served on the executive of the Australian Society for Microbiology for several years. She is currently a member of the Australian Academy of Science, National Committee for Biomedical Sciences.