Associate Professor Graham Jones

Adjunct Associate Professor - Faculty of Science, Agriculture, Business and Law; School of Science and Technology

Biography

After a brief stint in the pathology laboratories at the Royal Brisbane Hospital (RBH) as a clinical biochemist, Associate Professor Graham Jones completed his PhD at the University of Queensland, and published 7 refereed full journal articles as a direct result of work done during his PhD (1971-1975). During his years at U of Q, (1967-1975) Associate Professor Jones was, variously, President of the Science Students Association, President of the Postgraduates Association and St Lucia Vice President of the Student Union.

In 1976, Associate Professor Jones taught O and A level chemistry and biology at Parliament Hill School, London. He completed a post-doctoral appointment with Professor Vestling at the College of Medicine, University of Iowa, USA (1978) and published 4 journal articles.

From 1979 to 1982, Associate Professor Jones worked as a Research Fellow at the John Curtin School of Medical Research (Canberra) and published 10 journal articles. The carbonic anhydrase work culminated in an invitation to address a meeting of the New York Academy of Sciences.

Pioneering enzymological work on the characterisation of human aldehyde dehydrogenases contributed significantly to a better understanding of ethnic differences in alcohol metabolism.

Associate Professor Jones went to the UPNG in Papua New Guinea as Lecturer in Medical Biochemistry in 1983. The main task was teaching clinical biochemistry to medical students. He equipped a research lab and completed a survey of the incidence of malaria resistant Melanesian ovalocytosis while providing the initial laboratory observations which later led to the molecular explanation of the ovalocyte polymorphism. He also became vice-dean of medicine.

Associate Professor Jones came to the University of New England (UNE) in 1984 as a fixed-term lecturer in Biochemistry to science and rural science students covering the lecturing of Professor Ian Falconer.

In 1987, he joined the staff of QIMR in Brisbane as a research officer in the malaria vaccine group as part of the national collaborative ‘Saramane’ consortium and published 25 articles and 31 conference abstracts as a result of the malaria work and was a co-author on one full patent. At the end of his time at QIMR, Associate Professor Jones spent a sabbatical at Kings College, London, supported by grants from the British Council and the Wellcome Trust. A collaboration with Professor Michael Tanner resulted in the definitive explication of the molecular basis for the Melanesian malaria resistant red cell ovalocytosis phenotype thus completing the work he had begun at the Faculty of Medicine UPNG in 1982.

Since rejoining UNE as a lecturer in human health science in 1991, Associate Professor Jones has published 56 peer reviewed research articles, 5 book chapters and 79 refereed conference abstracts. He has supervised 23 PhD and 6 Masters students with 21 successful PhD completions.

Associate Professor Jones has been pivotal in the initiation of several health and medically oriented research areas at UNE including the importance of antioxidant and stress protein interactions in ageing and cancer. His major ongoing research focus involves investigation into the bioactive properties of plants used in traditional Aboriginal medicine as part of the pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals (PAN) group, which he founded in 2012.