QUALIFICATIONS
2012 – 2015: Doctor of Philosophy (Molecular Biology), University of Wollongong, Australia
2007 – 2011: Bachelor of Biotechnology Honours (Class I), University of Wollongong, Australia
POSITIONS
2024 – present: Lecturer in Cell & Molecular Bioscience, University of Wollongong, Australia
2021 – 2023: Lady Edith Wolfson Research Fellow, University of Cambridge UK
2022 – 2023: Trainer, Introduction to Python for Biologists, Bioinformatics Training Facility, University of Cambridge, UK
2017 – 2020: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Melbourne
2016: Sessional Lecturer, University of Wollongong
2012 – 2016: Graduate Research Student, Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute
2014: Visiting Graduate Research Student, University of Cambridge
PUBLICATIONS
- Cox, D., Ormsby, A. R., Reid, G. E., & Hatters, D. M. (2022) Protein painting reveals pervasive remodeling of conserved proteostasis machinery in response to pharmacological stimuli. NPJ Systems Biology and Applications, doi: 10.1038/s41540-022-00256-3
- ψ Cox, D., Ang, C., Nillegoda, N. B., Reid, G. E., and Hatters. D. M. (2021) Hidden Information on Protein Function in Censuses of Proteome Foldedness. Nature Communications, doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-29661-2.
- *Cox D, Ormsby AR, Reid GE, *Hatters DM (2022) Protein painting reveals pervasive remodeling of conserved proteostasis machinery in response to pharmacological stimuli. bioRxiv, doi: 10.1101/2022.05.14.491969 * Co-corresponding authors
- Mathangasinghe Y, Alberts N, Rosado CJ, Cox D, Payne NL, Ormsby AR, Alp KM, Sakson R, Uthishtran S, Ruppert T, Arumugam S, Hatters DM, Kampinga HH, Nillegoda NB (2022) Cellular aging impedes stress-activation of a crucial JDP-Hsp70 protein disaggregase. bioRxiv doi: 10.1101/2022.06.25.497591
- Carmo OMS, Shami GJ, Cox D, Liu B, Blanch AJ, Tiash S, Tilley L, Dixon MWA. (2022) Deletion of the Plasmodium falciparum exported protein PTP7 leads to Maurer’s clefts vesiculation, host cell remodeling defects, and loss of surface presentation of EMP1. PLoS Pathogens, doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1009882.
- *Raeburn CB, *Ormsby AR, *Cox, D, Gerak CA, Makhoul C, Moily NS, Ebbinghaus S, Dickson A, McColl G, Hatters DM. (2022) A biosensor of protein foldedness identifies increased “holdase” activity of chaperones in the nucleus following increased cytosolic protein aggregation. Journal of Biological Chemistry, doi: 10.1016/j.jbc.2022.102158 *Equal contributions
- Ruff KM, Choi YH, Cox D, Ormsby AR, Myung Y, Ascher DB, Radford SE, Pappu RV, Hatters DM. (2022) Sequence grammar underlying the unfolding and phase separation of globular proteins. Molecular Cell doi: 10.1016/j.molcel.2022.06.024.
- Sui, X., Cox, D., Nie, S., Reid, G. E., & Hatters, D. M. (2022). A Census of Hsp70-Mediated Proteome Solubility Changes upon Recovery from Heat Stress. Journal of Proteome Research, doi: 10.1021/acs.jproteome.1c00920.
- Sui, X., Radwan, M., Cox, D., & Hatters, D. M. (2022). Probing Protein Solubility Patterns with Proteomics for Insight into Network Dynamics. The Integrated Stress Response. Humana, New York, NY. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-1975-9_16
- Whiten D.R., Cox D., Sue C.M. (2021) PINK1 signalling in neurodegenerative disease. Essays in Biochemistry. doi: 10.1042/EBC20210036.
- Ormsby, A.R., Cox, D., Daly, J., Priest, D., Hinde, E., Hatters, D. M. (2020) Mutant Huntingtin exon 1 does not stall ribosomes during translation but does recruit machinery involved in ribosome quality control into inclusions. PlosOne. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0233583
- Selig, E. E., Zlatic, C. O., Cox, D., Mok, Y. F., Gooley, P. R., Ecroyd, H., & Griffin, M. D. (2020). N-and C-terminal regions of αB-crystallin and Hsp27 mediate inhibition of amyloid nucleation, fibril binding, and fibril disaggregation. Journal of Biological Chemistry, doi: 10.1074/jbc.RA120.012748
- San Gil, R., Cox, D., McAlary, L., Berg, T., Walker, A.K., Yerbury, J. J., Ooi, L., Ecroyd H. (2020) Neurodegenerative disease-associated protein aggregates are poor inducers of the heat shock response in neuronal-like cells. Journal of Cell Science doi: 10.1242/jcs.243709
- Sui, X., Pires, D.E.V., Ormsby, A.R., Cox, D., Nie, S., Vecchi, G., Vendruscolo, M., Ascher, D.B., Reid, G.E., Hatters, D.M. (2020) Widespread remodeling of proteome solubility in response to different protein homeostasis stresses. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1912897117
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- Cox, D., Raeburn, C., Sui, X. & Hatters, D. M. (2018) Protein aggregation in cell biology: An aggregomics perspective of health and disease. Seminars in Cell & Developmental Biology. doi:10.1016/j.semcdb.2018.05.003
- Whiten, D. R., Cox, D., Horrocks, M.H., Taylor, C.G., De, S., Flagmeier, P., Tosatto, L., Kumita, J.R., Ecroyd, H., Dobson, C.M., Klenerman, D., Wilson, M.R. (2018) Single-Molecule Characterization of the Interactions between Extracellular Chaperones and Toxic a-Synuclein Oligomers. Cell Reports 23, 3492–3500.
- † Cox, D., Whiten, D.R., Brown, J., Horrocks, M.H., San Gil, R., Dobson, C.M., Klenerman, D., van Oijen, A.M., Ecroyd, H. (2018) The small heat shock protein Hsp27 binds α-synuclein fibrils, preventing elongation and cytotoxicity. Journal of Biological Chemistry, doi: 10.1074/jbc.M117.813865.
- ψ Wood, R., Ormsby, A., Radwan, M., Cox, D., Sharma, A., Vöpel, T., Ebbinghaus, E., Oliveberg, M., Reid, G.E., Dickson, A., & Hatters, D.M. (2018) A biosensor-based framework to measure latent proteostasis capacity. Nature Communications 9: 287
- Cox, D., & Ecroyd, H. (2017). The small heat shock proteins αB-crystallin (HSPB5) and Hsp27 (HSPB1) inhibit the intracellular aggregation of α-synuclein. Cell Stress and Chaperones, 22(4), 589-600.
- ξ Cox, D., Selig, E., Griffin, M. D., Carver, J. A., & Ecroyd, H. (2016). Small Heat-shock proteins prevent α-synuclein aggregation via transient interactions and their efficacy is affected by the rate of aggregation. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 291(43), 22618-22629.
- Cox, D., Carver, J. A., & Ecroyd, H. (2014). Preventing α-synuclein aggregation: the role of the small heat-shock molecular chaperone proteins. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA)-Molecular Basis of Disease, 1842(9), 1830-1843.
- Hochberg, G. K., Ecroyd, H., Liu, C., Cox, D., Cascio, D., Sawaya, M. R., … & Robinson, C. V. (2014). The structured core domain of αB-crystallin can prevent amyloid fibrillation and associated toxicity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(16), E1562-E1570.
₸ Recommended as an ACS Publication Editor’s Choice
† Recommended in F1000Prime as being of special significance in its field by F1000 Faculty Member Robert Petersen.
ψ Featured on the Nature Communications Editors’ Highlights Webpage as a particularly interesting or important new research article.
ξ Featured in Focus on Australasia. Journal of Biological Chemistry, Virtual Issue 2018 for outstanding contribution to Australian protein science.
EDITORIALS
Cox, D. (2023) Terrific TDP-3 Talks in Trieste MND Association Research Blog October 10th 2023
Cox, D. (2020) Emerging researchers face uphill struggle at NHMRC Research Professional Funding News September 18th 2020
Cox, D., San Gil, R., Rote, A., Ecroyd, H. (2016) Molecular Chaperones: Guardians of the proteome. Australian Biochemist Showcase on Research
AWARDS AND GRANTS
2024 – 2029 Emerging Leader Investigator Grant, National Health and Medical Research Council
2024 – 2027 Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) Fellowship, Australian Research Council
2021 Post-doctoral Affiliateship, Christ’s College Cambridge
2021 Post-doctoral By-Fellowship, Chuchill College Cambridge (declined)
2020 Junior Non-clinical Fellowship, MND Association UK
2019 CHOOSEMATHS Travel Award, Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute
2019 Corporate Partnership Programme Travel Grant, European Molecular Biology Laboratory
2019 Early Career Research Project Grant, University of Melbourne
2018 Travel Award, Bio21 Molecular Science & Biotechnology Institute
2018 Early Career Research Travel Grant, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne
2012 – 2015 Australian Postgraduate Award, Australian Federal Government PhD Scholarship
2015 The PhD Series Academic Prize – Second Place, University of Wollongong
2015 Bruker Travel Award, East Coast Protein Meeting, Australia
2015 Thompson Prize, Sydney Protein Group
2014 International Travel Grant, University of Wollongong
SELECTED CONFERENCE & SEMINAR PARTICIPATION
2023: Invited Oral Presentation, The UK-Japan Neuroscience Symposium, Cardiff, UK
2023: Invited Oral Presentation, CAMAND (Cellular and Molecular Advances in NeuroDegeneration), Brisbane, Australia
2023: Oral Presentation, MND EnCouRage, UK
2022: Invited Oral Presentation, Department of Clinical Neuroscience Seminar Series, King’s College London
2022: Oral Presentation, UK Dementia Research Institute Informatics-Synapse Joint ECR meeting, Bristol, UK
2021: Invited Oral Presentation, Asian-Pacific Society for Neurochemistry Meeting
2020: Invited speaker: Sydney Protein Group Thompson Prize Seminar Series
2019: Invited speaker, Victorian Mass Spectrometry Symposium, Proteomics and Metabolomics Victoria
2019: Invited speaker, Molecular Horizons Seminar Series, University of Wollongong, Australia
2019: Invited speaker, Advanced Biochemistry Winter School, University of Melbourne, Australia
2019: Oral presentation, Panel Chair, FASEB Protein Aggregation Conference, Snowmass, USA
2019: Oral presentation, EMBL in Cell Biology and Disease Mechanisms, EMBL Heidelberg, Germany
2018: Oral presentation, Asian Biophysics Association Symposium and Annual Meeting of the Australian Society for Biophysics
2018: Invited speaker, Advanced Biochemistry Winter School, University of Melbourne, Australia
2018: Oral presentation, Lorne Conference on Protein Structure and Function, Australia
2018: Oral presentation, Lorne Proteomics Conference, Australia
2018: Selected participant, Advanced Scientific Programming in Python (ASPP), Melbourne Bioinformatics, Australia
2017: Student mentor, High School Student Engagement Initiative, Bio21 Institute, Australia
2017: Selected participant, Research Bazaar Conference, University of Melbourne, Australia
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
2023: Facilitator, Darwin Biological Sciences Taster Series, Christ’s College, University of Cambridge, UK
2023: Facilitator, Enigma Summer School, Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge, UK
2022: Facilitator, Low Participation Neighbourhoods Program, Christ’s College, University of Cambridge, UK
2022 – 2023: Research Ambassador, MND Association Walk to d’Feet MND
2022: Mentor, Software Sustainability Institute Next Steps in Coding program promoting sustainable research
2021 – 2022: In2Research Mentor Program – career mentor for prospective postgraduate students from low-income and disadvantaged backgrounds
2019: Open House Melbourne – Public guide for Bio21 Institute tours
2018 – 2019: University of Melbourne Open Day – liaison for Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health
2018: Magnified: A science art exhibition – Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute, University of Wollongong. Two pieces I contributed were selected for the exhibition, which was open to the general public and all proceeds from the sale of these pieces used to establish an ECR travel grant in support of Motor Neuron Disease (MND) research and in honor of Prof. Justin Yerbury.
2017 – 2019: Bio21 High-School Engagement Initiative – student mentor for group of year 10 students from local high schools, demonstrated scientific research techniques and discussed academic background, research jobs and career pathways
MEDIA & COMMUNICATION
2020: Geeky Girl Reality #STEMStories profile
2020: CHOOSEMATHS Grant recipient profile