Associate Professor, School of Biomedical Sciences – Queensland University of Technology
A/Prof Jyotsna Batra is an Advance Queensland Industry Research Fellow and Laboratory Head at the School of Biomedical Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. She has studied Biochemistry towards a Master’s degree and obtained her PhD in Biotechnology working on the genetic complexity of the heredity disorders (2008). Dr Batra is leading a research group on molecular genetics of prostate cancer. Her current research focus is to identify cancer risk-associated genetic variants and to understand their molecular consequences on cancer initiation and progression. She aims to develop better biomarker to detect cancer early and to identify genetic biomarkers which can distinguish slow growing disease from very aggressive prostate cancer at an early stage, so that better decision on therapeutic interventions can be made. Dr Batra has contributed to >150 research articles, including that in high impact journals such as Cancer Discovery, Nature Genetics (H-index= 35). A/Prof Batra has received several poster and oral prizes for her research work (N=45). She has also been a finalist for the prestigious Qld ASMR Postdoctoral and Senior Researcher Awards and Women in Technology (WiT) Rising Star Award and Research Leader Awards and has been awarded QUT VC Excellence (2015) and Performance Awards (2016). Nationally, She has been recognised by Cancer Australia Researcher of the Year (2018) and Qld Young Tall Poppy (2019) Awards. She is funded by NHMRC, Cancer Council Queensland and Can TOO, Cure Cancer and Cancer Australia Foundation Young Investigator grants and a recent DoD Idea development grant (>8million AUD in funding).