Dr Toby Bell

Toby is currently Lecturer in Physical Chemistry at Monash University where he heads a group interested in applying fluorescence and laser based spectroscopy and microscopy to study a wide range of materials and biological samples. A particular interest has been studying single molecules, for example, individual molecules undergoing reactions such as single fluorescence sensing events and understanding how energy is transported around in multi-chromophoric dye molecules, in polymer chains and nanoparticle based systems. Recently, he has applied his expertise in single molecule fluorescence detection to establish super-resolution localisation microscopy to study cellular structures such as microtubules, actin filaments, mitochondria and receptor clusters.

Dr Bell obtained his PhD from the University of Melbourne in 2002 in the Ghiggino group where he studied energy and electron transfer in porphyrin based donor-acceptor compounds. He then spent a year as a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Radiation Chemistry (Germany), and followed this with a second post-doc stay of 2 years at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium), in the De Schryver – Van der Auweraer Hofkens group studying photophysical phenomena in single molecules. Dr Bell returned to the University of Melbourne in 2006 as a Centenary Research Fellow and was appointed to the Science Faculty at Monash University in 2009.

Rosalind P Cox

Rosalind received her Bachelor of Forensic Science with Honours from Deakin University in 2008. She came to Monash University in 2010 where she completed her PhD in 2016 under the supervision of Dr Toby Bell and Professor Steven J. Langford. Her project involved looking at novel naphthalene diimide based chemosensors and using state of the art spectroscopy methods to study the photophysical properties and mechanisms involved in the sensing activity.

Brenton Graystone

Brenton obtained his bachelors of science, majoring in Chemistry from Monash University in 2009. He completed MSc (chemistry) in 2012 under the supervision of Professor Steve Langford and Dr Toby Bell. His thesis focussed on the synthesis and single molecule photophysical analysis of naphthalene diimide based fluorophores. Brenton is currently a PhD student investigating the reactions and interactions of single molecules through the use of single molecule fluorescence spectroscopy under the supervision of Dr Toby Bell and Professor Steve Langford. 

Josh Marlow

Josh Marlow completed his ‘Bachelor of Advanced Science (with Honours)’ in 2015, having completed his honours project working with photoisomerisable liquid crystals. After spending several months working in industry, Josh returned to begin his PhD in the second half of 2016 under the joint supervision of Dr Toby Bell and Dr Rico Tabor. His research is focused around the application of fluorescence imaging techniques to lyotropic liquid crystal systems, and the relation between the structure of these systems and the diffusion of particles inside them. His interests include comic books, movies and science communication.

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Ash Rozario

Ash obtained his Diploma in Biotechnology from Temasek Polytechnic, Singapore in 2012 before completing his Bachelor’s Degree in Biotechnology with First Class Honours in 2016. He is now a PhD student in the Bell group developing and utilising single molecule fluorescence localisation microscopy methods to visualise biological structures such as microtubules, chromosomes and nucleoli in 3D dual-coloured super-resolution, while also working with Dr Gregory Moseley to image fixed cells expressing viral proteins from the rabies and hendra viruses. Ash is currently exploring newer methods including expansion microscopy to improve imaging resolution, spectral de-mixing for multi-coloured microscopy, and novel biological protocols to allow live-cell super-resolution fluorescence imaging.

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Riley Hargreaves

Riley joined us for his Honours year, completing Honours in 2016 and moving on to become a PhD student in the Bell group in mid 2017. He is working with biological samples, developing correlative techniques for imaging target structures within cells along with their surroundings through super-resolution fluorescence microscopy and atomic force microscopy.

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Michael “Keith” Beards

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Esther Miriklis

Our most recent Honours student, Esther graduated from her undergrad degree with majors in Chemistry & Genetics and a minor in Molecular Biology. Her Honours research combines these interests; specifically looking at DNA repair mechanisms. 

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