Kathy Schuller

Biography

I completed my PhD at the Australian National University in 1987 on "Nitrogen Fixation and Nitrate Assimilation in Soybean". Following that, I held postdoctoral research positions at the University of Missouri (Columbia, Missouri, USA), Queens University (Kingston, Ontario, Canada) and Philipps University (Marburg and der Lahn, Germany). In 1993, I was appointed Lecturer in Biological Sciences at Flinders University. My research focus over the years has shifted from plant nitrogen nutrition to omega-3 fatty acid metabolism and oxidative stability in important aquaculture species such as southern bluefin tuna. I also have an interest in antimalarial drug development. My research group is one of the few in Australia to use molecular biology to investigate seafood nutritional quality and the sustainable production of marine omega-3 fatty acids for their human health benefits. We have a particular interest in a new class of antioxidant genes/enzymes, the peroxiredoxins.

Research Interest

My research group is investigating omega-3 fatty acid metabolism and oxidative stability in important seafood aquaculture species such as southern bluefin tuna (Thunnus maccoyii) and yellowtail kingfish (Seriola lalandi). We are employing fish cell culture, gene cloning, recombinant protein expression in E. coli and yeast, quantitative PCR, protein immunoblotting and protein histochemistry to investigate the expression, function and regulation of fatty acyl desaturases and elongases, peroxiredoxins and glutathione peroxidases. Our particular interest is the interactions between dietary antioxidants (e.g. vitamin E, plant phenolics) and cellular antioxidants (e.g. thioredoxin, peroxiredoxins) and their roles in protecting omega-3 highly unsaturated fatty acids (e.g. DHA, docosahexaenoic acid) against oxidative deterioration. The stimulus for this work is the declining stocks of wild baitfish to provide fish meal and fish oil for aquaculture species and the need to replace fish oil with more sustainable oils without compromising the human health value of farmed fish by lowering the concentration of DHA in their flesh derived from fish oil in traditional fish diets.