Overview

Merlin Crossley is Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) at UNSW and Professor of Molecular Biology. He has also worked or studied at the Universities of Melbourne, Oxford, Harvard and Sydney. He has been recognized by numerous awards, including a Rhodes Scholarship and the Australian Academy of Science's Gottschalk Medal.

He has made significant contributions to academic administration, serving as Dean at UNSW since 2010, and previouslyhaving been Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research at the University of Sydney from 2006 to 2008.

Career

Crossley attended Mount View Primary School, Glen Waverley, Victoria, then was awarded an entrance scholarship to Melbourne Grammar School, where he was dux. He undertook a Bachelor of Science at the University of Melbourne, as a resident of Queen's College (University of Melbourne), then a doctorate at the University of Oxford supported by a Rhodes Scholarship at Magdalen College, Oxford. He worked at Oxford, Harvard and the University of Sydney, before moving to UNSW as Dean of Science. In recognition of his service on the Trust of the Australian Museum a new species of butterfly bobtail squid was named in his honour - Iridoteuthis merlini - Merlin's bobtail squid.

Research

Crossley is interested in gene regulation. He studied an unusual genetic disorder termed Haemophilia B Leyden where patients recover after puberty. The condition results from mutations that disrupt the control region of the clotting factor IX gene. A testosterone-responsive element accounts for post-pubertal recovery. He has also investigated abnormal patterns of globin gene expression and his work on mutations associated with the lifelong expression of the foetal haemoglobin gene may help in the treatment of thalassemia and sickle cell anaemia. He is using CRISPR-mediated gene editing to introduce beneficial mutations in cell lines as models for treating genetic diseases.

Honours and rewards

◎ Lemberg Medal, Australian Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology - 2021
◎ NSW Premier's Prize for Excellence in Medical Biological Sciences - 2020
◎ Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales - 2014
◎ Fellow of Queen's College (University of Melbourne) - 2013
◎ Julian Wells Medal, Lorne Genome Conference - 2010
◎ Australian Academy of Science Gottschalk Medal - 2002
◎ Royal Society of New South Wales Sir Edgeworth David Medal - 2000
◎ Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Roche Medal - 1999
◎ Rhodes Scholarship 1987 -1990