Dr Ivanhoe Leung is a Senior Lecturer in Biological Chemistry in the School of Chemistry and a Group Leader at the Bio21 Molecular Science and Biotechnology Institute of the University of Melbourne. He completed his undergraduate and DPhil in Chemistry at the University of Oxford, where he trained in the laboratories of Professors Christopher J. Schofield FRS and Timothy D. W. Claridge. Following postdoctoral research in the same groups, he joined the University of Auckland as a Lecturer in 2014 before moving to Melbourne in 2021. Dr Leung is an expert in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, particularly its application to study protein-ligand interactions, enzyme kinetics and enzyme mechanisms. His research has been recognised by several awards including the University of Auckland Early Career Research Excellence Award, the RACI Welcome Award, the RACI Victorian Chemistry Supervisor of the Year Award and the ANZMAG Sir Paul Callaghan Medal.
Dr Leung's research combines structural biology, biophysics, chemical biology and multiomics to understand how enzymes are regulated and how they control complex biological processes. His laboratory uses NMR spectroscopy, X-ray crystallography, SAXS, cryo-EM, mass spectrometry and computational approaches to investigate enzyme structure, dynamics, interactions and function. His research focusses in three areas: 1) defining the molecular mechanisms that regulate enzyme activity, including allostery, conformational dynamics, oligomerisation, and regulation by metabolites and other biological molecules; 2) understanding how enzyme regulation controls metabolism, signalling and cellular adaptation; and 3) translating mechanistic insights into new applications in infectious disease, agriculture, biotechnology and sustainable manufacturing.
