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People and culture
Head of People & Culture: Alison Kent
Risk & Compliance Manager: Lan Le
People & Culture Advisor: Natalie Littlejohn
People & Culture Administrator: Alyssa Alcala
Our team supports Centenary by ensuring a safe, compliant, and people-focused workplace. Alison, as Head of People and Culture, leads the strategic and operational management of HR, WHS, and compliance. Lan manages risk and compliance, Nat supports all HR processes as a People & Culture Advisor, and Alyssa provides essential front-of-house reception and administrative support, helping to keep day-to-day operations running smoothly.
Recently, our team has achieved several key milestones, including the successful rollout and implementation of the ELMO HR software, enhancing efficiency across HR processes. We’ve developed cultural improvement plans and introduced a “Values into Behaviours” framework to strengthen workplace culture. Additionally, we’ve led compliance inspections and initiated new culture, health, and wellbeing programs to further support our people and create a positive, safe working environment.
As an all-female team, we foster a supportive and collaborative environment where care, empathy, and connection are at the heart of how we work. Our strong team bond is built not only on professionalism but also on the personal moments we share—starting meetings with friendly catch-ups about our lives, families, and the latest Netflix shows, which strengthens our connection and fuels our shared purpose.
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Serena Li, inaugural Chair of Centenary’s ReST Association
Serena Li, a research assistant at the Centenary Institute, has recently been appointed as the Chair of the newly established ReST (Research Assistants, Support and Technicians) Association.
This initiative provides a platform for research assistants, technical officers and other research-related staff at Centenary to connect, exchange ideas and build a strong sense of community.
A core focus of the Association is to promote professional development, career progression and mentorship among its members.
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Building Services Team
Department/Function: Science Support, Building Maintenance & Operations, Call-Outs and Servicing
Team Lead/Manager Name: Peter O’Donnell
Number of Team Members: 3
The Building Services Team provides hands-on trade services across the facility, including HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and lab equipment support. We assist researchers and lab heads by servicing equipment, rearranging lab spaces, and ensuring the scientific environment runs smoothly and safely.
Our mission is to provide reliable and responsive support to both the building infrastructure and the scientific community within it. By maintaining systems and solving issues quickly, we help ensure the labs can focus on research without disruption.
We’ve recently completed works to prepare new lab spaces in the basement and supported their setup. Our team also assisted in the smooth relocation of multiple research groups from CPC into the Centenary Institute. In addition, we’ve been heavily involved in the ongoing revamp and upgrade of the entire HVAC system to improve building performance and reliability.
Ongoing construction work around the building has made day-to-day operations more complex. We’ve had to adapt constantly, managing deliveries, coordinating with contractors, and navigating around active works to ensure services and support remained uninterrupted.
Team Quote:
“What are you having for dinner?” — the most important and most asked question of the day.
Fun facts about our team:
Morning coffee runs usually happen with Billy, our HVAC maintenance man — he always drops by and we head out together.
Team members go by nicknames like Pistol Pete (Peter O’Donnell), Billzo, Champ, Matty, and Jakeos.
We start beatboxing to the sound of an alarming unit, like when a fridge drops in temperature.
Basement echoes make car sound impressions a regular thing.
Matt and Jake sometimes break into duets in the lift — “Let It Go” from Frozen is a crowd favourite.
During busy days, conversations usually start with “Hate to be that guy, but…” before adding another task.
We like to randomly ask questions like “What’s your favourite burger condiment?”
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Gorrell Laboratory
Department/Function: Cancer Innovations
Team Lead/Manager Name: Professor Mark Gorrell
Number of Team Members: 9
The Gorrell Laboratory study the DPP4 liver enzyme family and its functions & roles in (mainly) liver diseases such as cancer, fatty liver disease, fibrosis and more recently lung disease including COVID-19.
Their mission is to gain a better understanding of how liver enzymes function and interact within the lung/liver microenvironment, which ultimately leads to better diagnostic and therapeutic targets for treating liver and lung diseases.
Team Quote: In vivo veritas (In living things lies truth).
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Team Cardio
Department/Function: Molecular Cardiology Program
Team Lead/Manager Name: Associate Professor Richard Bagnall
Number of Team Members: 13
Our team translates genetic discoveries into better diagnosis, treatment, and support for families affected by inherited heart disease and sudden cardiac death. Within the Centenary, our team members have prominent roles in the IGEP committee, REST Association and PostDoc Association.
Our team recently attended the Human Genetics Society of Australasia’s 48th Annual Scientific Meeting and delivered oral and poster presentations on new genetic causes of cardiomyopathy and sudden cardiac death. A/Prof Richard Bagnall Co-Chaired the Local Organising Committee and the event had the largest attendance of this annual meeting, with over 800 delegates.
Our team works closely with clinicians to provide a genetic testing service that would not otherwise be available for families who have experienced the sudden death of a young family member. We bring together clinicians, genetic counsellors, bioinformaticians, molecular geneticists and cellular biology in an integrated program of work.
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Team Biomedical AI
Department/Function: Centre for Biomedical AI
Team Lead/Manager Name: Associate Professor Daniel Hesselson
Number of Team Members: 11
We engineer novel proteins to tackle unmet medical needs. Through a combination of computational design and evolution directly in human cells, we improve existing proteins or create entirely new functions.
Directed evolution is at the heart of our work. This laboratory process mimics natural selection to improve or create proteins and enzymes with new functions. In this ‘survival of the fittest’ different versions of a protein compete against each other to reveal those that perform better at a chosen task (for example, activating heart regeneration). We’ve developed methods to run multiple rounds of this competition in human cells so that winning proteins can be advanced directly as therapeutic candidates.
Life in the lab isn’t all serious science. People may be interested to know that we have a fun little tradition. Each morning begins with our Microscope Toast – which entails tapping the scope gently and whispering the words ‘Reveal the unseen’.
Our passion for science is matched by our dedication to people. We are committed to training the next generation of students for academic and professional careers in STEM and medicine.
