About Professor Robert Vandenberg
I have been fascinated in biological chemistry since high school and in particular how proteins control so many different biochemical processes. More recently, I have been inspired to use our insights into protein structure and function to develop drugs that will hopefully be of therapeutic value.
Professor Vandenberg is an internationally recognized leader in the field of Neurotransmitter Transporters.
Professor Robert Vandenberg is a NHMRC Senior Research Fellow. He graduated with a Science degree in 1984 and a PhD in Biochemistry in 1989 from the University of Sydney. He was a Human Frontiers of Science Postdoctoral Fellow at the Vollum Institute, Portland Oregon before joining the staff of the University of Sydney as a Lecturer in 1995. In 2005 he joined the prestigious NHMRC Research Fellowship scheme to pursue his passion for basic research. Professor Vandenberg s research interests have focused on understanding how neurotransmitter transporters work. These proteins play key roles in regulating neurotransmission in the brain and are also the targets of a number of theraputic drugs and drugs of abuse. The laboratory uses a number of state-of-the-art molecular and biophysical techniques to address questions as to how these proteins bind neurotransmitters, how drugs interact with and modulate transporters and how these processes go wrong in disease states such Alzheimer s disease, Motor Neurone Disease and Ischemia following a stroke. The Vandenberg laboratory always strives to publish research in the best possible scientific journals that will provide the widest exposure of the quality of our work. We have published in Nature, Science and the leading specialist journals such The Journal of Biological Chemistry. We have a dynamic research team with 2 senior postdoctoral fellows supported by research assistants and also a number of undergraduate and postgraduate students.