Our Lab
Science is a team sport and at the Bowen Lab we feel pretty lucky to be part of a great team.
The Team
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Lab Director
Michael's background is in psychopharmacology, behavioural neuroscience, and small molecule drug discovery and development. He's an Associate Professor and Team Leader at the Brain and Mind Centre, University of Sydney, and Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Kinoxis Therapeutics.
Stela Petkova
Senior Research Scientist
Stela completed her PhD at the University of California Davis, phenotyping transgenic rodent models of rare genetic neurodevelopmental disorders. In the Bowen Lab, Stela is focusing on assessing potential novel small molecule therapeutics in genetic and environmental models of autism spectrum disorder.
Nick Everett
Research Fellow
Nick completed his PhD at Macquarie University, studying oxytocin as a potential treatment for methamphetamine addiction. In the Bowen Lab, Nick uses genetic techniques (fibre photometry, DREADDs) to identify neural mechanism of action for novel addiction pharmacotherapies, and novel operant models to identify treatments that increase preference for social interactions over drug taking.
Bianca Wilson
Research Administration Officer
Bianca completed Honour’s under Michael’s supervision in 2016, exploring novel treatments for autism. Since then, she has worked as a research assistant on various projects, establishing preclinical models and screening novel compounds for social impairments and addiction. As Research Administration Officer, Bianca supports the team’s compliance with ethics, record keeping, data management and finances.
Neda Assareh
Research Fellow
Neda completed her PhD at the University of Nottingham, UK, studying cannabinoids in psychiatric animal models. She has worked as a postdoctoral Research Fellow for over 10 years at the Universities of NSW, Sydney, and Macquarie. In the Bowen lab, Neda applies a wide range of approaches, including genetic and psychopharmacological methods, to investigate the potential therapeutic effects of novel compounds in rodent models of psychiatric disorders and pain.
Zeynab Alshelh
Research Fellow
Zeynab completed her PhD at Sydney University and her first postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School, exploring chronic pain mechanisms using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Positron Emissions Tomography (PET). In the Bowen Lab, Zeynab is using MRI and PET methods to explore brain signals in response to novel addiction pharmacotherapies.
Omar Qureshi
Postdoctoral Research Officer
Omar obtained a PhD in behavioural neuroscience in 2021 in the lab of Professor Frederick Westbrook at the University of New South Wales and worked as a postdoc for two years in the lab of Mihaela Iordanova at Concordia University. His work used pharmacological and chemo-genetic techniques to investigate the neural substrates of higher order Pavlovian conditioning. Omar joined the Bowen lab in 2024 where he will use novel operant models to identify treatments that increase preference for social interactions over drug taking.
Charlotte Freeborn
Research Assitant
Charlotte is currently assisting the lab in extracting data from videos of animal models of aggression and social interaction.
Timothy Lee
Computational Scientist
Tim has a background in data science and software engineering. He is developing streamlined processes for data analytics, notably an automated animal behavioral analysis pipeline powered by machine learning. This pipeline promises to significantly accelerate and enhance the lab's research efforts.
Alex Athanasopoulos
Research Assitant
Alex's project is exploring whether oxytocin is able to promote preference for social reward-seeking over alcohol reward-seeking in rats.
Jackson McPartland
Research Assistant
Terry Salthouse
Research Assistant
Diana Atigari
Postdoctoral Research Officer
Mia Languuth
2018 - 2023
Mia's role with us
PhD student
What Mia did with us
Examined models of ASD and social anxiety by utilising the FMR1-/- mouse model and genetic techniques (fibre photometry and DREADDs) to investigate the role of the lateral septum brain in social fear behaviours.
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Alumni
At the Bowen Lab, we take pride in helping each other achieve our longer-term goals and we enjoy staying in touch with former team members to follow their successes and latest endeavours.
Lewis Martin
2018 - 2021
Lewis's role with us
Postdoctoral Fellow
What Lewis did with us
Developed computational models for predicting ligand-target interactions for drug discovery and target deconvolution.
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What Lewis is doing now
Chief Scientific Officer at OpenBench
Jennifer Oraha
2021
Jen's role with us
Master's of Brain and Mind Sciences Research Placement
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What Jen did with us
Novel preclinical models of opioid withdrawal.
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What Jen is doing now
PhD candidate at Garvan Institute of Medical Research
Anand Gururajan
2018 - 2022
Anand's role with us
Research Fellow
What Anand did with us
Utilised cutting edge neuromolecular techniques to advance our neurobiological understanding of psychiatric disorders and potential novel therapeutics.
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What Anand is doing now
Research Grants Manager at the Centenary Institute
Oscar Leppan
2019 - 2021
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Oscar's role with us
Research Intern (2019), Honour's Student (2020), Research Assistant (2021)
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What Oscar did with us
Novel preclinical models of social anxiety disorder
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What Oscar is doing now
Research Assistant at National Drug & Alcohol Research Centre
Rhianne Scicluna
2018 - 2023
Rhianne's role with us
PhD student
What Rhianne did with us
Rhianne studied CBD in models of withdrawal & tolerance and evaluated a novel small molecule in a model of chronic opioid use disorder.
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Joel Raymond
2018 - 2023
Joel's role with us
PhD student
What Joel did with us
Joel's research focused on the complex interplay between sleep, circadian rhythms, oxytocin, and oxytocin-related behaviours.
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Erin Lynch
2020 - 2023
Erin's role with us
Postdoctoral Fellow
What Erin did with us
Erin led projects that established critical POC data for the oxytocin receptor biased partial agonists, helped unravel the pharmacological mechanism of action of KNX100, and identified critical information on PK/PD relationship.
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Uzes Beaton
2023
Uzes's role with us
Honours student
What Uzes did with us
Uzes's project focused on determining whether oxytocin acts within the brain to selectively inhibit the expression of conditioned social fear or whether it inhibits the expression of conditioned fear more broadly.
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Gabriella Guy
2019 - 2023
Gabriella's role with us
Lab Manager and Research Assistant
What Gabi did with us
Worked extensively exploring small molecule compounds, specifically the KNX100 and 200 series, in rodent models of opioid and methamphetamine use disorders.
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Samuel Thelaus
2020
Sam's role with us
Research Intern
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What Sam did with us
Statistical models and preclinical models of opioid withdrawal.
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What Sam is doing now
Master's Student at London School of Economics
Kate Jones
2015 - 2017
Kate's role with us
Honour's Student (2015), Research Assistant (2016-2017)
What Kate did with us
Used genetic models and pharmacological tools to help identify a novel therapeutic target for treating autism
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What Kate is doing now
Founder and Clinical Psychologist at Jones & Co Psychology
Simone Rehn
2019 - 2023
Simone's role with us
PhD Student
What Simone did with us
Simone utilised behavioural and pharmacological techniques to explore the role of intermittency in bingeing. In the Bowen Lab, she explored the impact of oxytocin on this behaviour.
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Harry Carey
2019 - 2021
Harry's role with us
Computational Scientist
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What Harry did with us
Developed machine learning platform for automated analysis of complex rodent behaviours.
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What Harry is doing now
Systems Engineer and University of Oslo
Sara Scott
2017
Sarah's role with us
Honour's Student
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What Sara did with us
Explored a potential novel small molecule therapeutic for alcohol use disorder
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What Sara is doing now
Clinical Psychologist