Rate My Professor Anthony Don

Anthony Don is a Professor of Medical Biochemistry in the School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, at the University of Sydney. He obtained his BSc (Hons I) in Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney in 1998 and his PhD from UNSW in 2004. After completing his doctorate, Don undertook an NHMRC CJ Martin Overseas Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, USA, from 2004 to 2007. He subsequently held positions at UNSW as Research Fellow in lipid biochemistry (2008-2012) and Senior Research Fellow and group leader in brain lipid metabolism (2013-2015). Joining the University of Sydney in 2016 as Associate Professor and group leader in brain lipid metabolism, he was promoted to his current professorial position.

Professor Don's research program elucidates how genetic risk factors and ageing converge to disrupt brain lipid metabolism, precipitating neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia. His laboratory employs advanced mass spectrometry-based lipidomics to investigate lipid homeostasis in the brain and develops novel therapeutics, including ceramide synthesis inhibitors for obesity, liver steatosis, and type 2 diabetes, and remyelinating agents for multiple sclerosis and dementia-associated myelin loss. Affiliated with the Charles Perkins Centre, Brain and Mind Centre, and Centre for Drug Discovery Innovation, Don has received prestigious accolades such as the 2024 NHMRC Marshall and Warren Award for the highest-ranked Ideas Grant, the 2015 Student's Choice Best Lecturer Award in Cancer Sciences at UNSW, the 2009 Cancer Institute NSW Early Career Fellowship, and the 2004 NHMRC CJ Martin Postdoctoral Fellowship. His influential publications include "A selective inhibitor of ceramide synthase 1 reveals a novel role in fat metabolism" (Nature Communications, 2018) and "Sphingosine kinase 2 potentiates amyloid-β deposition but protects from mortality in mouse models of Alzheimer disease" (Journal of Neuroscience, 2019). Don's contributions have profoundly impacted the fields of neurochemistry, lipid metabolism, and therapeutic development for neurodegenerative and metabolic diseases.