Rate My Professor Matthew Cheesman

Dr. Matthew Cheesman serves as a Senior Lecturer in Pharmacology and Biopharmaceutics within the School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences at Griffith University on the Gold Coast campus. He holds a PhD, a Graduate Certificate in Higher Education (GCHE), and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). His education includes studies at The University of Queensland. Cheesman is actively involved in teaching, convening the Foundations of Health Sciences course (1007PHM) and contributing to the Bachelor of Pharmacy program, which earned a 2021 Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning as part of the Australian Awards for University Teaching team award alongside Associate Professor Gary Grant, Ms. Denise Hope, Ms. Briohny Spencer, Ms. Fiona Miller, and Mr. James Townshend. In 2025, he received the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Learning and Teaching) Staff Excellence Award. His professional contributions extend to developing educational tools like the 'DrugSpeak' program to improve pharmacy students' drug pronunciation proficiency, published in 2020.

Cheesman's research focuses on the pharmacology and biopharmaceutics of natural products, particularly their antimicrobial properties against antibiotic-resistant bacteria, including investigations into efflux pump inhibition, biofilm disruption, and synergy with conventional antibiotics. His work emphasizes Australian native plants such as Terminalia species, Syzygium, Hamamelis virginiana, and cyanobacterial compounds. Notable publications include 'A Review of the Antimicrobial Properties of Cyanobacterial Compounds' (Cock and Cheesman, 2023, cited 38 times), 'An assessment of the growth inhibition profiles of Hamamelis virginiana leaf extracts against a selection of pathogenic bacteria' (Cheesman et al., 2021, cited 29 times), 'Use of specific combinations of the triphala plant group as an alternative to antibiotics' (Tiwana et al., 2020, cited 68 times), 'Effects of Hamamelis virginiana L. Extracts on Pseudomonas aeruginosa Biofilms' (Cheesman et al., 2023), 'Plant Metabolites as Potential Agents That Potentiate or Block Bacterial Efflux Pumps' (Zai et al., 2025), 'Flavonoids Identified in Terminalia spp. Inhibit Gastrointestinal Pathogens' (Zai et al., 2025), 'Repurposing Non-Antibiotic Drugs as Novel Antibacterial Therapeutics' (Tiwana et al., 2025), and 'A Review of the Traditional Uses, Medicinal Properties and Pharmacology of Terminalia ferdinandiana' (Tiwana and Cheesman, 2021, cited 21 times). With more than 2,100 citations and an h-index of 13 on Google Scholar, his research impacts efforts to address antimicrobial resistance. He has served as guest editor for special issues on microbial infections and novel biological molecules and participates in funded research within the School of Pharmacy.