Simon Worrall

Dr Simon Worrall is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences within the Faculty of Science at the University of Queensland. He earned a BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry from the University of St Andrews and a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Nottingham. Worrall commenced his research career as a Science and Engineering Research Council-funded PhD scholar at the Queen’s Medical Centre, University of Nottingham, UK, purifying the D2-dopamine receptor from bovine brain. He relocated to Australia as a Research Officer in the Department of Biochemistry at The University of Queensland, investigating acetaldehyde modification of proteins in alcohol abuse. In 1992, he was awarded a University of Queensland Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, followed by an NHMRC grant in 1994 to study ethanol toxicity. He was appointed Associate Lecturer in Biochemistry in 1996, promoted to Lecturer in 1999, and to Senior Lecturer in 2010. Since 2007, he has directed the Postgraduate Coursework programs in Molecular Biology, mentoring students in research projects. He has successfully supervised 10 Honours students and 6 doctoral students. Worrall also serves as Chief Integrity Officer for the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, Community Leader for the Science Integrity & Misconduct Community of Practice, and a member of the leadership group for The University of Queensland Integrity Officers Network. Since 1997, he has held a Visiting Professor position at the Omaha Veterans’ Administration Hospital Research Division, University of Nebraska.

Worrall's primary research interest centres on the mechanisms of drug-induced liver damage, with a focus on immunological and genetic phenomena linked to alcohol-induced tissue injury, including alcoholic liver disease, skeletal and cardiac myopathy, and brain injury. His investigations explore whether ethanol alters hepatic gene expression to provoke liver damage, the involvement of protein modification by ethanol metabolites in disease aetiology, and proteins modified by reactive molecules during ethanol metabolism as potential biomarkers of intake. He also examines the hepatotoxicity of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Key publications include the textbook 'Biochemistry for Health Professionals' (2011, co-authored with Laura Batmanian and Justin Ridge), book chapters such as 'The effect of diet on protein modification by ethanol metabolites' (2013) and 'Modification of proteins by reactive ethanol metabolites: Adduct structure, functional and pathological consequences' (2005, with Geoffrey M. Thiele), and recent articles like 'The Metabolic Syndrome: An Overview and Proposed Mechanisms' (2024, co-authored with Fernanda Santos Thomaz et al.). Worrall served on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol from 2000 to 2009 and received the SCMB Award for Outstanding Contribution to the School in 2022.