Rate My Professor Stefan Broer

Stefan Broer is Professor in the Division of Biomedical Science and Biochemistry in the Research School of Biology at the Australian National University. He studied Biochemistry at the University of Tübingen, Germany, from 1981 to 1986, completing his Master's degree in 1987. He earned his PhD in 1991 from the University of Düsseldorf after research on amino acid-producing bacteria at the Research Center Jülich. As a research fellow of the German Science Foundation, he worked at the University of Illinois at Chicago from 1991 to 1993. He then served as Junior Lecturer at the University of Tübingen's Institute of Physiological Chemistry from 1993 to 1998 and Senior Lecturer at its Institute of Physiology from 1998 to 2000. Joining the Australian National University in 2000 as Senior Lecturer in the School of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, he was promoted to Associate Professor in 2006 and to full Professor in 2008. He leads the Broer Group on membrane transport and nutrition and served as Treasurer and Council Member of the Australian Physiological Society from 2005 to 2009.

Broer's research focuses on membrane transporters in health and disease, nutrient transport, protein nutrition, metabolic disorders, and cancer metabolism, particularly the role of amino acid transport in insulin resistance, carbohydrate metabolism, and cancer growth. His group identified the gene mutated in Hartnup disorder in 2004, with implications for type 2 diabetes treatments. Key publications include 'Amino Acid Transport Across Mammalian Intestinal and Renal Epithelia' (Physiological Reviews, 2008), 'Amino acid homeostasis and signalling in mammalian cells and organisms' (Biochemical Journal, 2017), 'Intestinal Amino Acid Transport and Metabolic Health' (Annual Review of Nutrition, 2023), and 'Amino Acid Homeostasis in Mammalian Cells with a Focus on Amino Acid Transport' (Journal of Nutrition, 2022). With over 19,900 citations and an h-index of 79, his work has advanced understanding of amino acid homeostasis and metabolic health. Awards include the Vice-Chancellor's Award for Career Achievement (2009), AuPS Invited Plenary Lecturer (2015), and Merck Grant (2019). He has secured NHMRC Project Grants, such as GNT1061288 (2014) and 585479 (2010).