Rate My Professor Stephen Frankenberg

Dr Stephen Frankenberg is a Research Fellow in Developmental Biology in the School of BioSciences at the University of Melbourne, within the Faculty of Science. He holds a Bachelor’s degree with Honours from the University of Melbourne and a PhD from La Trobe University. His postdoctoral positions have included appointments at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, the University of Auvergne in France, the Sloan-Kettering Institute in New York, and the University of Melbourne.

Dr Frankenberg’s research focuses on mammalian early development and stem cells, particularly in an evolutionary context. His work encompasses marsupial stem cells and germ cells, the evolution of reproduction and development in vertebrates, gene editing technologies for conservation applications, and genomics. He leads the Frankenberg Lab, which investigates evolution, development and reproduction in vertebrates with emphasis on marsupials, as well as synthetic biology approaches with ecological applications. Notable publications include reviews such as “Pre-gastrula Development of Non-eutherian Mammals” (2018) and “Conceptus Coats of Marsupials and Monotremes” (2018) in Current Topics in Developmental Biology, and the article “The mammalian blastocyst” (2016) in Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Developmental Biology. Additional contributions cover early cell lineage specification in marsupials, POU domain transcription factors, and gene editing applications including cane toad toxin resistance and fat-tailed dunnart biology. Dr Frankenberg maintains an active research program centered on these areas at the University of Melbourne.