Cindy Gunawan
Associate Professor Cindy Gunawan leads the Biofunctional Nanomaterials Research Group at the Australian Institute for Microbiology and Infection, UTS. Gunawan is a nano-biologist with expertise in the fundamental and translational research of particle-cell interactions. Her research group studies the characteristics and molecular basis of bacterial toxicological and adaptation responses to nanoparticles, focusing on ESKAPE pathogens in both their free-living planktonic and surface-attached biofilm forms. Through her nano-bio expertise, Gunawan also contributes to the development of smart nanoparticle-based antimicrobials, as well as studies on the environmental and human health impact of nanoparticles. The pioneering work, including the discovery of the phenomena of bacterial resistance to nanoparticle, have been published and highlighted in top journals, such as ACS Nano, Small and Nature Nanotechnology, as well as featuring in many public and scientific media. Gunawan received her Bachelor of Engineering in Bioprocess Engineering (First Class Honours and The University Medal) in 2002 and her PhD in Biotechnology in December 2006 from UNSW. She had her post-doctoral training in the School of Chemical Engineering, UNSW (2008-2014). Gunawan was awarded the UTS Chancellor’s Research Fellowship (2015-2018), and has been Lead Chief Investigator on ARC Discovery Projects (2018-2021, 2022-2025) and the Australian Academy of Science grant (2019-2020), among others. For her interdisciplinary work, Gunawan was a Finalist for the 2022 Alan Skyring Memorial Award from the Australian Society of Medical Research and appointed in 2022 a Fellow of the International Association of Advanced Materials (Sweden).
Abstracts this author is presenting: