Richard Lewis

Associate Professor, Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, Brisbane Queensland 4702, Australia e-mail: r.lewis@imb.uq.edu.au

Director of Pharmacology, Xenome Ltd, 50 Meiers Road, Indooroopilly, Brisbane 4068, Australia e-mail: Email: discovery@xenome.com

Richard Lewis gained a B.Sc. degree in Chemistry and Zoology before completing a Ph.D. on the isolation and pharmacology of ciguatoxins at The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. He joined the Department of Primary Industries just north of Brisbane in 1986 to continue research into the origins, chemistry, pharmacology and detection of ciguatoxins, a family of polyether toxins that accumulate in fish and act on sodium channels to cause ciguatera. In 1994, he returned to The University of Queensland to initiate research into the discovery and characterization of venom peptides from Australian cone snails. During 1994–2000, he led a team that discovered -conotoxin CVID (AM336, which is being developed by Amrad Corporation Ltd) and -conotoxin MrIA (Xen2174, which is being developed by Xenome Ltd). In 2000, Richard was appointed Associate Professor at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience at The University of Queensland, and Director of Pharmacology at Xenome Ltd, of which he is a founding scientist. His current research interests focus on the molecular pharmacology of conopeptides acting at voltage-sensitive sodium, calcium and potassium channels, acetylcholine- and N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA)-gated channels, the noradrenaline transporter and the ₁-adrenoceptor.