Rate My Professor Thomas Martin

Thomas Martin is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Molecular Sciences, Faculty of Science, at the University of Western Australia. His research centers on sugar and nitrogen sensing and signalling mechanisms in plants, protein interactions analyzed via Bimolecular Fluorescence Analysis (BiFC), regulation of plant carbohydrate and nitrogen metabolism, coordination of C/N metabolism, 14-3-3 proteins, plant histone deacetylases, plant nitrilases, and protein expression and purification. He explores plants' sensing, signalling, and response mechanisms to environmental challenges including nutrient availability, light conditions, abiotic and biotic stresses, with a focus on regulatory proteins such as 14-3-3 proteins and improving nitrogen use efficiency through proteins responding to nitrogen starvation. Additional interests encompass biochemistry, molecular biology, genetics, metabolic sensing and signalling, molecular genetics, and stem cells and epithelial cells from breast milk.

Prior to his current role, Martin was Lecturer in Plant Sciences at the University of Cambridge, UK, and Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow, UK, INRA Versailles, France, and IGF Berlin, Germany. At UWA, he delivers lectures in undergraduate levels 1-3 and postgraduate level 4 courses in biochemistry, molecular biology, and genetics, coordinates teaching for genetics and molecular life sciences programs, and supervises PhD students. He co-chairs the Education Committee of the School of Molecular Sciences, serves on the Institutional Biosafety Committee, and has presented at UWA Open Days on Genetics and Biochemistry & Molecular Biology majors in 2018, 2019, and 2020. Key publications include "14-3-3σ (sigma) regulates proliferation and differentiation of multipotent p63-positive cells isolated from human breastmilk" (Cell Cycle, 2011), "Transporters in starch synthesis" (Functional Plant Biology, 2007), "Carbohydrate partitioning and sugar signalling in Cauliflower mosaic virus-infected turnip and Arabidopsis" (Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology, 2006), "The effect of nitrogen and phosphorus deficiency on flavonol accumulation in plant tissue" (2001), and "Arabidopsis Seedling Growth, Storage Lipid Mobilization, and Photosynthetic Gene Expression Are Regulated by Carbon:Nitrogen Availability" (2002).