Andrew Lai

Dr. Andrew Lai is a Research Fellow at the UQ Centre for Clinical Research and Affiliate of the Centre for Extracellular Vesicle Nanomedicine within the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences at The University of Queensland. He holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of New South Wales, Master of Biotechnology and Bachelor of Life Science (Honours) from Queensland University of Technology, and Doctor of Philosophy from Queensland University of Technology.

His research focuses on the role of extracellular vesicles (EVs) in gynaecological cancers and reproductive diseases, specializing in developing innovative EV isolation methods and characterizing EV cargo for biomarker discovery. Key research areas include:

• EV-mediated mechanisms in ovarian cancer progression and treatment resistance
• Development of clinical diagnostics including the OCRF-7 ovarian cancer detection test
• EV biomarkers for gestational diabetes and pregnancy complications
• Mass spectrometry-based proteomics of extracellular vesicles

Dr. Lai's publications demonstrate strong emphasis on translational applications of extracellular vesicles, with recent works focusing on diagnostic biosensors, EV engineering for targeted cancer therapy, and metabolic pathways in pregnancy-related disorders. His articles consistently explore EV characterization techniques, biomarker validation, and clinical applications across oncology and reproductive health.

He currently supervises PhD students in projects related to scalable production of ligand-directed EVs for ovarian cancer therapy and characterization of EV-associated lipids in cancer progression. Dr. Lai leads the Proteomics Theme and collaborates extensively with the Centre for Extracellular Vesicle Nanomedicine team.