Frank Grutzner

Professor Frank Grutzner is a distinguished academic at the University of Adelaide, where he serves as Professor in the School of Biological Sciences within the Faculty of Sciences, Engineering and Technology. He is also the associate Head of Research and group leader, with his work focused on comparative genome biology of egg-laying mammals.

Dr. Grutzner received his PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, Berlin in 2001. After moving to the Australian National University where he led an international team that resolved the longstanding controversy about the complex sex chromosome system in the platypus, he joined the University of Adelaide in 2005. His research has established monotremes as key species for research in comparative genomics and mammalian evolution.

Professor Grutzner's research focuses on understanding how different animal genomes evolved, how they are organized, and how this affects their function. His primary research subjects are the duck-billed platypus and short-beaked echidna, which represent the oldest surviving mammalian lineage and provide valuable insights into mammalian evolution and human disease. His current research areas include sex chromosome evolution, sex determination in monotremes, evolution of genes involved in metabolic control, and non-coding RNAs in reproduction.

His work with the Monotreme Resource Centre, which houses a world-wide unique collection of over 1000 specimens of tissues from platypus and echidna, has enabled breakthrough research in monotreme biology. Professor Grutzner has published extensively in leading international journals including Nature, Nature Genetics and Science.

His research has been recognized with several prestigious awards:

• Eppendorf Medal for the Young Australian Investigator (2005)
• Tall Poppy Science Award (2007/8)
• SA Science Excellence awards in Citizen Science (2021)

Professor Grutzner is passionate about community engagement and established the award-winning community-based research project EchidnaCSI, which combines citizen science with echidna conservation research. His research has been supported by competitive ARC research fellowships and grants since 2003, and he is eligible to supervise Masters and PhD students.