Rachel North

Rachel North is a Lecturer in Molecular and Cellular Biomedicine at the University of Sydney's School of Medical Sciences, within the Faculty of Medicine and Health. She is a member of the University of Sydney Nano Institute and collaborates internationally with institutions such as the University of Canterbury (New Zealand) and Stockholm University (Sweden). Her research focuses on bacterial nutrient transport mechanisms, particularly TRAP transporters and Major Facilitator Superfamily (MFS) proteins, with applications to antimicrobial resistance and metabolic pathway regulation.

Key research interests include structural biology of membrane transporters, enzyme catalysis mechanisms in sialic acid metabolism, and protein dynamics. She has secured significant grants including an ARC DECRA (2025), EMCR Seed Funding (2024), and a Royal Society Te Apārangi Marsden Fund Associate Investigator role (2022–present).

Rachel supervises PhD student Bronte Carroll on projects involving cancer cell probe entry mechanisms. Her work combines structural biology, biochemistry, and computational methods to understand bacterial survival strategies and identify novel antibiotic targets. Notable achievements include over 20 peer-reviewed publications since 2013, with recent emphasis on TRAP transporter function and MFS structural diversity.