Our people

Professor Bruce E. Kemp
BAgSc(Hons) PhD

Pehr Edman Fellow, St Vincent's Institute

Professorial Fellow, ACU

Professor Bruce Kemp graduated with a B. AgSc (Hons), University of Adelaide and a PhD in Biochemistry, Flinders University. He undertook postdoctoral studies at University of California Davis in (Nobel Laureate) Edwin G Krebs’s laboratory. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Howard Florey Institute from 1979 to 1984, a NHMRC Fellow in the Department of Medicine, Repatriation General Hospital from 1985 to 1988, and Deputy Director of the St Vincent’s Institute from 1989 to 1993.

Bruce’s primary research focus is in protein chemistry and metabolism. His recent research has been concerned with the structure and function of the metabolic regulatory enzyme AMPK and its signaling pathways. His laboratory at the St Vincent’s Institute employs a wide range of techniques from protein crystallography and biochemistry through to genetically modified mouse models to understand the role of protein kinases in controlling exercise capacity and metabolism.

Bruce is an NHMRC Fellow and Pehr Edman Fellow at the St Vincent’s Institute and Professorial Associate (honorary) in the University of Melbourne’s Department of Medicine at St Vincent’s Hospital. He and his colleagues have published over 300 papers including Science (9), Nature (5), Nature Medicine (2), Nature Structural Biology (1), Nature Communications (1) and Cell Metabolism (4).

Accolades and awards include:

• Selwyn Smith Prize for Medical Research, 1988
• Pharmacia-L.K.B. Medal and Travelling Fellowship Award, 1990
• The Wellcome Australia Medal for Medical Research and Technology Development, 1990
• The Wellcome Rapid Diagnostics Award, 1991
• Lemberg Medal, Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 1996
• Max Planck Award, 2000
• Fellow of Australian Academy Science, 2000
• Fellow of Royal Society (London), 2002
• Federation Fellow, 2003
• Centenary Medal (Australia), 2003
• Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2006
• The Leach Lecture Medal; Protein Structure and Function Conference, 2016

Scholarships and Fellowships:

• Commonwealth Postgraduate Scholarship, 1971-1974
• CSIRO Postdoctoral Studentship, 1974-1975
• National Heart Foundation Fellow, 1976-1977
• Queen Elizabeth II Fellowship, 1978-1979
• National Health Medical Research Fellowship, 1985-2003
• Federation Fellow CSIRO MHT (2004-2008)
• National Health Medical Research Fellowship 2009-