Staff profile

Dr Amin Esmail is currently a postdoctoral scientist at CSIRO, Brisbane. He is broadly interested in genomics research; applying next-gen sequencing (NGS) technologies and bioinformatics. He received an OCE postdoctoral fellowship from CSIRO to work in the area of Atlantic salmon genomics. He is currently using integrative genomics (transcriptomics, epigenomics, methylomics) to understand the molecular basis of onset of sexual maturation in Atlantic Salmon with a view to developing novel approaches to assist management of the unwanted early maturation within the Atlantic salmon industry.

Amin completed his PhD in November 2016 at the coral genomics group (David Miller's lab) at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies of James Cook University. During his PhD studies, he was interested in understanding the molecular cross-talk between corals and micro-algae at the transcriptional level. He used next-gen sequencing (Illumina RNA-Seq) for the first time to understand early interactions between coral larvae and competent Symbiodinium, towards a better understanding of mechanisms underpinning Symbiodinium infection. He also explored the poorly understood association between Australian corals and a newly discovered alga called Chromera using RNA-Seq. These results have been published in Top Tier journals in Microbial Ecology and Microbiology such as: Nature's ISME journal and Molecular Ecology.

Amin received many awards including the “2016 Virginia Chadwick Award” from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Australia and awards for excellence in scientific research and publishing from Benha University in Egypt in 2017/2018. Amin has authored 10 publications as a first-author including journal articles, conference papers and a book chapter in the areas of Marine Molecular Ecology, coral-algal symbioses and coral/fish genomics. He has been a reviewer for a number of peer-reviewed conferences and journals such as BMC genomics and Frontiers in Microbiology.

Before coming to Australia, Amin did BSc in Zoology in 2006 and MSc in Marine Biology in 2011 at Benha University in Egypt where he worked as assistant lecturer and studied coral diseases/bleaching in the Egyptian Red Sea.