Dr Ira Deveson
Research Level
Biography
Dr Ira Deveson graduated with a Bachelor of Philosophy from the Australian National University in 2012. He completed a PhD at the Garvan Institute from 2014-2017, supervised by Prof John Mattick and Dr Tim Mercer. Dr Deveson's PhD was focused on genome/transcriptome research and bioinfomatics, and earned him recognition with the JD Catcheside prize from the Genomics Society of Australasia.
Dr Deveson was awarded an Early Career Fellowship from the Cancer Institute NSW (2018) and a prestigious Investigator Grant (EL2) from the NHMRC and Medical Research Futures Fund (2020). After a post-doc stint under Dr Tim Mercer, he was appointed as Head of the Genomic Technologies Group within the Kinghorn Centre for Clinical Genomics in 2020. Under Dr Deveson's leadership, the Genome Technologies Group is testing and developing cutting-edge molecular and computational tools for research and clinical genomics.
Dr Deveson and his team are currently tracing the evolution of coronavirus. They have begun sequencing the coronavirus genome in infected patients to detect genetic variation. This research has the potential to discover how the coronavirus evolves and crucially, to guide better treatments for the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more about this innovative project.
Dr Ira Deveson graduated with a Bachelor of Philosophy from the Australian National University in 2012. He completed a PhD at the Garvan Institute from 2014-2017, supervised by Prof John Mattick and Dr Tim Mercer. Dr Deveson's PhD was focused on genome/transcriptome research and bioinfomatics, and earned him recognition with the JD Catcheside prize from the Genomics Society of Australasia.
Dr Deveson was awarded an Early Career Fellowship from the Cancer Institute NSW (2018) and a prestigious Investigator Grant (EL2) from the NHMRC and Medical Research Futures Fund (2020). After a post-doc stint under Dr Tim Mercer, he was appointed as Head of the Genomic Technologies Group within the Kinghorn Centre for Clinical Genomics in 2020. Under Dr Deveson's leadership, the Genome Technologies Group is testing and developing cutting-edge molecular and computational tools for research and clinical genomics.
Dr Deveson and his team are currently tracing the evolution of coronavirus. They have begun sequencing the coronavirus genome in infected patients to detect genetic variation. This research has the potential to discover how the coronavirus evolves and crucially, to guide better treatments for the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more about this innovative project.
Awards and Honours
DG Catcheside Prize, Genetics Society of Australasia: most outstanding Australasian PhD graduate in the field of genetics (2017).
Stuart Furler Travel Award, Garvan Institute: most outstanding final-year PhD student at Garvan (2016).
University Medal for Biology, Australian National University: outstanding graduate from the biological sciences (2012).
Education
Bachelor of Philosophy (science), 2012, Australian National University, Australia.
Fundings
Medical Research Futures Fund, Investigator Grant – Emerging Leadership Level 2 (2020-2025).
- Developing synthetic DNA reference standards (sequins) to ensure accuracy in emerging genomic technologies.
Cancer Institute NSW Early Career Fellowship (2018-2020).
- Representing the cancer genome with synthetic spike-in controls.
UNSW-USA Networks of Excellence Mobility Grant (2019).
- Interrogating the human transcriptome with high-throughput CRIPSR knockout screens.
Selected Publications
Deveson IW#, Kanakamedala BS, Blackburn J, Barker C, Wong T, Barton KM, Smith MA, Watkins DN, Mercer TR#. Chiral DNA sequences as commutable controls for clinical genomics. Nature Communications (2019).
# Joint-corresponding author
Blackburn J, Wong T, Kanakamedala BS, Barker C, Hardwick SA, Reis ALM, Deveson IW#, Mercer TR#. Use of synthetic DNA spike-in controls (sequins) for human genome sequencing. Nature Protocols (2019).
# Joint-corresponding author
Deveson IW, Brunck ME, Blackburn J, Tseng E, Hon T, Clark TA, Clark MB, Crawford J, Dinger ME, Nielsen LK, Mattick JS, Mercer TR. Universal Alternative Splicing of Noncoding Exons. Cell Systems (2018).
Deveson IW, Holleley CE, Blackburn J, Marshall Graves JA, Mattick JS, Waters PD, Georges A. Differential intron retention in Jumonji chromatin modifier genes is implicated in reptile temperature-dependent sex determination. Science Advances (2017).
Deveson IW, Hardwick SA, Mercer TR, Mattick JS. The dimensions, dynamics and relevance of the mammalian noncoding transcriptome. Trends in Genetics (2017).
Deveson IW, Chen WY, Wong T, Hardwick SA, Andersen SB, Nielsen LK, Mattick JS, Mercer TR. Representing genetic variation with synthetic DNA standards. Nature Methods (2016).
