Dr. Jean Giacomotto
Group Leader – Senior Lecturer
NHMRC Emerging Leader Fellow
Institute for Biomedicine and Glycomics (IBG), Griffith University.
Formal Griffith Research Institute for Drug Discovery (GRIDD), Griffith University.
Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland (Honorary)
Biography
Dr Jean Giacomotto is an NHMRC Emerging Leader Fellow and Group Leader at Griffith University, leading a highly translational research program at the intersection of human genetics, disease modelling, advanced imaging and automation, drug discovery, and precision medicine. With an early career foundation in the pharmaceutical industry at Sanofi-Aventis (Paris), he brings a uniquely translational mindset focused on accelerating the journey from biological discovery to real-world clinical impact.
His research spans fundamental biology through to therapeutic development, with a strong emphasis on transforming discoveries made in single cells and animal models into meaningful applications for patients. Working closely with clinicians and clinical genetics networks, his team develops innovative platforms to better understand human genetics and diseases, improve diagnosis, resolve challenging genetic variants, guide treatment decisions, and accelerate personalised medicine; particularly for rare and neurological diseases where functional evidence is urgently needed.
Dr Giacomotto’s work has led to the development of novel disease models, the identification of therapeutic candidates, and translational discoveries that are helping bridge the gap between genomic data and actionable clinical care. His group leverages a diverse toolkit spanning cell-based systems, mammalian models, and increasingly the zebrafish, an exceptionally powerful vertebrate platform for rapid in vivo functional genomics, disease modelling, and drug screening.
He is a strong advocate for zebrafish as a transformative complementary model for biomedical research, enabling rapid, scalable, and clinically relevant interrogation of human disease mechanisms and therapeutic opportunities that are difficult to achieve in traditional systems.
Driven by a vision to redefine how discoveries move from bench to bedside, Dr Giacomotto’s ultimate mission is to develop the next generation of diagnostics and therapeutics that improve patient outcomes worldwide.
One of Dr Giacomotto’s recent front-cover publications in EMBO Molecular Medicine exemplifies the translational impact of his research program, showing how innovative disease modelling and functional genomics can directly assist clinicians in resolving challenging genetic diagnoses, informing treatment decisions, and reducing unnecessary healthcare expenditure, saving millions of dollars. The work attracted national media attention, including coverage by ABC News.