ASBMB

The Boomerang Award

The Boomerang Award is offered to an outstanding expatriate Australian biochemist or molecular biologist to provide an opportunity to return to Australia to present their work in a Symposium at the annual ASBMB conference and to give seminars at universities or research institutes in at least one other Australian city. The Award is intended to provide the awardee with exposure in Australia and to facilitate interactions with local researchers. The Award will include free registration at the annual ASBMB conference, and make significant contributions to travel and accommodation expenses. Applicants must have been a member of a recognised Australian scientific society for at least 2 years, or must have taken out a 3 year membership in the year of the application, and awarded their PhD not more than 10 years prior to the closing date (or equivalent taking any career disruption into account). The contribution to travel expenses is provided by ASBMB.

To view a list of previous awardees please click here.

Application Information
- Applicants must have been a member of a recognised Australian scientific society (not necessarily ASBMB) for at least 2 years in any continuous period or should have taken out a 3 year ASBMB membership in the year of the application
- All applications should include at least 2 supporters who should have been members of the ASBMB for a minimum of 2 years
- Applicants should prepare an application document to include all information detailed on the The Boomerang Award Application Template. This document should be saved as a single PDF file ready to be uploaded as part of the online application form.
- Applicants should have a letter of reference for each of your 2 supporters saved ready to be uploaded as part of the online application form.
- Nominations have now closed.

When you are ready to begin your application, please click the button below.

2025 Award Recipient

Alexander Knights
Washington University

Alexander Knights grew up in Sydney and completed his undergraduate studies and graduate training at UNSW Sydney. Alex had his first taste of laboratory research as an undergrad, when he received a Summer Vacation Research Scholarship to study gene regulation with Professor Merlin Crossley. Alex then undertook his Honours year in Professor Crossley’s lab, focusing on the transcription factor KLF3 and its role in metabolic and immune regulation. Alex graduated with a BA (Hispanic Studies), a BSc Adv (Biochemistry) with First Class Honours and was awarded the University Medal, given to the highest performer in a degree program.

Alex received an Australian Postgraduate Award and Research Excellence Award, allowing him to pursue his doctoral studies under the mentorship of Professor Crossley and Professor Kate Quinlan. During his PhD, Alex uncovered roles for KLF3 as a regulator of galectin-3 (Journal of Biological Chemistry 2016) and as a transcriptional guardrail against NF-κB-mediated systemic inflammation (Journal of Biological Chemistry 2020). Alex also sought out new research directions during his PhD, with a focus on adipose immunology. This led him to discover novel functions of fat-resident eosinophils (Nature Communications 2020), and he performed the first transcriptomic characterisation of these cells (Journal of Leukocyte Biology 2023).

Alex then moved abroad for his postdoctoral studies to the University of Michigan. Here, he was awarded a Michigan Life Sciences Fellowship to study immunometabolic crosstalk in adipose tissue and liver under the supervision of Dr Jun Wu. During the year he spent with Dr Wu, Alex discovered a subpopulation of fat-resident macrophages that secrete acetylcholine to regulate adipose function and thermogenesis (EMBO Journal 2021).

One year into his postdoctoral studies, Alex was the recipient of a Pioneer Fellowship that prompted him towards new interdisciplinary pursuits. He joined Michigan’s Department of Orthopaedic Surgery to team up with veterinarian scientist Dr Kurt Hankenson, and biomedical engineer Dr Tristan Maerz, to understand pathological Wnt signaling in osteoarthritis. Since then, Alex’s work has shed light on the diversity and functions of synovial fibroblasts in osteoarthritis disease progression (Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases 2023), plus he has characterised the recruited and resident macrophages of synovial tissue (eLife 2023). In 2023, he received a prestigious K99/R00 NIH Pathway to Independence Award to complete his postdoctoral studies and fund the start of his independent career. In March 2025, Alex launched his own laboratory studying crosstalk in joint health and disease at Washington University in St Louis.