Dr Charles Bell

Dr Charles Bell is a Senior Research Officer and Mater Career Track fellow who has a special interest in transcription factors, which are master controllers of cell behaviour.

Dr Bell completed his undergraduate degree at The University of Queensland, majoring in genetics and evolutionary biology. He began his research career at Mater Research, undertaking his honours degree in the laboratory of Professor Andrew Perkins, where he was awarded The University of Queensland University Medal. Dr Bell then moved to Melbourne to complete his PhD with world-renowned researcher Professor Mark Dawson. 

Over his seven years in the Dawson lab, Dr Bell drove two major projects. The first, his PhD project, was published in Nature Communications in 2019, and the second, which was completed at Mater Research, was published in the highly prestigious journal, Nature Genetics.   

In 2023, Dr Bell returned to Mater Research to join the Genome Plasticity and Disease Research Group led by Professor Geoff Faulkner. 

Dr Bell has authored 21 papers and received more than 2,600 citations, with a h-index of 15.  

In 2024, he was awarded a prestigious Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) grant of $480,000 to fund his work that is improving the understanding of the factors that control the activity of genes. He was alsob the recipient of two Mater Research internal awards and grants in 2024, the Mater Research Early Career Research (ECR) and the Early Career Researcher Seeding Grant (Biomedical) valued at $30,000.

Dr Bell hopes to establish his own research group in the coming years, continuing his research uncovering how transcription factors control development and disease, and how we can manipulate their activity to provide new approaches to treat cancer, ageing, and developmental disorders.