Tony Vuocolo

Tony Vuocolo is a Senior Scientist with CSIRO. He has extensive research experience and key skills in molecular biology, protein chemistry, genomics, epigenomics and has been part of core research capabilities in CSIRO for the past 30 years. He has driven research at the bench and also managed a number of research projects during his career with CSIRO. He was a key molecular biologist in the Ectoparasite Vaccine Program researching candidate genes and engineering recombinant vaccines for testing against key livestock pests including Sheep blowfly, Old World Screwworm fly, Buffalo fly and Cattle ticks. Tony was an integral part of the Livestock Genomic’s Program over 10 years identifying and researching genes involved in mastitis response in dairy cattle, marbling and muscling in cattle and sheep. In recent years Tony was a key member of a team who developed “PhotoSeal”, a novel photochemically activated tissue sealant developed for potential human and veterinary surgical applications. He was a seminal recipient of a CSIRO medal for this work and awarded the Research Team Achievement Award for this technology in 2012. Following this work, he co-led a project investigating epigenetic factors underpinning and associated with obesity and metabolic health. Key findings of this research have been the novel identification of transcriptional and epigenetic factors underpinning brown and white adipose tissue development and effects of periconception overnutrition on the fetus. Over the past 4 years, Tony has returned his research focus to animal health, resilience and welfare and leads a Team at CSIRO in this area. Tony is Project Leader for a Livestock Health project researching the development of a vaccine to control and prevent flystrike on sheep. The research is co-funded by Australian Wool Innovation. Tony also leads a project aiming to identify and develop DNA methylation markers that can be used to quantitatively report the degree and history of an animal's pain and stress. Recently, Tony has undertaken a developmental role and championed the theory of change approach to align other CSIRO researchers with an outcome and impact focus to their research.