Professor Erik Helmerhorst

Professor Helmerhorst has over 20 years experience in the field of insulin action and diabetes research. A Ph.D. graduate of the University of Western Australia, he is the recipient of a number of prestigious awards. These include a two year appointment as a Hugh Sellers Research Fellow at the world renowned Banting & Best Diabetes Centre in Toronto, Canada and an appointment as a Burselum and Healy Medical Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Western Australia.

Professor Helmerhorst has made significant contributions to the development of teaching and research programs in fundamental and clinical biochemistry, protein chemistry and bioinformatics. He has been instrumental in helping raise the national and international profile of Curtin University of Technology as a leader in research and development, particularly as a partner with government, commerce and industry. Curtin University of Technology has acknowledged this high achievement through the presentation of an Excellence Award to Professor Helmerhorst.

He is one of the founders of the Western Australian Biomedical Research Institute (WABRI) which is a Centre of Excellence receiving significant financial support from Curtin University of Technology, Murdoch University and from the Western Australian Government.

He also has been the recipient of numerous prestigious Commonwealth competitive and industry funded research grants and has published widely in a number of prestigious scholarly journals. He is named as an inventor on a family of international patents that protect the Insulin Mimetics intellectual property. His research team is located in modern, world-class facilities at Western Australia's premier Technology Park.