Matthew Watt

Associate Dean of Research in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne

Matthew Watt obtained his PhD from the Deakin University in 2002, completed postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Guelph (Canada), RMIT University and St. Vincent’s Institute, then established a research team in the Department of Physiology at Monash University where he was supported by continuous National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) fellowships for over a decade. Matt moved to the University of Melbourne in 2018 where he was appointed Professor and Head of the Department of Anatomy and Physiology until 2024. Matt is currently Associate Dean of Research in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences.

Matt’s research vision is to deconvolute complex metabolic and endocrine regulation to facilitate the development of new therapies for obesity-related diseases, including type 2 diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and cancer. He has established the open-access Melbourne Murine Metabolic Phenotyping Platform to advance Victoria’s capacity for in vivo metabolic testing. At the end of this pipeline, he works closely with clinical and industry partners, such as CSL and Gilead Sciences, to advance the discoveries made in pre-clinical models towards solutions for patients.

Matt has enduring links with the Australian Physiological Society and is an Associate Editor for the American Journal of Physiology Endocrinology and Metabolism.