Caleb Lushington

Research Interests

Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Genetically Modified Animals Genetics Medical Genetics

Mr Caleb Lushington

School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Science

College of Health

Caleb is a Doctor of Philosophy candidate at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) in the Genome Editing Lab, under the Precision Medicine theme. His focus entails the improvement of genome editing systems and strategies for the treatment of Cystic Fibrosis (CF) and Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), under the supervision of Prof. Paul Thomas and Dr. Fatwa Adikusuma.

Caleb is a PhD candidate in the Paul Thomas Genome Editing Laboratory under the supervision of Prof. Paul Thomas and Dr Fatwa Adikusuma. This UoA lab is based at SAHMRI in the Life Long Health theme with support from the Robinson Research Institute.

In his Honourary year (BSC), Caleb worked in an interdisciplinary environment using cutting-edge technologies in the field of genome editing. A large focus of his studies have been directed towards the improvement of the Prime Editing system that have since been applied both in vitro and in vivo. These improvements have allowed for the modelling of genetic diseases with high efficiency. 

His PhD now looks to expand upon previous expertise to further improve editing systems and apply them in a genetic disease setting. This includes the in vitro and in vivo modelling of genetic diseases (CF and DMD) with a more simplified and precise editing system, useful for pathological research. Following this, he intends to underpin the clinical relevance of modified editing systems by applying them in the correction of disease models to healthy disease free subjects.

Date Position Institution name
2021 - ongoing PhD Candidate University of Adelaide
2015 - ongoing Bartender Golding Wines

Language Competency
English Can read, write, speak, understand spoken and peer review

Date Institution name Country Title
2016 - 2020 University of Adelaide Australia Bachelor of Science (Honours)
2016 - 2019 University of Adelaide Australia Bachelor of Science

Year Citation
2025 Arthurs, A. L., Dietrich, B., Knöfler, M., Lushington, C. J., Thomas, P. Q., Adikusuma, F., . . . Roberts, C. T. (2025). Genetically edited human placental organoids cast new light on the role of ACE2. Cell Death and Disease, 16(1), 78-1-78-12.
DOI Scopus2 Europe PMC2
2025 Chey, Y. C. J., Gierus, L., Lushington, C., Arudkumar, J. C., B. Geiger, A., Staker, L. G., . . . Thomas, P. Q. (2025). Optimal SpCas9- and SaCas9-mediated gene editing by enhancing gRNA transcript levels through scaffold poly-T tract reduction. BMC Genomics, 26(1), 138-1-138-12.
DOI Scopus6 WoS5 Europe PMC5
2021 Adikusuma, F., Lushington, C., Arudkumar, J., Godahewa, G. I., Chey, Y. C. J., Gierus, L., . . . Thomas, P. Q. (2021). Optimized nickase- and nuclease-based prime editing in human and mouse cells. Nucleic Acids Research, 49(18), 10785-10795.
DOI Scopus66 WoS62 Europe PMC58

Year Citation
2024 Arthurs, A., Dietrich, B., Knöfler, M., Lushington, C., Thomas, P., Adikusuma, F., . . . Roberts, C. (2024). Genetically edited human placental organoids cast new light on the role of ACE2 in placental development.
DOI
2024 Chey, Y., Gierus, L., Lushington, C., Arudkumar, J., Geiger, A., Staker, L., . . . Adikusuma, F. (2024). Enhancing gRNA Transcript levels by Reducing the Scaffold Poly-T Tract for Optimal SpCas9- and SaCas9-mediated Gene Editing.
DOI
2021 Adikusuma, F., Lushington, C., Arudkumar, J., Godahewa, G., Chey, Y. C. J., Gierus, L., . . . Thomas, P. (2021). Optimized nickase- and nuclease-based prime editing in human and mouse cells.
DOI

In 2024, Caleb was awarded the Robinson Research Institute International Travel Grant and the University of Adelaide Medical School and School of Biomedicine Travel and Research Support Award to assist with his attendance and presentation at the CSHL CRISPR Frontiers Conference in New York.

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