Amanda Choo

Research Interests

Developmental Genetics Genetics

Dr Amanda Choo

School of Biological Sciences

College of Science

Dr Amanda Choo is a Visiting Fellow in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Adelaide. Her previous postdoctoral research focussed on developing genetic strains for the use of agricultural and biosecurity pest control. She was the first in her research field to establish the CRISPR/Cas genome editing technology in tephritid fruit flies, with her work being amongst the top cited articles in the Journal of Applied Entomology in 2018-2019 (Choo et al., 2018). Dr Choo has been awarded the Dean’s Commendation for Doctoral Thesis Excellence (2015), University of Adelaide School of Biological Sciences Postgraduate all round Achievement Award (2015), Insect Genetic Technologies Research Coordination Network (IGTRCN) Peer-to-Peer Training Fellowship (2016), SARDI Publication of the Year Award (2020), Australian Federation of University Women Postdoctoral Grant Award (2021), Edith Dornwell Medal for Early Career Research Excellence (2021) and an ARC Discovery Early Career Research Award DE23. Dr Choo was a member of the national SITPlus Technical Advisory Committee and have strong collaborations with various tephritid fruit fly research groups, both nationally and internationally.Dr Choo has since moved into the rare disease sector. Whilst Dr Choo is still collaborating and consulting on insect genetics research in her own time, she does not currently have any active research projects available for students.

Date Position Institution name
2024 - ongoing Visiting Fellow University of Adelaide
2020 - ongoing Grant-funded Researcher University of Adelaide
2015 - 2019 Research Associate University of Adelaide
2010 - 2010 Research Assistant University of Adelaide
2009 - 2009 Research Assistant (Lysosomal Diseases Research Unit) SA Pathology

Date Institution name Country Title
2011 - 2015 University of Adelaide Australia PhD
2008 - 2008 University of Adelaide Australia B.Sc. (Hons) (Genetics)
2005 - 2007 University of Adelaide Australia B.Sc. (Mol. Biol.)

Year Citation
2025 Paulo, D. F., Nguyen, T. N. M., Ward, C. M., Corpuz, R. L., Kauwe, A. N., Rendon, P., . . . Geib, S. M. (2025). Functional genomics implicates ebony in the black pupae phenotype of tephritid fruit flies. Communications Biology, 8(1), 60-1-60-14.
DOI Scopus10 WoS10 Europe PMC8
2025 Okada, A., Okamoto, M., Nguyen, T. N. M., Fung, E., Nguyen, H., Crisp, P., . . . Baxter, S. W. (2025). The shibirets4 mutation causes temperature sensitive paralytic and lethal phenotypes in the Queensland fruit fly, Bactrocera tryoni.. Insect Sci, 14 pages.
DOI Scopus1 WoS1
2024 Hewson, L., Choo, A., Webber, D. L., Trim, P. J., Snel, M. F., Fedele, A. O., . . . O'Keefe, L. V. (2024). Drosophila melanogaster models of MPS IIIC (Hgsnat-deficiency) highlight the role of glia in disease presentation.. J Inherit Metab Dis, 47(2), 340-354.
DOI Scopus2 WoS2 Europe PMC2
2024 Nguyen, T. N. M., Choo, A., & Baxter, S. W. (2024). Conservation of shibire and RpII215 temperature-sensitive lethal mutations between Drosophila and Bactrocera tryoni. Frontiers in Insect Science, 4, 9 pages.
DOI Scopus2 WoS2
2023 Häcker, I., Bartsch, D., Choo, A., & Marec, F. (2023). Editorial: Genetic control of insect pest species—achievements, challenges, and perspectives. Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, 11, 1208677.
DOI Scopus1
2021 Nguyen, T. N. M., Mendez, V., Ward, C., Crisp, P., Papanicolaou, A., Choo, A., . . . Baxter, S. W. (2021). Disruption of duplicated yellow genes in Bactrocera tryoni modifies pigmentation colouration and impacts behaviour. Journal of Pest Science, 94(3), 917-932.
DOI Scopus9 WoS8
2021 Ward, C. M., Aumann, R. A., Whitehead, M. A., Nikolouli, K., Leveque, G., Gouvi, G., . . . Schetelig, M. F. (2021). White pupae phenotype of tephritids is caused by parallel mutations of a MFS transporter. Nature Communications, 12(1), 1-12.
DOI Scopus47 WoS50 Europe PMC35
2021 Nguyen, T. N. M., Choo, A., & Baxter, S. W. (2021). Lessons from Drosophila: Engineering Genetic Sexing Strains with Temperature-Sensitive Lethality for Sterile Insect Technique Applications. Insects, 12(3), 243.
DOI Scopus25 WoS24 Europe PMC17
2021 Lee, C. S., Choo, A., Dayan, S., Richards, R. I., & O'Keefe, L. V. (2021). Molecular biology of the WWOX gene that spans chromosomal fragile site FRA16D. Cells, 10(7), 1-13.
DOI Scopus8 WoS8 Europe PMC6
2020 Choo, A., Fung, E., Chen, I. Y., Saint, R., Crisp, P., & Baxter, S. W. (2020). Precise single base substitution in the shibire gene by CRISPR/Cas9-mediated homology directed repair in Bactrocera tryoni. BMC Genetics, 21(Suppl. 2), 127-1-127-10.
DOI Scopus19 WoS21 Europe PMC13
2019 Choo, A., Nguyen, T. N. M., Ward, C. M., Chen, I. Y., Sved, J., Shearman, D., . . . Baxter, S. W. (2019). Identification of Y-chromosome scaffolds of the Queensland fruit fly reveals a duplicated gyf gene paralogue common to many bactrocera pest species. Insect Molecular Biology, 28(6), 873-886.
DOI Scopus11 WoS11 Europe PMC10
2018 Webber, D. L., Choo, A., Hewson, L. J., Trim, P. J., Snel, M. F., Hopwood, J. J., . . . O'Keefe, L. V. (2018). Neuronal-specific impairment of heparan sulfate degradation in Drosophila reveals pathogenic mechanisms for Mucopolysaccharidosis type IIIA. Experimental Neurology, 303, 38-47.
DOI Scopus18 WoS18 Europe PMC17
2017 Stevens, T., Song, S., Bruning, J., Choo, A., & Baxter, S. (2017). Expressing a moth abcc2 gene in transgenic Drosophila causes susceptibility to Bt Cry1Ac without requiring a cadherin-like protein receptor. Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 80, 61-70.
DOI Scopus48 WoS45 Europe PMC37
2017 Choo, A., Crisp, P., Saint, R., O'Keefe, L., & Baxter, S. (2017). CRISPR/Cas9-mediated mutagenesis of the white gene in the tephritid pest Bactrocera tryoni. Journal of Applied Entomology, 142(1-2), 52-58.
DOI Scopus49 WoS47 Europe PMC22
2015 Richards, R. I., Choo, A., Lee, C. S., Dayan, S., & O Keefe, L. (2015). WWOX, the chromosomal fragile site FRA16D spanning gene: its role in metabolism and contribution to cancer. Experimental Biology and Medicine, 240(3), 338-344.
DOI Scopus27 WoS26 Europe PMC24
2015 O'Keefe, L., Lee, C., Choo, A., & Richards, R. (2015). Tumor suppressor WWOX contributes to the elimination of tumorigenic cells in drosophila melanogaster. PLoS One, 10(8), e0136356-1-e0136356-19.
DOI Scopus15 WoS15 Europe PMC15
2015 Choo, A., O'Keefe, L., Lee, C., Gregory, S., Shaukat, Z., Colella, A., . . . Richards, R. (2015). Tumor suppressor WWOX moderates the mitochondrial respiratory complex. Genes Chromosomes and Cancer, 54(12), 745-761.
DOI Scopus21 WoS18 Europe PMC21
2014 Shaukat, Z., Liu, D., Choo, A., Hussain, R., O'Keefe, L., Richards, R., . . . Gregory, S. (2014). Chromosomal instability causes sensitivity to metabolic stress. Oncogene, 34(31), 4044-4055.
DOI Scopus37 WoS36 Europe PMC37
2013 Dayan, S., O'Keefe, L., Choo, A., & Richards, R. (2013). Common chromosomal fragile site FRA16D tumor suppressor WWOX gene expression and metabolic reprograming in cells. Genes Chromosomes & Cancer, 52(9), 823-831.
DOI Scopus22 WoS22 Europe PMC23
2011 O'Keefe, L., Colella, A., De Barros Lopes, S., Chen, Q., Choo, A., Jacob, R., . . . Richards, R. (2011). Drosophila orthologue of WWOX, the chromosomal fragile site FRA16D tumour suppressor gene, functions in aerobic metabolism and regulates reactive oxygen species. Human Molecular Genetics, 20(3), 497-509.
DOI Scopus46 WoS46 Europe PMC49

Year Citation
2022 Choo, A., Fung, E., Nguyen, T. N. M., Okada, A., & Crisp, P. (2022). CRISPR/Cas9 Mutagenesis to Generate Novel Traits in Bactrocera tryoni for Sterile Insect Technique. In P. J. Verma, H. Sumer, & J. Liu (Eds.), Applications of Genome Modulation and Editing (Vol. 2495, pp. 151-171). Springer US.
DOI Scopus6 Europe PMC2

Horticultural Innovation Australia FF18002: Breeding a male-only strain of Queensland fruit fly (Partner Investigator, 2019-2022, $1,711,500) 

 Hermon Slade Foundation: Developing novel, cost efficient methods for controlling the invasive horticultural pest, Bactrocera tryoni (Queensland Fruit Fly) (Co-investigator, 2018-2020, $53, 272) 

 

Named project personnel on the following grants:

 Horticultural Innovation Australia FF17000: Sex selection genes from fruit fly species for use in SITplus (Project Personnel, 2018-2022, $4, 699,143)

 

Date Role Research Topic Location Program Supervision Type Student Load Student Name
2020 - ongoing Co-Supervisor Developing Bactrocera tryoni sexing strains using Sterile Insect Technique for pest control Macquarie University PhD Doctorate Full Time Ngoc Mai Han Nguyen
2018 - ongoing Co-Supervisor Manipulating key developmental and regulatory pathways in the Queensland fruit fly to develop improved strategies for pest control University of Adelaide, University of Melbourne PhD Doctorate Full Time Zoey Nguyen
2017 - 2017 Co-Supervisor Development of embryonic lethal temperature sensitive mutations for controlling the fruit fly Bactrocera tryoni using the Sterile Insect Technique University of Adelaide Master of Biotechnology (Biomedical Science) Master Full Time Zoey Nguyen

Date Role Membership Country
2015 - ongoing Advisory Board Member SITPlus Technical Advisory Committee Australia
2012 - 2013 Member Open Day Committee, School of Molecular and Biomedical Science, University of Adelaide Australia
2012 - 2012 Representative School Research Symposium Committee, School of Molecular and Biomedical Science, University of Adelaide Australia

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