Tristan Guillemin (left) is following in father Gilles’ accomplished footsteps. 

They say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, and at Macquarie you’ll find some wonderful examples of researchers who have passed on an insatiable pursuit of knowledge and discovery to their own children, creating multi-generational academic families.

With celebrated neuroscientist Professor Gilles Guillemin for a parent, it’s not surprising that Tristan Guillemin developed a keen interest in science very early on. But it wasn’t in his father’s lab  that Tristan got his career inspiration.

“From the age of five I’ve been going out diving and snorkelling and fishing with dad and my brother Lucas,” says Tristan. “It’s a big part of why I wanted to become a marine biologist.”

While Gilles continues to be at the forefront of his field – recently being awarded a National Order of Merit in home country France for his 30-plus year contribution to neurodegenerative disease research – Tristan has been kicking goals of his own in the completion of his Master of Research in the Department of Biological Sciences, where he has been studying parasites living on different species of marlin.

Having won awards at each of his first two scientific conferences – including best graphical abstract at the Australian Society for Fish Biology Conference in October ­– Tristan will embark on the first year of his PhD at Macquarie next year, with a determination to bring a greater knowledge to those invested in the health of our oceans.

“I’m a big believer in the fact that your science is only as good as the number of people that it reaches,” Tristan says. “Fishermen are some of the most invested people when it comes to marine health, but not enough of our scientific research is communicated to them. I want to change that.”

Tristan’s drive for growing scientific knowledge is something he shares with his father, who is a lead researcher at the Macquarie University Centre for Motor Neuron Disease Research.

Gilles’ team broke new international ground following the discovery of the first blood biomarker – a chemical identifier in the blood – for multiple sclerosis (MS), which saw them recognised as Eureka Prize finalists in 2017.  A prognostic kit is currently in the final stage of development by a French biotech company, whereby clinicians will be able to determine the type of MS a patient has within 24 hours and adapt their treatment accordingly.

One of Gilles’ current research projects is closer to Tristan’s own line of work, with an international research collaboration looking into the biotoxins found in cyanobacteria (commonly known as blue-green algae) as a potential trigger for MND.

Gilles and his team, together with the University’s Neurodegenerative Diseases Biobank, are assessing samples from people living in MND hotspots such as the Riverina in regional NSW, which are prone to frequent algal blooms as well as agricultural pollutants such as pesticides and metals.

So, will father and son scientists ever officially collaborate on a research project?

Not likely, says Tristan. While he deeply admires his dad’s work and is open to the idea of collaboration, he prefers researching fish rather than humans.

“Human science, and dealing with people’s pain, is a lot more stressful for me,” Tristan says. “It pulls too much on my heart strings.”