Sydney speakers

July 2024

Kristopher Abdullah from UNSW will present “Nitrogen cycle complications in hydrocarbon contaminated soil “

Kris joined the Ferrari Lab in 2021 as a PhD student. His work is focused on investigating shifts in the function and composition of bacterial communities in Antarctic soils impacted by diesel spills and bioremediation clean-up efforts. Outside the lab Kris enjoys staying active and going on food adventures. Kris is completing his Industry-linked PhD via collaboration with the Australian Antarctic Division team that are actively cleaning up hydrocarbon contaminated soils.

 Hannah Brown from the University of Technology Sydney will present “Multiple functions of tubulin-like proteins in Archaea“

Hannah is a PhD candidate at the Australian Institute for Microbiology and Infection. Her journey to research started with a Bachelor of Science at University of Melbourne, during which she worked on the delayed death response of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum under A. Prof. Stuart Ralph at the Bio21 Institute. Since moving to Sydney and joining A. Prof. Iain Duggin’s lab for her honours and PhD, she’s worked on a number of projects relating to fundamental archaeal cell biology, focusing on tubulin homologues in salt-loving archaea. Outside of research, she spends most of her time reading and getting outdoors, including playing sport, on walks with her greyhound, and indulging in coffee snobbery.

Associate Professor Jai Tree from University of New South Wales will present “Exaptation of a toxin for gene regulation in pathogenic E. coli “

Jai Tree is an Associate Professor in Microbiology at the School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, UNSW. He received his PhD in Microbiology from the University of Queensland and completed his post-doctoral studies at the University of Edinburgh, UK in virulence gene regulation in enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC). During this time he joined the Wellcome Centre for Cell Biology (University of Edinburgh) and began using high-throughput approaches to study regulatory non-coding RNA function and protein-RNA interactions in pathogenic bacteria. After a brief sojourn at the Peter Doherty Institute (University of Melbourne), he moved to UNSW in Sydney in 2015. His lab studies regulatory RNA function in pathogenic E. coli and multidrug resistant Staphylococcus aureus with a particular focus on developing a systems-level understanding of RNA-based gene regulation.

June 2024

Dr Binod Rayamajhee from UNSW will present “The role of endosymbiotic Pseudomonas aeruginosa in the development of Acanthamoeba keratitis in an animal model”

Binod Rayamajhee is a postdoctoral research associate at UNSW under the supervision of Prof. Torsten Thomas. Originally from Nepal, he completed his MSc in Medical Microbiology and his PhD at UNSW in 2024. His research interests include microbiomes, host-microbe interactions, microbial keratitis, molecular diagnosis of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs), and public health interventions through a One Health perspective. During his PhD, Binod worked on Acanthamoeba keratitis under the supervision of Assoc. Prof. Nicole Carnt, Prof. Mark Willcox, and Prof. Fiona Henriquez. In 2024, he joined Prof. Torsten Thomas’s lab, where he is developing a fixation-free fluorescence in situ hybridization protocol to enhance FACS cell sorting in collaboration with an industry partner. Besides research, he is passionate about science communication and contemporary arts. 

Dr Pauline Coulon from the University of Technology Sydney “BiolQS and DNA methylation play an active role in clinical Burkholderia ambifaria phase variationogy “

As a postdoctoral research fellow at the Australian Institute for Microbiology and Immunology (UTS), Pauline specialized in using omics and in-vitro models to generate data for innovative strategies against antimicrobial resistance. Pauline completed her 2017 PhD within Prof Eric Deziel’s team at the Armand-Frappier Institute in Canada, studying the Hmq system in the Burkholderia cepacia complex. Later, she joined Dr. Nichollas Scott’s team at the Peter Doherty Institute in Melbourne, shifting her focus to understanding the impact of protein O-glycosylation on quorum sensing in Burkholderia cenocepacia. Pauline seized the opportunity to lead a side project on Burkholderia ambifaria phase variation with Prof Tim Stinear, a passion cultivated during her PhD, with the aim to become an independent researcher.

Dr Elliot Scanes from University of Technology Sydney “Oyster Microbiomes in a Changing Ocean”

Dr Elliot Scanes is an ARC DECRA Fellow at the University of Technology Sydney. As a marine biologist and ecologist his work is focused on understanding how marine organisms will respond to climate change. He specifically focuses on the relationship between oysters and their microbial partners in a changing climate; what are the consequences for oysters, the ecosystems they support and the people who rely on them for food and income. Since completing his PhD at the University of Sydney in 2017, Elliot has built a strong reputation as an emerging leader in his field with research published in top journals (e.g., Nat. Comms; Sci. Rep.), strong collaborations with industry, and several prizes, fellowships, honours and awards. He was awarded a prestigious Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Kiel, Germany in 2017, and Chancellor’s Research Fellowship at UTS in 2021. Elliot’s research has already contributed significantly to answering some important questions in the fields of marine ecophysiology and microbial ecology. 

May 2024

Yunke Jia from UNSW will present “Correlative light and electron microscopy to detect protein-protein interactions in microbial symbiosis of sponges“

Yunke is a final-year PhD candidate at University of New South Wales under the supervision of Professor Torsten Thomas and Associate Professor Renee Whan. Her project is to investigate the cellular functions of eukaryotic-like proteins from microbial symbionts of sponges, particularly in the visualization of symbionts and protein-to-protein interactions via innovative microscopy methodologies. Prior to this, she completed her Master’s degree in marine biology at Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, focused on the modulation role of dopaminergic system and serotonergic system in homeostasis maintenance of marine invertebrates. Alongside her study, Yunke also collaborated with International Flavors & Fragrances on the project aimed at developing a Live-FISH protocol for lactic acid bacteria to facilitate FACS cell sorting.

Mirei Okada from the University of Sydney will present “Integrating Biology and Psychology – the My Diet Study: ​Risk-Benefit Assessment of Self-Directed Dieting in Young Adults“

Mirei is a PhD candidate at the University of Sydney under the supervision of A/Prof. Andy Holmes. Originally from Brisbane, she completed a dual Bachelors in Science and Arts in Biomedical science, Psychology and Japanese, followed by an honours project in Type I Diabetes and gut microbiota at the University of Queensland. Mid-2020 she journeyed down not just interstate, but deeper into the magical microbial mass/mess of gastrointestinal research where her work involves multi-disciplinary areas of gut microbiome and eating disorders, examining the role of diets on the gut-brain axis. Outside of research she likes to cook, is an avid MasterChef Aus fan and especially loves learning new recipes of her Japanese heritage.

Daniel Mediati from UNSW will present “mRNA mingling: The network of RNA-based gene regulation in MRSA “

Daniel Mediati is a 2024 Chancellor’s Research Fellow at the Australian Institute for Microbiology and Infection, and Lecturer within the School of Life Sciences, UTS. His research interests are in the gene regulation of human pathogens and applied RNA-based therapeutics. Daniel completed both his BSc (Hons I) and PhD at UTS. His PhD research focused on UPEC intracellular bladder cell infection under the supervision of Assoc. Prof. Iain Duggin. In 2019, Daniel joined Assoc. Prof. Jai Tree’s research group at UNSW as a postdoctoral fellow where he uncovered the first RNA interactome in a Gram-positive bacterium.

March 2024

Miguel Castaneda from Macquarie University will present “Effects of antibiotic-mediated microbiome alteration in colorectal neoplasia“

When Miguel completed his Bachelor of Medical Science (Honours) in Pharmacology in 2018, little did he know that his research journey would lead him into the fields of microbiology, immunology, metabolomics and cancer research. Four years and one pandemic later, Miguel completed his PhD at the University of Sydney with Dr Erin Shanahan and Prof Mark Molloy investigating the interactions between the gut microbiome, metabolome, and the immune system in bowel cancer. Miguel has recently taken on a new role as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with Dr Hasinika Gamage and Prof Ian Paulsen at Macquarie University where he continues his research on the microbiome in cancer, exploring the biological effects of the Type 2 diabetes drug metformin on colorectal tumour development and progression.

Renske Jongen from the University of Sydney will present “The role of belowground microbes in mediating heat stress in seagrasses “

Renske is a PhD student under the supervision of Ziggy Marzinelli at The University of Sydney. She graduated with a master’s in Environmental Biology, focusing on Animal Ecology, at Utrecht University in The Netherlands. She then moved on to work as a research assistant at The Netherlands Institute of Ecology exploring the interactions between terrestrial plants and soil microbes. In 2021, Renske moved to Sydney to dive – literally – deeper into the world of plants and their below-ground microbiome. Her research aims to understand how below-ground microbes influence seagrass responses to environmental stress. In her free time, she is a keen outdoor enthusiast, enjoying ocean swimming, bushwalking, and surfing. 

7:00 pm Chris Harmer from the University of Sydney will present “IS26: Gene mover and shaker “

Dr Chris Harmer graduated from Macquarie University with a B.Med.Sc in Biomedical Sciences before studying the persistence and pathogenicity of chronic Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections in Cystic Fibrosis patients during a PhD completed in 2012 at the University of Sydney in the laboratory of A/Prof Jim Manos. For the last decade he has worked with Prof. Ruth Hall on the small mobile genetic element IS26. This work has established that IS26, the major player in the movement of antibiotic resistance genes in Gram negative bacteria, uses a novel targeted conservative mechanism that differs from any other IS studied to date. This mechanism leads to the formation of complex mosaic arrays containing multiple antibiotic resistance genes which, if mobilised, can confer a multiresistance phenotype in a single movement step. His work has shown that other IS26 family members in Gram positive bacteria also use the same novel mechanism, highlighting its broad importance.

February 2024

Emma Harding, University of New South Wales “Reconstructing viral evolution in Australian marsupials“

Emma has always been interested in science, with movies like Jurassic Park steering her towards a fascination with evolution and molecular biology. After competing a Bachelor of Advanced Science at UNSW she continued to a PhD in Professor Peter White’s lab. Her PhD focussed on discovering new viruses in wildlife to fill in gaps in our understanding of virus evolution. Emma has submitted her thesis and is currently awaiting examiner comments before continuing her journey into academia.

Mel Bartczak, University of Newcastle “Genomic Analysis of Multi-resistant Organisms in a tertiary hospital“

Laurence Luu , University of Technology Sydney “Pelvic Inflammatory Disease: Understanding the role of the microbiome and improving diagnosis “

Dr Laurence Luu is a Chancellor’s Research Fellow and Lecturer at UTS. In 2018, he completed a PhD in Medical Microbiology and Immunology under the supervision of Prof Ruiting Lan and Dr Sophie Octavia. His PhD focused on the re-emergence of whooping cough in Australia. In 2020, he joined A/Prof Nadeem Kaakoush and A/Prof Natalia Castano-Rodriguez’s group as a postdoc examining how interactions between host factors and the gut microbiome influence gastrointestinal diseases. Since joining UTS, he is focused on understanding chlamydia-host pathogen interactions and the role of the genital microbiome in gynaecological diseases.  

October 2023

Nick Yang, University of Sydney
“Characterisation of a novel monooxygenase in the soil bacterium Solimonas soli “

Nick is a PhD student at the University of Sydney under the supervision of Dr. Nick Coleman and Associate Professor Michael Kertesz. His interests lie in synthetic biology and environmental microbiology, especially in how one can utilise SynBio techniques to manipulate microbes and their enzymes. Nick’s current project is focused on the characterisation of a soluble di-iron monooxygenase (SDIMO) harboured by the soil organism Solimonas soli, and assessing the potential applications of this SDIMO. Before this, Nick completed a Bachelor of Science (Advanced) (Honours) also at the University of Sydney investigating the heterologous expression of the ethylene monooxygenase, another SDIMO, harboured by Mycobacterium chubuense NBB4. Aside from his project, Nick also demonstrates for undergraduate microbiology labs. Outside of the lab, Nick enjoys being in the kitchen baking and cooking, playing board games, or on the sofa watching a good Netflix drama (or a trashy soap).

Max Cummins, University of Technology Sydney
“Plasmid reconstruction using short-read whole genome sequences from 5,631 Australian E. coli “

Dr Max Cummins is a researcher at the Australian Institute of Microbiology and Infection (AIMI) at the University of Technology, Sydney, whose research interests include microbial genomics, antimicrobial resistance, pathogen evolution, bioinformatics and data visualisation. His current role centres around the research activities of the University of Melbourne’s Australian Pathogen Genomics (APG) program; a program funded by the Medical Research Future Fund which aims to integrate microbial genomics into public health. Specifically, Max co-leads the APG’s One Health theme, utilising bacterial DNA sequence data and bioinformatic tools to generate meaningful and informative insights into bacterial populations found across humans, animals, food and the environment.

Parisa Noorian, University of Technology Sydney
“Catheter associated UTIs (CAUTIs): Prediction, Prognosis and Prevention“

Parisa is a research-intensive Post-Doctoral Associate at the Australian Institute for Microbiology & Infection (AIMI), specialising in the field of microbiology. She was awarded her PhD for research on the molecular mechanisms of evolution of pathogenicity in marine bacteria from the University of New South Wales. She has since joined the Australian Institute for Microbiology & Infection (AIMI) at the University of Technology Sydney. Parisa’s research focuses on the development of diagnostic tools and preventive measures for catheter associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs). Her work encompasses both management of a multi-site longitudinal observation study on CAUTIs in people with spinal cord injury (SCI) as well as building a catheter biofilm model to test novel prevention and treatment measures. 

August 2023

Brodie Gillieatt, University of Sydney
“Unravelling the mechanisms of antibiotic and heavy metal resistance co-selection in environmental bacteria“

Brodie is a PhD candidate under the supervision of Associate Professor Nick Coleman and Associate Professor Michael Kertesz at the University of Sydney. Brodie’s research interests lie in the intersection of environmental and medical microbiology and its synthetic biotechnology applications. His current project is investigating how heavy metal pollution and plasmids bearing metal resistant genes are impacting the distribution of antibiotic resistance in the environment. Prior to this, Brodie completed his Bachelor of Science (Advanced) with an Honours project investigating potential PFAS degrading laccase enzymes at the University of Sydney. Brodie also has experience running practical classes for undergraduate microbiology courses and working in the food, agricultural and environmental testing industry. Brodie enjoys the outdoors, live music, and the by-products of Saccharomyces cerevisiae fermentation.

Greta Gaiani, University of Technology Sydney
“Cyanobacterial Blooms: Potential Source of Beneficial or Just Harmful Bioactive Compounds? “

Greta Gaiani is a Marine Biologist with a profound passion for the marine environment cultivated since her early years on the Mediterranean coast. She obtained her Honours Degree in Environmental Marine Biology from the University of Trieste (Italy) in 2017, specializing in ciguatera poisoning. 

Motivated to expand her knowledge on the subject, Greta pursued a Ph.D. in 2018. During her doctoral studies, she focused on biotechnological strategies for managing ciguatera poisoning, particularly in detecting DNA and toxins in fish and microalgal samples. In 2022, she successfully completed her Ph.D. and embarked on a postdoctoral position in Finland, exploring the use of cyanobacterial blooms as natural reservoirs of bioactive compounds.

Now, at UTS, Greta is enthusiastic about resuming her research on ciguatera, concentrating on developing rapid strategies to identify toxin-producing genes directly in marine water.

Heema Vyas, University of Sydney
“Plasma Activated Water: A Pre-Treatment Strategy for Biofilm-Infected Chronic Wounds? “

Dr Heema Vyas is a Post-Doctoral Research Associate at the University of Sydney. Heema is investigating the effect of cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) on bacterial biofilms. Heema is particularly interested in the medical applicability of CAP technology as an anti-biofilm strategy for an array of biofilm related infections and diseases. In her “spare” time, Heema is always looking to collaborate and find other novel antimicrobials, strategies, and technologies to slay microbial biofilms! Heema’s passion for biofilms has seen her re-invigorate and lead the ASM NSW/ACT Branch Biofilm Special Interest Group. Interested in biofilms? Or keeping up with Heema? Follow her on Twitter @HKNVee!

June 2023

Gemma Deakin, Western Sydney University
“Frenemies: Bacterial – fungal interactions in polymicrobial biofilms”

Gemma is a PhD candidate at Western Sydney University under the supervision of Dr Oliver Morton. Based at the Hawkesbury campus, her PhD project is titled “Interactions between bacteria and fungi in polymicrobial biofilms influence the viability and global transcriptome of the interacting organisms that can affect the pathogenic potential of these biofilms” and is currently under examination. Her work on interactions between Bacterial and fungal polymicrobial biofilms culminated in polymicrobial transcriptome investigation of Aspergillus fumigatus and Staphylococcus aureus.

Dhruv Monteiro, University of Sydney 
“C. elegans as a model for epigenetic inheritance”

Dhruv completed his Bachelor of Science and Arts at the University of Sydney in 2019, majoring in Molecular Biology, Sociology, and Ancient History, and Honours in Biochemistry. His Honours project was supervised by Dr. Alyson Ashe and co‑supervised by Dr. Joel Mackay, both of whom are his current PhD supervisors. Dhruv’s research interests include epigenetic inheritance, protein structure and function, and germline mortality. Dhruv submitted his thesis earlier this year and is exploring potential new avenues to apply all the skills he has learned.

Jadranka Nappi, University of New South Wales
“Ulva spp. and their associated microbial community: a research journey into its establishment, bioactive potential and application in aquaculture systems”

Dr. Jadranka Nappi is a molecular ecologist passionate about bacteria-host interactions, aquaculture and probiotics development. Originally from Italy, she graduated in biology at the University of Rome Tor Vergata (BSc) and in marine biology at the University of Pisa (MSc). In 2019 Dr. Nappi was awarded her PhD in Biotechnology at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). During her PhD, she focused on the bioactive potential and ecological role of bacteria associated with the green seaweed Ulva australis. In 2019, Dr. Nappi got her first contract as postdoctoral research fellow at UNSW. The project was done in collaboration with the James Cook University (JCU, Singapore) and she investigated the effect of Ulva lactuca-enriched feed on the microbiome of the Pacific White leg shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei). In 2020, Dr. Nappi was awarded the CSRIO SIEF Ross Metcalf STEM + Business Fellowship and she is currently working with an aquaculture facility to develop a customised probiotic formula. Dr. Nappi is also collaborating with the Institute of Marine Research (IIM – CSIC) in Spain to test Ulva ohnoi and Phaeobacter bacteria as a strategy for disease control in fish- macroalgae IMTA-RAS aquaculture.

May 2023

Evan Landers, University of New South Wales
“Dehalobacter the Future – The past, present, and future of organohalide respiration research“

Evan Landers received his bachelor’s in Cell and Molecular Biology from Tulane University in 2012. He went on to work in the food industry where he assisted in the development of several products including the first probiotic fruit juice drinks in the North American market. He then pursued his Masters in Microbiology, Biochemistry, and Molecular Biology from Southern Illinois University where his thesis focused on phosphoregulatory mechanisms in Chlamydia trachomatis, which lead to a publication in Pathogens and Disease. In 2019, Evan moved to Australia for his PhD at UNSW, first working on DPANN archaea from Antarctica, before transitioning to his current lab where his work focuses on organohalide respiring bacteria and the molecular mechanisms of dehalogenases. In addition to his studies, Evan works in the bioremediation industry to provide him with real-world experiences related to his PhD work that are also, he hopes, making the world a bit better.

Dr Nathalie de Machado, University of New South Wales  
“Emerging soil microbial-based strategies and seed enhancement technologies for restoring biodiverse degraded ecosystems“

Nathali Machado de Lima is an accomplished investigator with over ten years of experience in environmental microbiology. She has worked in three different countries, including Brazil, the USA, and Australia, and her research focuses on characterizing soil microbiomes affected by ecosystem degradation and drought. In addition, Nathali explores the potential of microorganisms as plant bioinoculants to improve soil fertility and structure, boost plant germination and growth rates in dryland systems and degraded areas, and ultimately restore degraded environments. Her research findings have been published in several papers, some of which were the first available publications on the composition, abundance, and environmental variables driving cyanobacterial biocrust communities in Brazil’s important biomes. Since completing her PhD in 2020, Nathali has been continuously employed at UNSW, working on several projects. She is currently dedicated to the project “Carbon Sequestration Inoculum Development for Agriculture using phototrophic microorganisms”.

Dr. Carola Venturini, University of Sydney
“Antimicrobial resistance: a One Health challenge needing a holistic approach“

Dr Carola Venturini is an EMCR research microbiologist whose work primarily focuses on the role of mobile genetic elements in the evolution of multidrug resistant bacterial pathogens with a multidisciplinary approach combining traditional microbiology, molecular methods and bioinformatics. She completed her PhD at the University of Wollongong investigating the links between antimicrobial resistance (AMR), virulence and mobile DNA in pathogenic enterobacteria, which remains one of her main research interests. As a postdoc at UQ (Brisbane), Carola studied horizontal gene transfer and virulence in the human pathogen Streptococcus pyogenes as well as progressing her work on AMR transmission. From 2013 to 2021, Dr Venturini was part of the Iredell’s Critical Infection research group at The Westmead Institute for Medical Research. Here she led large-scope research projects on the ecology of the gut microbiome related to antibiotic use and started exploring the use of bacteriophages to combat bacterial infections. Since joining the SSVS at USyd, Carola has expanded her research program on AMR control and bacteriophage use to animal settings. Through continued affiliation with WIMR and SydneyID, she is developing her independent research program with a truly One Health perspective.

April 2023

Prem Maisnam, Western Sydney University
“Droughts, Floods, and Microbes: Tales of Misadventures in Drylands“

Premchand Maisnam is a PhD candidate on the verge of submitting his thesis at the Hawkesbury Institute of Environment, Western Sydney University, with a diverse cultural background from India. Prem’s research is centred around the fascinating field of microbial ecology and soil microbiome, particularly in understanding drylands that are highly susceptible to climate change. With years of experience working in the pharmaceutical industry and microbial and bioinformatics research, Prem is eager to continue developing skills and knowledge in the field. Prem’s passion for research has driven him to pursue a career in the scientific community to contribute to the advancement of knowledge in this field of study. 

Md Imtiazul Islam, University of New South Wales
“Let’s Ask the Ancestors: Resurrection of the Ancestral Proteins of the Bacterial Flagellar Motor”

Imtiaz completed his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Microbiology in 2013 and 2015 at Jahanginagar University, Bangladesh. His master’s thesis focused on the isolation and characterisation of pathogenic E. coli from various water sources. Then, he spent nearly two years working for a biopharmaceutical company on the industrial optimisation of Cholera and Hepatitis vaccines. In 2016, he relocated to South Korea for his second Master’s degree, where he worked on antituberculosis drug development as well as probiotic therapeutics for drug-resistant bacteria. He published several research articles from those works. In 2019, he moved to Australia for his PhD at UNSW on ancestral sequence reconstruction of bacterial flagellar motor proteins. Recently, he submitted the final revision (minor) for his PhD thesis and is waiting for the degree completion.

Prof Michelle Power, Macquarie University
“Weeds in Wildlife Microbiomes: antibiotic resistant bacteria in wildlife”

Professor Michelle Power is passionate about science and making a difference to wildlife health. Michelle’s research focuses on transmission of disease agents at the wildlife : human interface. Michelle began her career as a parasitologist but has purposefully shifted from the traditional approaches of one host – one pathogen model towards studies of co-infection. More recently, Michelle’s research efforts have focussed on examining the ecology of antimicrobial resistance in wildlife where her group is bolstering knowledge of the wildlife arm of the One Health approach to combatting antimicrobial resistance. Michelle is also passionate about science communication and engaging the public in research, and advocating for diversity in STEM. Michelle is the co-chair of the NSW Branch of Queers in Science NSW and State representative for the Australian Society for Parasitology.

March 2023

Lauren Chang, University of Sydney
“The Dynamics of Strain Variation in the Human Gut Microbiome”

Lauren Chang has graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Science and a Graduate Diploma in Science. Her Graduate Diploma thesis was on the Strain-level Population Dynamics of Escherichia coli Measured from Faecal Samples which she undertook in the lab of Prof. Peter Reeves and formed the basis for her Masters of Philosophy (Science) degree under the supervision of Assoc. Prof. Andrew Holmes and Emeritus Prof. Peter Reeves. 

Oliver McNeilly, University of Technology Sydney
“Toxicological Response, Defence, and Physiological Change of Acinetobacter baumannii to Antimicrobial Silver Nanoparticles“

Oliver completed his Bachelor of Biomedical Science Degree in 2017 and Honours in 2018 at UTS, where he studied the adaptation responses of biofilm-forming Pseudomonas aeruginosa to silver nanoparticles (nanosilver; NAg). Oliver commenced his PhD candidature in 2019 wherein he is now finalising his thesis. His PhD project seeks to characterise and elucidate the evolutionary adaptation changes of Acinetobacter baumannii to NAg through various phenotypic assessments (e.g. MICs, fluorescence microscopy) and molecular studies (e.g. WGS, RNA-Seq). Alongside his candidature, Oliver is also working as an RA where he gathers experimental data for different collaborative research projects, mostly performing antimicrobial susceptibility studies on a variety of bacterial species. .  

Prof Antoine van Oijen, University of Wollongong
“Microbiology, One Molecule at a Time”

Antoine van Oijen obtained his undergraduate and PhD degrees in the Netherlands, where he was trained as a physicist. After having run research labs at Harvard Medical School in the USA and Groningen University in the Netherlands, he moved to the University of Wollongong (UOW) in 2014. A recipient of ARC Laureate and NHMRC Leadership Fellowships, he leads a research program focused on developing single-molecule tools to study bacterial genomic maintenance processes. As the driver behind UOW’s newly established Molecular Horizons institute, he has brought together researchers from various disciplines to transform our approach to understanding and tackling disease.

February 2023

Georgia Brouner, University of New South Wales
“Could novel Antarctic bacteria be the key to treating lung cancer?“

Georgia is a current Honours student at UNSW investigating the natural products produced by a novel Antarctic bacteria. She aims to use her extracted natural product against lung cancer cells to assess whether it has anti-tumour properties that could assist current chemotherapy drugs.

Claudia Moratti, University of Sydney
“Synthetic biology approaches to hydrocarbon biosensors”

Claudia is a final year PhD student in the Coleman group at the University of Sydney supported by a CSIRO Synthetic Biology FSP scholarship. Her project aims to identify and characterise regulatory components of monooxygenase gene clusters from M.chubuense NBB4 and use them to build biosensors for the detection of gaseous alkanes and alkenes. This work is a continuation of the 2016 University of Sydney iGEM team led by Claudia that earned the team the First-Runner Up place at the jamboree. She served as the PhD rep for Synthetic Biology Australasia from 2019-2021 and was a founding Director of the Australasia Synthetic Biology Challenge in 2020. With a first-class Honours degree in chemical engineering and time spent as a MIPPS scholar at AB Mauri, Claudia is interested in transitioning to a synbio industry role after her PhD. 

Matt Lee, University of New South Wales
“Microbial dichloromethane dechlorination: Novel methyltransferases at the heart of the matter”

After a long career as an analytical chemist working in the areas of environmental, agricultural and forensic chemistry Matthew obtained a PhD in plant biochemistry from the University of Western Australia (2007). Following the completion of his PhD, his research direction changed to anaerobic microbiology. Specifically, Matt has been studying anaerobes that use toxic organohalides as their electron acceptor thus making them less toxic. These microorganisms are worthy of investigation because they can play a vital role in organohalide attenuation at some of the world’s most polluted sites.

November 2022

Arthika Manoharan, University of Sydney
“Killing two birds with one drug: Preventing catheter occlusion and excessive inflammation in P. mirabilis catheter-associated urinary tract infections using N-acetyl cysteine“

Arthika is a final year PhD student at the University of Sydney, under the supervision of Dr Theerthankar Das and A/Prof Jim Manos. Her research aims to tackle biofilm formation in UTIs using antioxidants to circumvent antibiotic resistance and decipher how these antioxidants influence host-pathogen interactions in the bladder. A microbiologist by training with extensive immunology experience, Arthika has worked in various projects ranging from studying CAR T cells to antibiotic-resistant biofilms. With 6 publications under her belt and two more on the way, Arthika is an enthusiastic early career researcher interested in multidisciplinary research that combines fundamental and translational sciences. She is also an avid advocate for EMCRs in the medical sciences, having served extensively on various EMCR committees university-wide and in professional bodies, including ASM. 

Dr Deep Bhuyan, Western Sydney University 
“Postbiotics in cancer therapy: the missing link”

Dr Bhuyan is a Research Support Program Fellow at NICM Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University. He joined NICM Health Research Institute as an ARC Postdoctoral Research Fellow in 2018. His current research is centred on understanding the role of gut microbiota in the occurrence, treatment and prognosis of cancer to define gut-microbiota-focused therapeutic strategies. His research group is also investigating the complex synergistic interactions of natural bioactive compounds with standard drugs on specific biological targets and how these interactions can be utilised as therapeutic strategies against infectious (bacterial, fungal and viral) diseases and cancer. 

October 2022

 Liz Peterson, University of Technology Sydney 
“Bacterial filamentation – sick or strategic?”

Liz studied microbiology and immunology during her PhD at the Australian Institute for Microbiology and Infection at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). Her research focused on bacterial morphology changes and their influence on host-pathogen interactions using urinary tract infections as a model. Whilst completing her PhD she worked part-time for the Microbial Imaging Facility at UTS, furthering her passion for microscopy and utilizing microscopy techniques in research. Liz recently began a new role as an Application Specialist in the Research Microscopy Solutions team with ZEISS Australia and New Zealand. In her talk, she will present some of the exciting findings of her PhD research on how macrophages interact and respond to infection with long and short-uropathogenic E. coli. 

Anjali Gopakumar, Macquarie University and University of Bologna
“Comparing Microbial Community Structure Between Restored and Natural Saltmarsh Ecosystems in Venice Lagoon, Italy”

Anjali is a Coutelle PhD student at Macquarie University and University of Bologna, currently working in A/ Prof. Katie Dafforn’s lab at Macquarie University. Her research focuses on the ecosystem functions and services of restored saltmarshes in urban seascapes. Her talk will focus on an important ecosystem function indicator of restoration that she worked on in the Venice lagoon- the sediment microbiome. 
Prior to her PhD, Anjali completed her Erasmus Mundus Joint Master degree in Marine Biology (IMBRSea) at Ghent University (Belgium). She also worked as a Research Assistant at the University of Oslo (Norway) for two months, continuing her Master Thesis studies on mercury accumulation in fish from the Northern Barents Sea in the Arctic. Anjali’s diverse research interests also include marine functional biodiversity, trophic interactions in marine food webs and marine conservation.

August 2022

Bill Soderstrom, UTS  
“Serendipity, Super-duper resolution Microscopy and ‘Easy science’ as a research plan: from PhD student to group leader”

Bill, engineering physicist turn microbiologist, is a group leader at the Australian Institute for Microbiology and Infection (AIMI, formerly the iThree Inst.) at UTS. Originally from Sweden with a MSc from KTH and PhD from Stockholm Uni., he spent a few years as a postdoc doing cryo-microscopy on a tropical island in Japan, prior to setting up shop in Sydney. His research is focused on microbial morphology changes, in the test tube and in model infections.  
In his talk, he will try to convince you that fluorescence microscopy is the coolest tool out there, that changing career paths may not be the end of the world, and how taking a chance on supervisors could be your lucky break. 

Jyl Matson, University of Toledo, USA,
“Vibrio cholerae responses to antimicrobial peptide exposure”

Jyl Matson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Toledo in the USA. She is currently on sabbatical conducting research in the lab of Dr. Diane McDougald at the University of Technology Sydney. Dr. Matson’s lab primarily studies Vibrio cholerae, with the aim of better understanding bacterial stress response mechanisms and virulence gene regulation. Her recent studies have focused on how V. cholerae senses and responds to cationic antimicrobial peptides, which are produced by the innate immune system to kill bacteria.  She identified and is characterizing a new pathway that V. cholerae uses to combat the stress induced by these peptides. In addition, she has shown that V. cholerae uses antimicrobial peptides as an inducing signal to increase expression of virulence genes

July 2022

Daniel Bogema, Department of Primary Industries 
 “High throughput sequencing for Animal and Plant Biosecurity in NSW”

Daniel Bogema is a Molecular Epidemiologist, Research Scientist and Team Leader of Bioinformatics at Elizabeth Macarthur Agricultural Institute. As part of the Biosecurity and Food Safety branch of the NSW Department of Primary Industries, his research uses genomics and bioinformatics to examine animal and plant pests and diseases, with a focus on bacterial and microbial parasites. In his career at NSW DPI, Daniel has built novel genome sequences for understudied pathogens, such as Perkinsus olseni and Theileria orientalis. Additionally, his team and collaborators conduct genomic surveys of animal and plant pathogens endemic to Australia, such as Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae, T. orientalis, Chlamydia spp., Xanthomonas spp. and enteric bacteria. Daniel and his team also work to incorporate high-throughput sequencing (HTS) and bioinformatic technologies into diagnostic and emergency response operations within NSW DPI. This includes use of HTS technologies for exotic pest and disease tracing, collaborative research with university researchers on new phylogenetic techniques, construction of custom bioinformatic workflows for novel HTS-based diagnostic tests, and the exploration of Oxford Nanopore sequencing as a diagnostic tool. Daniel is also involved in inter-jurisdictional efforts to build standardised methods in HTS diagnostics and a platform for interjurisdictional sequencing data sharing to improve Biosecurity responses. 

Giulia Filippini, Macquarie Uni 
“Linking fluxes to functional genes involved in Nitrogen cycling in oyster reefs”

Giulia Filippini attained her Masters in Marine Biology at the Polytechnic University of Marche (Italy), studying the interactive effects of climate change and pollutants on gene expression in the mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis. Since completing her degree, she has been awarded three scholarships (Campus World Scholarship, Sydney Institute of Marine Science Scholarship and Northern Beaches Research Funding) and worked as Research Assistant at Macquarie University. During her time in this position, she investigated benthic biogeochemical processes and microbial diversity in four coastal lagoons in Sydney with different levels of urbanisation and human impact. She is currently working on her PhD, studying the role of shellfish reefs in ecosystem functions, with the final goal of delivering essential guidelines for using these organisms as bioremediation tools. Her research work will forge a novel link between direct measures of biogeochemical cycling and the microbial mechanisms driving these processes.

June 2022

Hugh Goold, Macquarie
“Yeast 2.0: Sexual crosses to dissect phenotypes“

Hugh finished his BSc at Sydney Uni and went to Macquarie to work with Helena Nevalainen for an Mphil studying the secretory pathways of Trichoderma reesei to understand how to use this thrilling filamentous fungus to secrete useful proteins. Afterwards, he moved to London to work at UCL and the Royal Free Hospital on lentiviruses, Langerhans cells and Immunotherapy, Oh My! With Brian Jones at Sydney University and Yonghua Li-Beisson at CEA Cadarache, he finished a PhD working on oil biosynthesis in the unicellular microalga Chlamdyomonas reinhardtii. Since then Hugh has been working at NSW DPI and the Macquarie University ARC Centre of Excellence Synthetic Biology building chromosome XVI of Yeast 2.0.

Angelique Ray, UNSW
“Living on a (Pr)Air; Characterising atmospheric chemosynthesis in bacteria and cold desert microbiomes”

Angelique Ray recently submitted her PhD in Environmental Microbiology, under the supervision of Associate Professor Belinda Ferrari at the University of New South Wales. Throughout this project, Angelique studied the role of trace atmospheric gases in the survival and growth of cold desert microbiomes. As a Research Associate in the same lab, Angelique is focused upon characterizing novel carbon fixation strategies in bacterial isolates using a combination of bioinformatic and cultivation-based approaches.

May 2022

Alexander McGrath, University of Sydney
“Towards understanding causation in host-microbiome interactions“

Alexander is a PhD candidate in Ezequiel Marzinelli’s lab at the University of Sydney testing broad ecological questions in marine holobionts. Alex’s work is focused on understanding the functional role of host-associated microbiomes in both host and wider ecosystem function. He is obsessed with algae and when he is not in the field or lab, he can be found at his local pottery studio or climbing gym.

Associate Professor Nick Coleman, University of Sydney
“Fabricating fluorescent food-poisoning friends for fun and finance”

Sensitive and accurate detection of food-poisoning bacteria is of critical importance for the food industry. One way to test these quality control systems is to add a known quantity of a specific pathogen, then determine % recovery via viable count. This task is facilitated by using fluorescent derivatives, so that added cells can be distinguished from native microflora. My lab has been working to develop brighter-fluorescing strains of Salmonella, E.coli, Cronobacter, and Listeria for this purpose, using a new superfolding GFP (fuGFP) and better control elements (promoters, RBS). Engineering these bacteria has required us to learn many new genetic tricks like transposomes, inverse PCR, and negative selection markers. We also learned some hard lessons about how ‘apparently insignificant’ genetic differences between G-ve’s and G+ve’s can have devastating impacts on bacterial phenotypes and project timelines.

April 2022

Alaska Pokhrel, Macquarie University
“Investigation of novel regulatory networksin the hospital pathogen Acinetobacter baumanii“

Alaska Pokhrel recently completed her PhD in Microbiology in the lab of Professor Ian Paulsen at Macquarie University. Her PhD research focused on the functional characterisation of novel transcriptional regulators in the highly significant human bacterial pathogen, Acinetobacter baumannii. She is currently working as a Research Assistant at the MQ Galleria facility with Dr. Amy Cain, where she uses Galleria mellonella insect model for in vivo microbiological, drug pharmacological and chemical toxicity studies.

Michael Miller, University of Newcastle
 “Biological characterisation of Anthranilic acid-based Antibiotics”

Michael is a PhD candidate with Professor Peter Lewis at the University of Newcastle, focusing on drug development for antibiotics effective against ESKAPE pathogens. Michael’s research interests include applying additive manufacturing and open-source hardware to life sciences research and the utilisation of cryo-em in drug discovery. Before his PhD,  Michael completed a Bachelor of Biotechnology Honours project investigating the role of phosphorylated sugars on the regulation of DNA replication in bacteria. 

March 2022

Our first ever JAMS student talk special featuring the research of recently finished students and hosted by Joanna Rothwell.

February 2022

Dr. Qin Qi, Macquarie University,
“Dissecting the fitness cost of antibiotic resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa: a snapshot of two case studies”

Qin’s Bio:
Qin Qi is a postdoctoral researcher in molecular microbiology at Macquarie University. He completed his bioengineering degree at Imperial College London in 2009 and received a DPhil from the Systems Biology Doctoral Training Centre in Oxford in 2014. Qin has been particularly interested in the molecular mechanisms of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), mobile genetic elements and interactions between antibiotics. He currently works on environmental bacterial integrons in collaboration with his mentors and colleagues.

Dr. Yan Liao , University of Technology Sydney (UTS)
“Divide and conquer: deciphering cell division in Archaea and its implications in biology”

Yan’s Bio:
Dr. Yan Liao is a Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Fellow at UTS. She has a strong interest in the cell biology of Archaea – microorganisms that represent one of three fundamental lineages of cellular life. She completed her PhD in 2017 at UNSW, where she developed a genetic manipulation system for cold-adapted Archaea and investigated how Archaea respond and adapt to low temperature and hypersaline environments. Recently, She has led the breakthrough discoveries on a new mode of archaeal cell division and its regulation. These studies have provided a new level of understanding about the evolution of cell division machinery central to all cellular life. Her current research is focusing on the molecular basis for cell division and shape in the model archaeon Haloferax volcanii. 

November 2021

Tim Ghaly, Macquarie University
“On the taxonomy and functions of integrons“

Tim’s Bio:
Tim Ghaly is currently doing his PhD in environmental microbiology at Macquarie University. He completed his Master of Research degree at Macquarie University in 2018. His PhD has been focused on investigating the taxonomic and functional diversity of integrons; ancient genetic elements that generate genetic diversity and adaptation on demand. He has a broad interest in microorganisms and the diverse traits that they display in environmental settings.

Miguel Hernandez-Prieto, UNSW
“Iron homeostasis in the cyanobacterium Synechosystis sp. PCC6803. The central role of the Ferric Uptake Regulator“

Miguel’s Bio:
Dr. Miguel Hernandez-Prieto is a senior research associate in the group of Prof. Mike Manefield at UNSW. He obtained his PhD from the University of Umea (Sweden) in 2009. The focus of his PhD-work was the biochemical characterization of a protein family conserved in all photosynthetic organisms. In his first post-doctoral he explored the field of Systems biology at the University of Algarve (Portugal). There, Miguel compiled from public repositories more than 700 microarray data for the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC6803 (www.cyanoexpress.eu). He arrived in Australia at the end of 2014 to be part of The University of Sydney’s node of the ARC Centre of Excellence in translational photosynthesis.

October 2021

Jason Lee, USYD, “The Specificity of the Wzx translocase in O antigen synthesis“

Jason’s Bio:
Jason completed his undergraduate and honours degree at USyd in 2016 under Prof. Peter Reeves looking into bacterial O antigens. Jason continued in the Reeves lab doing a PhD developing new methods to investigate the Wzx translocase in the O antigen biosynthetic pathway. He has interests in serology and vaccine development and how microbes can be used to engineer new vaccines.

Dr. Paul Jaschke, Macquarie University, “Engineering phage ΦX174: Lessons and Potential“

Paul’s Bio:
Dr. Paul Jaschke is a Lecturer in the Molecular Sciences Department of Macquarie University and Associate Investigator in the Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology. Prior to joining Macquarie University he completed a PhD in Microbiology at the University of British Columbia identifying an unusual zinc-chlorophyll biosynthetic pathway in Rhodobacter sphaeroides. During his NSERC-funded postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University (2010-2015) with Drew Endy he developed methods to engineering bacteriophage in yeast and showed that overlapping genes were not an essential for phage φX174 viability. Since 2015 his lab now works on a range of topics in synthetic biology and microbiology including tRNA engineering and developing and studying phage for therapeutic uses. Dr. Jaschke is also CSO of the startup Hyperdrive Science which provides drug target identification services to pharmaceutical companies using phage.

September 2021

Fraser Macleod, UNSW, “Asgardians of the Galaxy – Bringing the Legends to the Lab“

Fraser’s Bio:
Fraser is a PhD student in Brendan Burns’ Lab at UNSW, studying the microbial mat and stromatolite environment of Shark Bay in Western Australia. Fraser’s interests lie in uncovering the evolutionary and ecological role of Archaea in microbial mat systems, using a combination of bioinformatic and cultivation-based approaches. His work has involved developing new techniques to identify, image and isolate living Archaea within the Shark Bay environment. Through these techniques, Fraser has produced enrichment cultures of several members of the evolutionary significant Asgard Archaea and identified characteristics with ground-breaking consequences for the structure of the tree of life. Fraser hopes this work will challenge the traditional distinctions of Archaea and Eukaryotes, and discredit the concept that Archaea are in any way “simple cells”.

Dr Carol Pong, University of Sydney, “The DNA-binding domain of Tnp26, the transposase of insertion sequence IS26“

Carol’s Bio:
Carol completed her PhD in 2020 in Ruth Hall’s lab at USYD, where she’s currently a postdoc investigating the in vivo and in vitro behaviours of the transposase Tnp26, encoded by the insertion sequence IS26 which is causing an amount of genetic chaos in Gram-negative bacteria.

July 2021

Michelle Demers, the University of Sydney, “The mysterious origins of the hybrid scabrum rust pathogen“

Michelles’ bio:
After completing an honours degree in Plant Biotechnology at the University of Guelph, Michelle wandered the world for a few years as a vagrant traveller before landing a PhD project at the University of Sydney with Prof. Robert Park. Her research focuses on the genomes of rust fungi, parasites of cereal crops, and seeks to determine the origins and possible threats of hybrid strains. Michelle just submitted her PhD Thesis, and is currently working on regaining her sanity while planning her next life adventure. 

Nine Le Reun, UTS “Elucidating diatom and bacteria interactions“

Nines’ Bio:
Nine Le Reun is a PhD student at the University of Technology Sydney working in the ocean microbiology group within the Climate Change Cluster. She studies chemical exchanges between diatom and bacteria interactions using molecular and omics techniques. She previously completed a BSc Honours in Cellular Biology & Physiology in Toulouse (France) followed by a Master in Marine Biology in Edinburgh (Scotland) where she investigated the influence of intertidal seagrass species on Blue Carbon storage within their sediments.

June 2021

Vaheesan Rajabal, Macquarie University “Investigation of res hunter transposons in clinical Pseudomonas strains“

Vaheesans’ bio:
Vaheesan Rajabal is a postdoctoral researcher at ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology, Macquarie University under the supervision of Professor Michael Gillings. His current project involves investigating integrons and gene cassettes of plant microbial communities. He recently completed his PhD in Molecular Microbiology from La Trobe University where he investigated the evolution and mechanism of a transposon family called res hunters.

Anna Bramucci, UTS “Algal microbial consortia: generalists or specialists?”

Annas’ bio:
Anna Bramucci is currently a post doc in Justin Seymour’s lab. Anna started her career investigating the microbial consortia of Antarctic lakes and subglacial lakes of the Arctic. More recently, she has transitioned to investigating the intricate interactions between marine bacteria and their algal hosts. Anna will be presenting a brief look at the microbial consortia associated with algae isolated right off the Australian coast.

May 2021

Nicholas Stanley, WSU “Investigating the Microbiome of Diabetic Foot Ulcers using Metagenomic Resolved Genomics”

Nicholas‘ bio:
In a previous life Nicholas was a fully qualified car mechanic who discovered a passion for microbiology and human health. During his undergraduate degree he had the fortune or misfortune of having Dr Thomas Jeffries as a microbiology lecturer. After some discussions over coffee and later some beer; a Master of Research Project was hatched. Nic submitted his Master thesis in February and is still currently deciding how best to apply his love of microbiology, science, and human health.

Dr Elliot Scanes, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, UTS “Response of the Sydney rock oyster microbiome to ocean acidification and warming””

Elliots’ bio:
Dr Elliot Scanes is a Chancellors Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Climate Change Cluster at UTS. Elliot completed his PhD at the University of Sydney and has since conducted research in Norway, Germany and more recently, back in Australia. His research focuses on the biology of marine invertebrates, and their responses to climate change.

April 2021

PhD candidate Nathan Williams, UTS “Molecular microbiological markers reduce ambiguity associated with faecal pollution in populated urban coastal environments”

Nathan’s bio: Nathan has been a student at UTS since 2014. He completed his honours in 2018, researching oyster microbiomes with Maurizio Labbate and is now completing his PhD under Justin Seymour studying microbial threats in costal environments largely focusing on microbial source tracking and vibrio ecology

PhD candidate Scott Mitchell, USYD “Horsing around with a gutful of integrons – Incidence, characterisation and detection of class 1 integrons in equine faeces from a variety of cohorts”

Scott’s bio: Scott Mitchell is a final year PhD Student who is analysing equine faeces for class 1 integrons. He undertook his undergraduate and honors degree at UTS, where his thesis was on Extraintestinal Pathogenic E. coli containing class 1 integrons, and worked for a time as a researcher in faecal microbiota, or poo, transplants in humans. No, he did not expect faeces to play such a large role in his academic career, but when life gives you faeces, write a thesis.

March 2021

Dr Lisa Moore, Research Fellow, University of Macquarie “Crossing through the BioCyc Web Portal into a World of Microbial Genomes and Pathways”

Lisa’s bio:
Dr. Lisa Moore is a microbial ecologist with a keen interest in physiological and ecological characterisation of microbes, particularly marine cyanobacteria. She retired early from being a Professor University of Southern Maine in the US in order to return to research and is currently working as a Research Fellow in Distinguished Professor Ian Paulsen’s Laboratory at Macquarie University. Her projects include examining the toxicity response of marine cyanobacteria to plastic leachates, curating new Tier 2 BioCyc web pages (the focus of the talk), and a new ARC Linkage project with Bondi to characterise the physiology of engineered cyanobacteria strains for high-value products

Varsha Naidu, Macquarie University “Uncovering novel mechanisms of resistance in multi-drug resistant pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii ”

Varsha’s bio:
Varsha Naidu uses contemporary techniques to understand how molecular adaptations in bacteria give rise to multidrug resistant pathogens. Varsha recently submitted her PhD thesis under the guidance of Prof. Ian Paulsen and Dr. Karl Hassan, where she investigated antimicrobial resistance in the hospital pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii, by integrating various omics’ techniques and high throughput phenotypic screening.

February 2021

Dr Adrian Davin, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Australian Centre for Ecogenomics, University of QLD “How to properly root the bacteria tree”

I am Spanish, from Sevilla. I studied a degree in biotechnology in Spain and a master in statistics. I did my PhD in the LBBE of  Lyon (France), in bioinformatics. After that, I spent a few months working in Japan in machine learning before coming to Australia, in 2019, to do a postdoc with Phil. My favourite things are cinema, photography and languages, and traveling when there are no pandemics around.

Dr Francesca Short, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, ARC DECRA Monash University “Real jobs vs side-hustles: Finding the natural substrate of a multidrug efflux pump in Acinetobacter baumannii“

Francesca completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Otago, New Zealand, and her PhD at the University of Cambridge in the lab of Professor George Salmond. From 2016-2018 she was a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral fellow at the University of Cambridge and Wellcome Sanger Institute, and in 2019 she relocated to Australia to work at Macquarie University with Professor Ian Paulsen. Her work bridges classical molecular microbiology, biochemistry and genomics approaches to build our understanding of how bacterial pathogens cause disease, with a particular focus on regulation of virulence factors. Francesca joined Monash University in November 2020 as an ARC DECRA fellow.

October 2020

Dr Sophie Holland, PhD graduate, University of New South Wales “Anaerobic transformation of the priority pollutant dichloromethane by the bacterium ‘DCMF'”

Dr Sophie Holland is a recent PhD graduate from UNSW whose research explores anaerobic bacterial degradation of chlorinated methanes and one-carbon metabolism. Her doctoral thesis explored a novel, dichloromethane-fermenting bacterium, and she received the University Medal for Microbiology following her undergraduate studies and research into a chloroform-respiring bacterial culture. Dr Holland has a keen interest in bioremediation, microbial life in extreme environment and the role of microbial communities in response to climate change. She is currently looking for a postdoc position where she can continue go pursue these research avenues.

Dr Peri Tobias, Postdoctoral Research Associate, The University of Sydney “The other pandemic: Austropuccinia psidii, causal agent of myrtle rust“

Peri Tobias is a molecular plant pathologist and bioinformatician working primarily on non-model organisms. She is broadly interested in the complexity of plant responses to pathogens.  She completed her Honours (First Class, University Medal) in Agricultural Chemistry, followed by a PhD at the University of Sydney 2017 after a career in environmental management. She has been successful in securing several grants including a recently awarded ARC Linkage Grant to investigate the plant pathogen causing myrtle rust. Peri is actively collaborating with researchers in Australia as well as New Zealand, South Africa and Brazil to contain myrtle rust spread

August 2020

 Heema Vyas, PhD candidate, University of Wollongong “Assessing the role of pharyngeal cell surface glycans in Group A Streptococcus biofilm formation“

Heemas’ work focuses on understanding Group A Streptococcus (GAS) biofilms that may be present in cases of GAS pharyngitis that simply do not respond to antibiotic treatment. Heema is passionate about antimicrobial resistance, and after her PhD, wishes to continue her journey in understanding the role bacterial biofilms play in an array of chronic infections. Heema is also interested in gender equality and equity in STEM. Heema is currently a student rep for her Universitys institutes Equity, Diversity, and Inclusivity Committee.

Dr Steven Robbins, Postdoctoral researcher, University of Queensland “A genomic view of the sponge microbiome“

Steven Robbins is a native Ohioan who moved to Brisbane in 2011 to obtain his PhD at UQ. He started his work in marine science with the ReFuGe2020 consortium, using traditional genome sequencing and genome-centric metagenomics to generate reference genomes for several species of coral, as well as their Symbiodinium, microbial, and viral associates, in order to clarify their individual roles in population, community, and evolutionary processes. His current project with Nicole Webster at the Australian Institute for Marine Science (ACE) involves the analysis of ~1200 metagenome-assembled genomes from marine sponges to identify mechanisms of sponge-microbe symbiosis.

July 2020

 Dr Susannah Salter Part I “The curse of the low biomass microbiome” and part II “GHOST hunting”

Susannah Salter is a research assistant in the Department of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Cambridge, in Prof Julian Parkhill’s team. Before this she worked for 12 years at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in sequencing and Pathogen Genomics. Susannah has worked on a variety of projects particularly focusing on the respiratory tract, however her efforts to raise awareness of the “kitome” seem to be the thing that caught on.

Dr. Caitlin Lawson
“Exudates from coral endosymbiotic algae impact the volatile gases emitted by their associated bacteria“

Dr Caitlin Lawson is a post-doctoral researcher working at the University of Technology Sydney and the University of Newcastle with David Suggett and Bill Leggat to explore the volatile gases emitted from tropical coral reefs. Caitlin has finished my PhD earlier this year working with David Suggett, Justin Seymour and Jean-Baptiste Raina in the Climate Change Cluster at the University of Technology Sydney on her project: Gas Powered Reefs: Exploring the Nature and Variability of the Coral Volatilome. Caitlin is slightly ocean obsessed and is fascinated by the volatile gases produced by micro and macroscopic coral reef organisms.

June 2020

Dr Wei Gao “Applied Genomics Specialist for Microbiology, Illumina, Illumina Applications for SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic”

Wei (Pronounce “Way”) is an applied genomics specialist for microbiology at Illumina, based in Melbourne. He finished his PhD from Monash University in 2016, under the supervision of Prof Tim Stinear and Prof Ben Howden.  After spending some time as a postdoc at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, Wei returned to The Peter Doherty Institute and joined in a mycobacterium ulcerans project. He has a keen interest and passion for microbiology, especially in pathogenesis and microbiome.

Dr Robert Griffiths “Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Bangor, Wales – Soil microbial diversity and function: making sense of big data and making it useful“

Rob Griffiths is a microbial ecologist at the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology in the UK, with a specialist interest in microbial diversity and function in soil systems. He previously led the Molecular Ecology Group at CEH Wallingford (near Oxford), where he managed the running of two MiSeqs and a small team of researchers investigating soil, water and host associated microbial communities. He recently moved to the CEH site at Bangor in North Wales where he is now analysing several years worth of soils sequencing data, riding his bike and going to the beach.

May 2020

Kenya Fernandes, PhD, University of Sydney
“Lactoferrin & novel peptide lactofungin synergise with amphotericin b against yeasts“

Kenya has just submitted her PhD thesis at the University of Sydney, investigating the biology of Cryptococcus and exploring new avenues of treatment for fungal pathogens.

She is currently enjoying a range of thrilling and exotic post-PhD activities such as being at home, staying at home, and remaining at home during this wonderful lockdown.

Nichollas Scott, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Melbourne
“The how & why of microbial glycoproteomics“

Dr Scott completed his PhD at the University of Sydney (2007 to 2012) on the development of MS approaches for the study of bacterial protein modifications. The key focus of his doctorate was the establishment of a protocol for enriching bacterial glycopeptides irrespective of glycan composition. In 2011, during the examination of his PhD, he joined the Szymanski lab at the University of Alberta to apply the technologies developed during his PhD to multiple bacterial glycosylation systems. In 2012 with the aid of a NHMRC Early Career Fellowship he moved to the University of British Columbia to undertake a postdoc with Prof Leonard Foster. Within the Foster lab Dr Scott began applying quantitative proteomics approaches to study protein interactions and bacterial glycosylation systems at a systems level. In 2013, he was awarded a prestigious Michael Smith Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship to continue this work. From 2012 to 2015 Dr Scott spearheaded projects characterising bacterial glycosylation systems across Gram-negative pathogens including, Acinetobacter baumannii, Burkholderia cenocepacia and Ralstonia solanacearum. In 2016 Dr Scott returned to Australia where he completed a second postdoc in the laboratory of Prof Elizabeth Hartland, developing novel enrichment approaches to track Arginine-glycosylation. In 2017, on the back of two national awards from the Australasian Proteomics Society (the 2016 International Early Career Award & the 2017 Ken Mitchelhill Award), NHMRC and ARC funding Dr Scott established his independent research group in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Melbourne. Since 2017 Dr Scott’s lab has sought to identify and track microbial glycosylation events to understand the role of glycosylation in microbes. In 2019 in recognition of his contribution to the field of glycoconjugate research Dr Scott was awarded the 2019-IGO Young Glycoscientist Award from the International Glycoconjugate Organization.

April 2020

Ian Paulsen, Professor, Macquarie University
” ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology”

Ian Paulsen is Distinguished Professor at Macquarie University, Centre Director of the recently awarded ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology and Deputy Director of the Macquarie Biomolecular Discovery and Design Centre. Ian is an ARC Laureate Fellow and an ISI Highly Cited Researcher. He has published more than 280 journal papers, which have received over 75,000 citations. Currently his H-index is 117 (Google Scholar, April 2020). He is a Fellow of the Australian Society for Microbiology. Thomson Reuters identified him as one of the world’s 3000 most influential scientific minds in 2014. Indicative of his scientific esteem, he received a Macquarie University Research Excellence Award in 2014. He received a PhD from Monash University and was an NHMRC C.J. Martin Fellow at the University of California at San Diego. He then took a faculty position at the Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR), where he led many microbial genome sequencing projects. Ian returned to Australia in 2007 as a Professor at Macquarie University and received a Life Science Research Award from the NSW Office of Science and Medical Research. He is the founder and Director of the new Synthetic Biology Laboratory at Macquarie University. His published work has received significant press attention, including two interview on the Channel 7 news in the last two years, as well as numerous radio and newspaper interviews, including in the ABC, Washington Post and New York Times.

Hannah Sassi, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Sydney
“Transport and Mitigation of Viruses in the Environment”

“Hannah graduated from the University of Arizona in 2016 with her PhD in Environmental Microbiology with an emphasis on viruses in the environment. Prior to that she studied Environmental Health Sciences for her Master and Bachelor’s degrees with an emphasis on control of viruses in healthcare settings. She has worked in various areas of environmental health, but focuses specifically on isolating, tracking and controlling pathogens in the environment. The bulk of her work has been done studying water and fomites as vectors and reservoirs of viral pathogens. She also has extensive experience utilizing surrogate organisms to evaluate human health risk and subsequent interventions in water treatment and infection control, through field/lab work and QMRA. After her PhD, she was involved in developing antimicrobial testing protocols and products, focusing mainly on novel antimicrobials such as surface coatings and their environmental applications. Currently, Hannah is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Sydney working on a range of projects in the areas of environmental microbiology and virology”

January 2020

Dale McClure, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Sydney
“Making bioprocesses bigger and greener”

Dale McClure joined the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Sydney in 2014 following the completion of his PhD. He has strong experience in modelling, process design and optimisation, microbiology, computational fluid dynamics and chemistry. He has been involved with a range of projects, many in collaboration with industrial partners with the aim of optimising current processes. 

Lucie Semenec, Postdoctoral Researcher, Macquarie University
“Adaptive evolution of Geobacter sulfurreducens in coculture with Pseudomonas aeruginosa”

Dr Lucie Semenec is a postdoctoral researcher at Macquarie University and is currently investigating the mechanisms of co-infection and antibiotic resistance in ESKAPE pathogens. Lucie received her PhD from La Trobe University where she studied the interaction and adaptive evolution between co-cultures of opportunistic pathogens and electrochemically active bacteria.

Following her PhD, she worked briefly as a post-doctoral researcher at Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research performing long-amplicon sequencing and genotyping of human cytochrome P450 to link genotype and haplotype with anti-malarial drug response phenotypes.

Sheree Yau, Juan de la Cierva Research Fellow, Institute of Marine Sciences (ICM), Spain
“Single-cell methods to link marine viruses to their hosts”

The common theme of my research is studying the function, ecology and evolution of microorganisms. I have worked at the level of single genes, single cells, populations and whole communities, which means I have tried almost all the “omics”: genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, single-cell genomics, metagenomics, metaproteomics and metabarcoding. I did my honours project with Nicholas Coleman at the University of Sydney on hydrocarbon-degrading Mycobacteria and then worked as research assistant in Ruth Hall’s lab on antibiotic resistance.

I was interested in the (then) new movement of metagenomics, so I did a PhD at the University of New South Wales on the microbial ecology of Antarctic lakes. My most important discovery was of viruses that stood out as the top predators in these lakes, many of which are devoid of multicellular life. This inspired my current work on studying host–virus interactions in environmental microorganisms. I worked as post-doc in the Banyuls Oceanologic Observatory, France where I studied how the marine green alga Ostreococcus responds to infection by prasinoviruses. There, my most exciting finding was of what appears to be a specialised “immunity” chromosome against viruses. I have since joined the Institute of Marine Sciences (ICM), Spain as a Juan de la Cierva research fellow, where I am interested in shedding light on marine “viral dark matter” by linking viruses to their hosts. 

November 2019

Tony Gutierrez, Associate Professor,
Heriot‐Watt University, Scotland
“Unchartered waters through the eyes of microbes”

Tony Gutierrez is an Associate Professor of Environmental Microbiology & Biotechnology at Heriot‐Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland. Since obtaining his PhD in Environmental Microbiology at The University of New South Wales he did a postdoc at the University of Florida on bio-ethanol production using engineered strains of bacteria. He then returned to the UK to focus on the ecology and commercial use of marine bacterial biosurfactants. He subsequently returned to the USA to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he started work on the occurrence and global distribution of oil-degrading bacteria living associated with phytoplankton. Whilst there he collaborated with several groups on the microbiology of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, including work on the formation of unprecedented quantities of marine oil snow (MOS).

In more recent years he has been looking into the potential impacts of oil spillage in a deepwater province of the northeast Atlantic sub-Arctic where oil exploration is expanding. Another major focus of Tony’s work is on the fate of nano- and micro-plastics in marine waters, and on the ecology and commercial development of marine surface-active agents (bio-surfactants/bio-emulsifiers).

Nate Lo, Professor & ARC Future Fellow, University of Sydney
“Why do insect endosymbiont genomes shrink over evolutionary time?”

Nate Lo is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow in the School of Life and Environmental Sciences at The University of Sydney, and co-leads the Molecular Ecology, Evolution, and Phylogenetics Lab. Key factors behind the success of arthropods are the complex interactions they have with microbes, and – in the case of social insects – with each other.

Nate uses a combination of molecular, genetic, and bioinformatic tools to investigate these interactions, across various temporal scales. He has a general interest in the evolution of arthropods and studies three of humanity’s favourites: termites, cockroaches, and ticks.

JJ Hastings, Biohacker, artist & researcher, x0.lab +
Uni of Melbourne
“Extremophilia: Looking Inward”
@HackerAstro

J.J. Hastings is a self-described ‘Extremophile.’ Her research intersects multiple fields—from space biology to machine-directed biodesign and engineering to automation. After completing her undergraduate studies at New York University, she continued on to complete advanced degrees at Harvard University and the University of Oxford (New College) in Biology and Bioinformatics, respectively. In 2016, she was offered an Endeavour IPRS/APA scholarship to pursue a PhD at the University of Melbourne whilst also holding a position as an Honorary Researcher at the ACMD 3D BioFabrication Lab of St. Vincent Hospital in Melbourne.

JJ is co-founder of the x0.lab initiative, that supports field research and community engagement in remote communities. She is also the Founder and CEO of the SENSORIA Programme, a private space programme that models the sym/dysbiotic balance of life within the contained space environment and places the advancement of women squarely at the centre of its vision for space exploration.

October 2019

Erin Shanahan, Research fellow, University of Sydney
“Diet-microbiome interactions: gut health and beyond”

Erin is a research fellow and microbiologist based at the Charles Perkins Centre. She obtained her PhD at The University of Sydney, where she investigated the cell wall function in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. She then moved to Brisbane and undertook at post-doc at the University of Queensland and Princess Alexandra Hospital, where she moved into the gut microbiome field, focusing on the poorly characterised small intestinal microbiome.

In 2018, she returned to Sydney to take up the à Beckett fellowship, focusing on how diet-microbe interactions shape gut and systemic health and the risk of colon cancer development.

Michael Kertesz, Associate Professor, University of Sydney
“Using bacteria to grow mushrooms”

Michael Kertesz is Associate Professor for Soil Microbiology at the University of Sydney. Michael obtained his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Cambridge and has previously worked at the Federal Technical University (ETH) in Zurich and at the University of Manchester. His research interests focus on how bacteria react to changes in their surroundings, especially in soil and compost, and he is actively involved in studies of fungus-microbe and plant-microbe interactions, soil health, and microbial P and S metabolism in agricultural soils.

His mushroom-oriented research aims to unravel the dynamics of the microbial communities that are essential in the production of mushroom compost, identify the organisms that are present at different stages of the composting and mushroom cropping process and discover how they interact directly or indirectly with the Agaricus (button mushroom) mycelium to promote healthy mushroom fruitbody formation.

Francesca Short, Research Fellow, Macquarie University
“How Klebsiella pneumoniae stays one step ahead”

Fran Short is a research fellow at Macquarie University in Professor Ian Paulsen’s group. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Otago before moving to the University of Cambridge for her PhD in molecular microbiology.

From 2016-2018 she was a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral fellow in pathogen genomics at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, working with Professor Julian Parkhill and Professor Gordon Dougan. Her research focuses on using new functional genomics approaches to understand regulation of virulence in the bacterial pathogens Klebsiella pneumoniae and Acinetobacter baumannii.

September 2019

Iain Duggin, ARC Future Fellow and Associate Professor, UTS
“Shapeshifting shenanigans: how microbes adapt their morphology to survive”

Iain Duggin received his PhD from the University of Sydney in 2002, studying chromosome replication, and then completed postdoctoral research at University of Sydney, the Medical Research Council (Cambridge, UK) and the University of Oxford, which included studies of archaeal and E. coli chromosome replication, cell cycle and morphology.

Since 2011 at UTS, his research group has focussed on the regulation of cell morphology and division in haloarchaea and uropathogenic E. coli. He is currently an ARC Future Fellow.

Elinor Hortle, Post-doc, Centenary Institute
“Anti-platelet drugs as host-directed therapies for tuberculosis”

Elinor is a currently post-doc in the Immune Vascular Interactions Lab at the Centenary Institute. She started her research career at the University of Tasmania, before completing her PhD at Macquarie University in 2015, studying the effect of host genetics on resistance to malaria in mice. She then did a short post-doc with zebrafish models of motor neurone disease, before joining Centenary in 2017. 

USYD iGEM Team,
Presented by Nathan Hawkins & Emma Todd
“Taking the magic from mushroom to microbe”

The University of Sydney iGEM team is made up of of six final-year Bachelor of Science students.

Nathan Hawkins and Emma Todd will be presenting on behalf of the team. Nathan Hawkins is majoring in in molecular biology and genetics, and is an avid fan of all things biotech. His role in the team includes lots of protein-related work in the lab, as well as helping with the Human Practices. Emma Todd is majoring in Microbiology and Genetics. In the team, she is the head of Human Practices but is also involved in wet lab work and almost every other aspect of the project. 

August 2019

Giulia Filippini, Research Officer, Macquarie University
“Sediment bacterial communities associated with environmental factors in Intermittently Closed and Open Lakes and Lagoons (ICOLLs)”

Giulia Filippini completed her Master’s Degree in Marine Biology at the Polytechnic University of Marche (Italy) studying the interactive effects of climate change and pollutants on the gene expression in the mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis. 

Since her degree, she has been awarded three scholarships (Campus World Scholarship, Sydney Institute of Marine Science Scholarship and Northern Beaches Research Funding) and she is currently working as Research Officer at Macquarie University (Sydney, Australia). Giulia’s research focuses on benthic metabolism, nutrient cycling and microbial communities of the Northern Beaches lagoons which can help the Northern Beaches Council to better manage these habitats. 

William King, PhD Candidate, UTS
“Interrogating the microbiome for improved understanding of Pacific oyster diseases”

William King is a molecular microbial ecologist on the verge of submitting his doctoral thesis at the University of Technology Sydney, under the supervision of Justin Seymour and Maurizio Labbate. His research is a collaboration between academia, the aquaculture industry and government, focused on detangling the complexity of oyster diseases using a microbiome approach, with a specific focus on marine Vibrio species. To date, he has examined the microbiomes of oysters and their potential relationship with oyster diseases and disease resistance, as well as creating a hi-throughput sequencing assay for the fine-scale characterisation of the Vibrio-specific community.

Previously, William completed an Honours project on creating electroactive mercury biosensors using Vibrio and Pseudoalteromonas species and has research experience in the fields of clinical and environmental mycology. He is interested in combining elements of microbial ecology and molecular biology to answer new research questions.

Valentina Méndez, ARC Linkage Project Research Associate, UNSW
“Genome mining of environmental bacteria: revealing catabolic potential for aromatic pollutants”

Valentina joins us from Valparaiso, Chile. She obtained her Bsc in Biochemistry, in the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaiso (PUCV), and completed her PhD at the PUCV in a joint program with the Technical University Federico Santa Maria (UTFSM) in 2017. Valentina has several years of expertise in characterizing bacterial degradation pathways for aromatic compounds using genomic and functional approaches, in order to understand physiology and adaptive response of bacteria to polluted-environments.

Valentina joined the Manefield group in May 2019 at UNSW as a Research Associate on an ARC Linkage Project to study biogeochemical remediation for PFAS contaminated environments.

July 2019

Yolanda Plowman PhD Candidate, University of Sydney
“AMF community assembly on wheat plants driven by crop rotation and P fertiliser”

Yolanda oversees the operations of JAMS and organises Sydney JAMS events. She’s currently in the third year of her PhD at the University of Sydney, investigating the relationship between arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and  environmental variables, such as agricultural soil treatments, to elucidate functional differences between AMF species. This research has promising applications for the sustainable intensification of agriculture, and Yolanda is working toward a career in food security research and development. 

Prior to this Yolanda completed her Bachelor of Environmental Systems (Hon I) at the University of Sydney, and Bachelor of Biological Science at the Queensland University of Technology. She currently teaches various microbiology and food security units of study at the University of Sydney.

Matthew Lee Senior Research Associate, UNSW
“Opposing dual element isotope effects in trichloromethane dechlorination by two similar Dehalobacter strains: a cautionary tale for monitoring of in situ microbial organohalide attenuation”

Dr Matthew Lee  completed his undergraduate studies in chemistry and PhD in Botany at the University of Western Australia (2006). Currently, he is  a Senior Research Associate at the University of New South Wales.

His research activities include understanding chemical and microbial processes that lead to the destruction of organohalide pollution in the subsurface environments.

Stefan Oehlers Marie Bashir Institute Fellow, University
of Sydney
“Renovating the mycobacterial granuloma stroma”

I finished PhD at the University of Auckland in 2012 where I established zebrafish models of intestinal inflammation to understand the aetiology of inflammatory bowel disease and discover new anti-inflammatory drugs. I moved to Duke University School of Medicine as a postdoc from 2012-2016 where I was supported by a CJ Martin Early Career Fellowship to train in using the zebrafish as a model for tuberculosis and cryptococcal meningitis. In 2016 I set up my independent laboratory at the Centenary Institute where we use the zebrafish to study inflammation.

June 2019

 Abigail Sison, Laboratory Technician at iGEM
“iGEM: Building the synthetic biology industry through competition”

Abigail Sison completed her honours thesis on synthetic integrons with Dr. Nicholas Coleman, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology from the University of Sydney in 2016. She has since been working as a laboratory technician at the iGEM Foundation’s Headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts. The iGEM Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of synthetic biology through education, competition, and innovation. Their main program is the iGEM Competition, which introduces thousands of students and researchers around the world to synthetic biology every year.

Monica Espinosa Gomez, PhD Candidate at Macquarie
University
“Engineering methylotrophy in Saccharomyces cerevisiae”

Bachelor of Biotechnology with Honours Class I majoring in Molecular Biotechnology from the University of Queensland. Currently doing a PhD at Macquarie University focusing on engineering methylotrophy in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Awarded a PhD Scholarship as part of CSIRO’s Synthetic Biology Future Science Platform.

Emmanuelle Botté, Technical officer at Australian Institute of Marine Science
“Microbial functions in sponges living in volcanic CO2 seeps of Papua New Guinea”

I grew up on French tropical islands until I was 10, which probably influenced my love for marine tropical ecosystems. A biochemist by training I loved molecular ecology from the first lecture I got at Uni on that topic. I did a Master in Genomics (in Toulouse, France) and Functional molecular ecology (in Perpignan, France). I worked on a wide variety of systems during internships (marine birds, nematodes, primates, reef fish). I obtained my PhD on fish ecotoxicology from James Cook University in 2011 and started to work at AIMS in 2010 as a technician in marine microbiology, mainly working with Nicole Webster and David Bourne on sponges, corals and tropical rock lobster. Over the last few years I’ve trained in the world of “omics” and I’m trying to use my biochemistry background to dig into loads of data and extract meaningful information. Work in progress!

Ziggy Marzinelli, Lecturer at the University of Sydney
“Bridging the gap between ecology and microbiology: the role of host-microbiome interactions in marine ecosystems”

I am a Lecturer at The University of Sydney. I received my undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. I was then awarded an Australian Government Endeavour International Postgraduate Research Scholarship to do my PhD at The University of Sydney. After my PhD, I became a Research Fellow and subsequently a Senior Research Fellow at the University of New South Wales. I have also held a Visiting Fellowship with the Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, since 2013. My research focuses on ecological impacts of environmental stressors and on conservation of marine ecosystems. I integrate theoretical and applied ecology with microbial ecology to understand the mechanisms that cause species’ declines and to restore degraded habitats. I have done research in temperate, tropical and polar ecosystems around the world, and my goal is to provide sensible, practical solutions to environmental problems

May 2019

George Peppou – GrowLab
“Synbio entrepreneurship: from bench top to Australia’s Gingko “

George Peppou is founder and program manager of GrowLab, Australia’s premier agrifood tech accelerator. Through GrowLab George has supported 11 agrifood startups since September 2017, including Flurosat, Invertigro and Livestock Labs. He is well known in the industry for being a force to be reckoned with when it comes to helping agrifoodtech startups build great businesses. George is a serial entrepreneur and inventor, with over 30 patents granted. With a background in biochemistry and after nearly a decade working in innovation and deep tech, George is a firm believer that Australia could lead the world in the field of synthetic biology. He recently established the Sydney Synbio meetup – the first in a series of national meetups to bring together scientists, entrepreneurs and investors to realise the potential for a bio-based bioeconomy.

Claire Goulard de Curraize – University of Sydney
“Pathogenicity of Salmonella Genomic Island 1 in Proteus mirabilis and in Salmonella enterica”

I am a pharmacist. I am a hospital practitioner and a lecturer at Dijon in France. I studied at Lyon, then I did my residency at the university hospitals of Paris (AP-HP) and specialized in bacteriology. I have wanted to do research since I was young; during my studies, I did a research internship during  1 year at the Institut Pasteur of Paris. The topic was about the immune response to C. difficile. I did my PhD course in Dijon. The subject of my thesis  was Salmonella Genomic Island 1 (SGI1) and relative genomic islands from clinical Proteus mirabilis and Salmonella enterica isolates.That’s why I came in Hall’s lab to keep going on this topic like a post doc, to improve my English and to discover Australia and enjoy! 😉 I enjoy playing violin in orchestra, I like also doing sport when I have time…

Amy Cain – Macquarie University
“The weird and wonderful uses of transposon insertion sequencing”

Dr Amy Cain completed her PhD under Ruth Hall, at the University of Sydney, investigating movement of antibiotic resistance genes in Salmonella enterica. After PhD submission, she first worked at Macquarie University in Ian Paulsen’s group for 6 months, where she used transcriptomic techniques and phenotypic arrays to examine copper stress in Pseudomonas spp. She went on to do a postdoc at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Cambridge, UK, where she developed bespoke genomics-techniques like TraDIS, for large-scale use. She then led the Molecular Biosciences team at the Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Centre in Malawi, employed by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, tracking and sequencing hospital-acquired bacterial infections. She returned back to Australia and to Prof. Paulsen’s group at Macquarie University, where she helped develop the TraDISort method with Karl Hassan. She left once again to take up a competitive research fellowship at Vertex Pharmaceuticals in Oxford, UK, using transcriptomics to develop new drugs for kidney disease. She is now staying put at Molecular Sciences, Macquarie University, as a DECRA fellow and starting her own group, where she will leverage her unique skills to identify new antibiotic targets within synergist antibiotic combinations and examine the role of heavy metals in bacterial infection using various genomics-based methods

Michael Gillings – Macquarie University
“Diversity and biogeography of integron gene cassettes: Beyond antibiotic resistance”

Michael Gillings is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Macquarie University. In general, his interests focus on genetic diversity and its role in evolution. This allows an eclectic research program, with papers on viruses, bacteria, fungi, diatoms, green algae, invertebrates, plants, sharks, and mammals in the last five years. Two of his main research programs include the origins and environmental consequences of antibiotic resistance, and the new geological era of the Anthropocene, precipitated by human effects on planetary systems. He teaches a large first year class, with 1100 students, and contributes regularly to radio, television and on-line forums.

April 2019

Alex Kelly – Biofoundry
“Biofoundry; Open Source Science in the age of ScihubBio & research”

Alex Kelly is a DIY Synthetic Biologist working at Biofoundry within Cicada Innovations. He has spent several years attempting to improve accessibility to insulin in the global market.Biofoundry is a not-for-profit lab seeking to break down barriers to entry in science and democratise research. 

Arisa Hosokawa – University of Sydney
“Diversity and behaviour of slime moulds”

I am a first year PhD student in the Invertebrate Behaviour and Ecology Lab at the University of Sydney. I majored in Microbiology and Botany in my undergraduate at the University of Western Australia. During my Honours year I started working on slime moulds, and I am now interested in all things slimey! I am currently studying behavioural variability in slime moulds. I am interested in looking at whether the behaviour of slime moulds change as they age and also the behavioural variability between wild species of slime moulds.

Callum Le Lay – University of Sydney
“RNA viruses in termites”

Callum is a second year PhD student in the Holmes Group, in the Charles Perkins Centre. He did his undergraduate and honours at the University of Queensland – he did his honours project at the Australian Centre of Ecogenomics, looking at the gut microbiome of leaf-eating beetles. Applying a metagenomics approach to RNA virus discovery, with a PhD focus on the discovery, annotation and reconstruction of the evolutionary history of RNA viruses in Archaea. The topic of the talk is an offshoot of the PhD project, investigation of the RNA viruses that infect termites.

Sandra McLellan – University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
“What lies beneath: the resident microbes of urban pipe infrastructure”

Dr. Sandra McLellan studies environmental microbiology and bacterial genetics with an interest in delineating the connections between the environment and human health. Her research focuses on understanding the microbial pollution structure if different habitats, which can give important information on stressors to different environments. After starting her career as a microbiologist at Miller Brewing Company, she earned her Ph.D. in Environmental Toxicology at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. Dr. McLellan is a Professor in the School of Freshwater Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, which has been her academic home since 2001. She is currently a Visiting Fellow at the School of BEEs and the Sydney Institute of Marine Sciences.

January 2019

Emily White – University of Sydney
“The microbiology of irrigation water”

Emily is a second year PhD student in the ARC ITTC for Food Safety in the Fresh Produce Industry, at the University of Sydney. I have my Bachelor of Environmental Systems and am “new” to microbiology.

Federico Lauro – Nanyang Technological University
“The good the bad and the ugly of long read sequencing (mostly good and with music by Ennio Morricone)”

Professor Lauro was born and raised in Venice, Italy. He graduated from University of Padua and went on to obtain his PhD at Scripps Institute of Oceanography (SIO) at the University of California in San Diego, California (UCSD).
In addition to his scientific achievements, he is also a champion sailor winning both the Australian and Italian National Championships. He holds a Yachtmaster Ocean Captain’s License with over 20,000 nautical miles and has raced in many long distance multiple-day open ocean regattas.

Dr Lauro has an aptitude matched with a passion, to discover the ways in which microorganisms evolve, adapt and function to drive the ecological processes that are critical for sustaining the health of global marine environments. He has purposefully developed skills in both experimental and computational sciences – in particular, deep-sea microbiology, and the latest “omic” technologies that are essential for deriving a clear and thorough understanding of microbial communities and ecosystem function.

Importantly, Lauro has also gained an expert level of proficiency in microbial genomics – this has been achieved through the pursuit of creating bioinformatic tools for analysing and modelling large datasets, involving a broad range of PERL-programming and implementation of open-source software.

Neil Wilson – University of Sydney
“Sharing is caring: the evolution, ecology and biogeography of symbiotic genomic islands in chickpea-nodulating Mesorhizobium spp.”

Neil Wilson is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Sydney. His most recent research focuses on the ecology and evolution of plant-microbe interactions. His current research project is focussed on understanding the ecology and evolution of the symbiosis between chickpeas and nitrogen-fixing Mesorhizobium spp. for the development of better commercial inoculants. 

November 2018

Naomi Jones – University of Sydney
“Synthetic reconstruction of the 1,2-dichloroethane biodegradation pathway in Escherichia coli”

Naomi just completed Honours in Microbiology in the Coleman Lab at the University of Sydney with a project at the intersection of Synthetic Biology and Bioremediation. Since starting her Honours year, she has been infected with a chronic case of research-itis and as a result would love to pursue a PhD in the field of bioremediation and environmental microbiology more broadly.

When she is not in the lab (a rarity), you may find her swimming at the beach, playing fiddle or scheming about climbing the Himalayas. To give you a better sense of who she is, here is a quote from her Honours year: “I just lab and sleep… and sometimes I just lab.”

Amanda Norton – University of Sydney
“Uncoupling Deformed wing virus replication and virulence in Varroa-naive Australian honey bees”

I am a PhD student at the University of Sydney (Behaviour and Genetics of Social Insects Laboratory), supervised by Professor Madeleine Beekman and Dr Emily Remnant. The overall aim of my PhD research is to investigate the relationship between honey bees (Apis mellifera), Deformed wing virus (DWV) and Varroa destructor.

I am interested in host-pathogen interactions, such as how vector transmission affects DWV virulence and mechanisms of resistance in honey bees. I have just returned to Sydney from the Netherlands, where I spent four months working with Varroa tolerant honeybees as part of an Endeavour Fellowship.

Nicole Groves – University of Sydney
“IgY based immunodiagnostics for curli fimbriae of Salmonella spp.”

I earned my Bachelor of Science – Chemistry from the University of Wollongong in 2013, my Master of Philosophy in Biochemistry and Biotechnology at the University of New South Wales in 2017, and am currently working towards my PhD in organic chemistry at the University of Sydney.

I worked as a lab tech and research assistant at Birling Avian Laboratories in Bringelly from 2012 to 2017, working in quality assurance and working on developing novel vaccines for chickens as part of my Masters.

October 2018

Michael Walsh – Westmead Institute for Medical Research
“The wildlife-livestock interface and anthrax suitability in India: is there an eco-historical basis for modern risk?”

Michael Walsh is a landscape epidemiologist with the Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity at the Westmead Institute for Medical Research, University of Sydney. He is interested in the complex ecologies of zoonotic pathogens and their interaction with hosts, vectors, and environments to shape risk.

As such, he applies methods from traditional spatial epidemiology, as well as more modern applications of biogeography, macroecology and data science to inform infectious disease inference and prediction.

Michael is particularly interested in the ways in which interactions among wild and domesticated animals in anthropogenically altered landscapes facilitate pathogen spillover from primary reservoir hosts to novel hosts.

Laura Brettell – HIE, Western Sydney University
“Beyond bees: how might a honey bee parasite affect the viral landscape of native pollinators?”

I am a disease ecologist interested in the evolution and ecology of viral pathogens of insects. Prior to moving to Australia, I worked as a research assistant at Sheffield University and then obtained my PhD from the University of Salford (UK).

At both institutions I for the most part, worked on the pathogen-vector-host dynamics of the Deformed wing virus – Varroa mite – honey bee system, and then more recently began to look more broadly at viral ecology across wider insect communities.

For the past year I have been working as a post-doctoral research fellow in pollinator diseases at HIE. Here I am investigating pollinator health in Australia generally, as well as trying to understand what potential impacts will be felt if, or when, Varroa arrives in Australia.

Liping Li – Macquarie University
“Reducing antimicrobial accumulation, a multidrug resistance strategy in the human pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii”

My main research interest is tackling antimicrobial resistance. The journey started from my Honours project in the research group of Prof. Ian T. Paulsen at Macquarie University during which I characterized several novel drug efflux pumps in the human pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii.

Following the completion of Honours degree, I continued with a PhD, also under the supervision of Prof. Paulsen, but with broader aims in searching for novel drug resistance mechanisms in A. baumannii through various high throughput techniques, such as Biolog-qPCR, RNA-Seq, flow cytometry and transposon insertion site sequencing (TraDIS).

I am currently a research fellow in Ian’s group expanding on the work from my PhD. The projects that I’m involved in include characterization of novel transcriptional regulators that may be involved in controlling the expression of drug efflux genes and cell membrane permeability,  characterization of potential novel drug efflux pumps, and identification of genes affecting the intracellular accumulation of fluorescent compounds. All these projects are aiming to answer the overarching question that is: how and why resistant bacterial cells accumulate less drugs.

September 2018

Mark Somerville– USyd
“Sexual PCR and the Law: shuffling my way to a patent-free GFP”

Mark is currently a research assistant in the Coleman Lab at the University of Sydney, specialising in molecular and synthetic biology. He did his undergraduate degree in Microbiology from the University of Sydey. He is currently working on developing an inducible broad host-range plasmid and creating GFP-tagged strains of food pathogens for an industry partner.

Chris Harmer – USyd
“Transposon-maker IS26, versatile flagship of the IS6 family of insertion sequences”

Chris’s work shines the light on the small mobile genetic element IS26 and the role that it plays in the spread of antibiotic resistance genes amongst Gram-negative bacteria. Surprisingly, despite the thousands of insertion sequences (IS) that have been identified, only a select handful are observed to be associated with the mobilisation of antibiotic resistance genes. This includes IS26 and closely-related members of the IS6 family. In 2014, Chris and his group identified a previously unrecognised mechanism for the movement of IS26-associated resistance genes, and over the past 6 years we have shown that this very versatile IS uses a unique self-targeted conservative mechanism to move these genes. This preferential self-targeting allows transposon-like structures containing antibiotic resistance genes to arise. Understanding how antibiotic resistance genes move into and about in the commensal and pathogen gene pools is critical to unravelling the epidemiology of resistance.

Dave Midgley– CSIRO
“Australian ericoid mycorrhiza: Gamarada debralockiae, Cairneyella variabilis and the hunt for Pezoloma ericae”

In 1995, Coolio, Celine Dion and Bryan Adams sold a lot of records. Simultaneously, a thinner David Midgley was in the middle of a Bachelor’s degree in Science at Macquarie University. He largely did plant science units and was thoroughly convinced he would become a botanist. In late 90’s an academic at UWS offered him quite a small amount of money to become a mycologist. He sold his dreams, learned a lot about an unusual and fascinating group of fungi and, in 2003, received a PhD in ericoid mycorrhizal fungal biology. Subsequently, he did two postdoctoral fellowships at Sydney University working with cotton, chytrids, soil microbiomes and microbial antagonists of fungal cotton diseases. He moved to CSIRO in 2007 where he took up a Research Scientist position working on coal seam microbiomes (coals are -after all- just really, really old plants). Today he is the Team Leader of a group of geochemists, microbiologists and geologists at CSIRO who work on characterising coal, oil and shales in the subsurface.

August 2018

Van Luong – CSIRO & University of Tasmania
“Alicyclobacillus spores in fruit drinks: genomic diversity and spoilage potential”

My PhD project is hosted by CSIRO Agriculture and Food located in North Ryde, NSW and I am registered with the University of Tasmania. I am over halfway through my PhD candidature.

The aim of my research is to investigate the mechanisms of spore inactivation by novel and conventional processing stresses including heat, low pH, and high pressure to assist in the development of controlling Alicyclobacillus spoilage in fruit juice and fruit-based beverages.

I am also interested in investigating the connection between phenotypic and genotypic traits of bacterial spores’ resistance and germination.

Robert Mueller – Western Sydney University
“The fascinating world of fungal farming beetles in Australia”

Robert Mueller (MSc) is a PhD candidate at the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, a entomologist and a plant pathologist. Roberts interests are in microbial ecology, biodiversity and computational biology. His research uses next generation 16S rRNA gene and ITS2 amplicon sequencing to describe the bacterial and fungal microbiome of the only known eusocial beetle Austroplatypus incompertus. The beetle is a fungal-farming wood-boring ambrosia beetle, obligately reliant on its fungal symbiont. This relationship is very unique in the sense that the beetles inhabit the heartwood of living Eucalyptus trees, which is a challenging habitat for their fungal partner as well as for the beetles.

Robert completed his Master of Science in Plant Protection at the The University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Christian Stauffer and Dr. Thomas Cech. He worked as a research assistant in forest pathology at the Austrian Research Centre for Forests (BFW) and was a visiting researcher at the Max-Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena in 2016 and the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI), University of Pretoria in 2017.

Bhumika Shah – Macquarie University
“Looking through the lens – molecular mechanisms of niche adaptation in picocyanobacteria”

Bhumika is a Protein biochemist who is interested in unravelling the genetic basis for microbial adaptation in distinct environments. She completed her PhD. at Macquarie University in A/Prof. Bridget Mabbutt’s laboratory, where she successfully utilized 3D protein structure determination to enrich functional annotation of foreign genetic elements in medically relevant Acinetobacter baumannii strains.

She than took a position in Prof. Ian Paulsen’s laboratory, investigating the distribution of marine photosynthetic microorganisms and their genetic role in shaping global ecosystems.

Her research specifically focusses on the physiological and biochemical interpretation of substrate binding proteins that facilitate fundamental processes (e.g. transport, chemotaxis, quorum sensing) in marine picocyanobacteria.

 

July 2018

Christopher Denes – University of Sydney
“Determining the interactome of herpes simplex virus type-1 envelope glycoprotein gE”

Chris is a third year University of Sydney PhD student studying in the Centre for Virus Research at the Westmead Institute for Medical Research. He’s working on determining the virus-host interactions involved during herpes simplex virus type-1 (HSV-1) egress with the hope to develop a novel antiviral target.

Chris’ protein of interest, glycoprotein E, has been shown to be necessary for virus egress before exocytosis and as such is a key target for research into developing new antivirals. All current herpes antivirals target viral DNA replication and Chris focusses on another stage of the lifecycle to identify potential targets for combination therapies.

Recently he’s employed mass spectrometry methods to identify the interactome of HSV-1 gE during infection.

Nathan Danckert – University of Sydney
“Diversity and Plasticity: The intestinal microbiome of Australian abalone from aquaculture”

I completed my honours and undergraduate degree in Environmental Science, majoring in marine biology, at Deakin University, Warrnambool, in Victoria. Whilst studying I worked as an aquaculture technician for 2 years at an Abalone aquaculture farm in Port Fairy.

In 2015, I accepted a PhD scholarship at the University of Sydney, in microbial ecology, working with the Australian Abalone Growers Association and SARDI (South Australian Research and Development Institute). I’ve spent the last 3 years investigating the intestinal microbiome of Australian abalone from aquaculture, linking nutrition and health.

I aim to finish my studies in January 2019, and today I will be presenting a snapshot of the abalone microbiome that will serve as a foundation for future industry studies.

Emily Remnant – University of Sydney
“Honey bee viruses in a post-Varroa era: How a vector brought bees to their knees”

Emily studies the genetics and genomics of insects, to understand evolutionary processes and explore ways to improve the health of beneficial insects like honey bees.

Emily completed her PhD at the University of Melbourne in 2012, using Drosophila melanogaster to investigate the genetic changes involved in the development of insecticide resistance. She joined the University of Sydney as a postdoctoral researcher in 2012, to investigate DNA methylation and genomic imprinting in honey bees.

Earlier this year Emily was appointed as an Early Career Development Fellow and lecturer. Her current research focuses on host-parasite interactions, the impact of viruses on honey bees, and exploring new ways to protect honey bees against viral disease.

June 2018

John Moreau – University of Melbourne
“Genome-resolved metagenomics yields new insights into microbial biodegradation of thiocyanate contamination from gold mining”

Dr. Moreau is a geomicrobiologist who researches microbial community responses to heavy metals contamination in manmade and natural environments.

He is particularly interested in microbial species interactions and impacts on biogeochemical cycling of nutrients and trace metals, as well as the evolution of resistance genes in extremophiles.

He obtained his Ph.D from the University of California-Berkeley in 2006, and served as a U.S. Geological Survey postdoctoral fellow before taking up his current position at The University of Melbourne in 2008.

Deepa Varkey – Macquarie University
“Modelling the transition of cyanobacterial communities across the Tasman Front”

Deepa completed her PhD at Macquarie University on Temperature adaptation in marine picocyanobacteria. She spent a year in a post doctoral position at UTS researching algal-bacterial interactions, and has since returned the Macquarie University to continue her research.

I am working towards unravelling the microbial community dynamics across ocean fronts using species distribution modelling, exploring microbial community gene expression using metatranscriptomics and building a molecular toolkit to genetically manipulate cyanobacteria. This will directly improve our ability to understand and predict the impacts of environmental perturbations such as climate change on the distribution and function of marine microbes, and the subsequent implications for marine ecosystems.

Brodie Sutcliffe – Macquarie University
“A metagenomic investigation of Australia’s only subterranean estuary”

I completed my Bachelor of Science and Honours degrees at Western Sydney University in 2008. I then went on to work as a research assistant at the National Measurement Institute, where I was part of a team developing assays for the detection of gene doping in athletes.

After three years, I accepted a position at CSIRO where I assisted on a project studying biomarkers for disease in humans. I found humans were particularly difficult to work with, and that I’d much prefer to work with organisms that don’t lie about their caloric intake, so I went on to pursue my PhD in molecular ecology.

I conducted my PhD research in the Paulsen Laboratory at Macquarie University and have just recently submitted my thesis for examination.

My PhD was concerned with the effects of heavy metals on microbial communities. My work primarily involved next-generation sequencing, both amplicon and shotgun metagenomic sequencing, of complex sediment communities along metal concentration gradients. Since completing this research, I have applied these skills to Bundera sinkhole, investigating at how the genetic composition of microbial communities differs with depth.

May 2018

Hannah Sassi – University of Sydney
“Utilizing surrogates to track environmental pathogen spread and evaluate critical control points in healthcare”

Hannah’s background is focused in public health and microbiology. She graduated from the University of Arizona in 2016 with her PhD in Environmental Microbiology, and prior to that she studied Environmental Health Sciences for her Master and Bachelor degrees.

After her PhD, she worked extensively on antimicrobial testing protocol and product development, focusing mainly on surface coatings and their environmental applications, before arriving in Sydney. Currently, Hannah is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Sydney in the ARC Center for Fresh Produce Safety where she advises on water quality and environmental control studies.

Hannah’s research focuses on isolating, tracking and controlling pathogens in the environment, as well as utilizing surrogate organisms to evaluate the impacts of targeted disinfection and hygiene practices, and how they can reduce the movement of viruses, as well as reduce potential contact points for healthcare workers.

Peter A. White – UNSW
“New ways to monitor epidemic and emerging noroviruses”

Peter White is a Professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia. He is a molecular virologist with a particular interest in norovirus, antiviral development, viral evolution, paleovirology and hepatitis viruses. He has a breadth of experience in the development of novel molecular assay systems to investigate viral infections. Peter’s team is probably best known for their discovery of two pandemic noroviruses, and seminal work describing the evolution of pandemic noroviruses through both antigenic drift and recombination.

Following a BSc (Hons) in Biotechnology from King’s College London (1992), Peter completed a PhD at University College, London (1996) in molecular microbiology. In 1996 Peter commenced his Postdoctoral research at Macquarie University, Sydney, as a recipient of a Royal Society Fellowship and later worked as Hepatitis Group Leader at the Prince of Wales Hospital until joining the University of New South Wales in 2003.

Jemma Geoghegan – Macquarie University
“Finding the drivers and barriers to viral disease emergence”

Jemma Geoghegan joined Macquarie University in early 2017 to take up a lectureship in the Department of Biological Sciences. Jemma’s main research focus is understanding what factors facilitate viral disease emergence.

Virus emergence is the successful infection and spread within a novel host species. The plethora of viruses in existence, including the vast number that are yet to be classified, presents the potential for devastating cross-species transmission events. Exploiting recent advances in next generation sequencing, my work aims to determine the barriers and drivers of virus emergence, augmenting our ability to prevent and contain emerging infectious disease.

April 2018

Vanessa Pirotta – Macquarie University
“Microbes, whale snot and ecosystem health ”

Vanessa’s PhD research is focused on identifying conservation gaps for cetaceans within Australian waters. Her work draws upon international examples of marine megafauna interactions with anthropogenic activities. Vanessa’s most current research involves the use of emerging technologies such as drones for marine megafauna conservation.

Vanessa completed her Master of Research (MRes) in 2014 where she investigated the effects of underwater construction and whale alarms upon migrating humpback whales off Sydney, Australia. Vanessa has a Bachelor of Science from the Australian National University where she majored in Zoology and Evolution and Ecology. She has conducted research in a variety of different locations around Australia, Tonga and most recently Antarctica.

Vanessa’s research:

• Drones or unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have huge potential to improve the safety and efficiency of sample collection from wild animals under logistically challenging circumstances.
• I will present a method for surveying population health that uses UAVs to sample respiratory vapour, ‘whale blow’, exhaled by free-swimming humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae), and coupled this with amplification and sequencing of respiratory tract microbiota.
• Model-based comparisons with seawater and drone-captured air demonstrated that our system minimized external sources of contamination and successfully captured sufficient material to identify whale blow-specific microbial taxa.

Melanie Duncan – University of Sydney
“Loss of actin-based motility impairs Ectromelia virus release in vitro but is not critical to spread in vivo”

I’m a 4th year PhD student under the supervision of Tim Newsome at the University of Sydney, studying the release of poxviruses from their host cells. My main interests are in public health microbiology and antimicrobial resistance. My scientific dream is to one day be able to contribute to the eradication of an infectious disease. I’m looking to finish my PhD by midyear, and will be searching for postdoctoral positions then.

The ability to promote actin-nucleation at the surface of infected cells during virus release is a virulence mechanism conserved across the poxviruses family including in variola virus, monkeypox, and vaccinia virus. Ectromelia virus (ECTV) is an orthopoxvirus and the causative agent of mousepox. ECTV is able to promote actin nucleation through the viral gene A36R. A36 (encoded by A36R) and its homologues mediate actin-nucleation through phosphorylation of one or two critical tyrosine residues that ultimately recruit the cellular Arp2/3 actin-nucleating complex. A36 is pleotropic, and is also required for the intracellular trafficking of virus along microtubules mediated by binding of kinesin-1 to key acidic amino acid motifs.

We have generated a recombinant ECTV that is specifically disrupted in actin-based motility, leaving the function of microtubule-based transport intact. This allowed us to examine the role of actin-nucleation in vivo in an endogenous infection model for the first time. We confirm that actin-nucleation by ECTV is reliant on the phosphorylation of an A36 tyrosine residue, as was expected. We further demonstrate that actin-based motility plays a critical role in promoting the release of virus from infected cells. Actin-based motility also plays a role in the systemic spread of virus in vivo.

Silas Vick – Macquarie University
“Life on coal: deciphering the microbial ecology of coal seam microbiomes”

Silas Vick is a PhD candidate with Macquarie University and CSIRO. He holds an MSc in Microbial Ecology and a Bachelor’s degree in Biology, both from Macquarie University. In both his MSc and his PhD he has sought to understand how microbes in communities and biofilms degrade organic matter in coal to methane. In order to undertake this work, he uses a range of classical microbiology and microbial genomics techniques along with electron microscopy. In his PhD he is supervised by Professor Ian Paulsen (Macquarie) along with Drs. Sasha Tetu (Macquarie) and David Midgley (CSIRO).

In the subsurface, microbial communities are responsible for the conversion of fossilised organic carbon in coal seams to methane. Despite the economic and environmental importance of methane both as a fuel and as a pollutant (greenhouse gas), the way in which this community functions and the individual roles of the majority of taxa remain unknown. In this presentation I will outline findings from my research over the past four years focussing on trying to elucidate roles played by the numerous bacterial taxa in the conversion of organic matter in coal to methane.