Bacterial Cell Biology Lab
School of Biological Sciences | The University of AucklandPeople
Iain Hay – Lab Head
sI completed my PhD in Palmy in 2012, investigating polysaccharide biosynthesis and secretion in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. After this, I worked as a senior scientist at an NZ biotechnology startup for a few years before seeing the light and returning to academia, taking a postdoctoral position at Prof. Trevor Lithgow’s lab based at the Biomedicine Discovery Institute at Monash University. This was an amazing training ground where I developed an interest in understanding the molecular machines involved in moving things across the bacterial cell envelope.
I returned to NZ to establish my independent lab at the University of Auckland School of Biological Sciences in 2019. I’m interested in all things bacterial (including the viruses that infect them).
Evie Mansfield – PhD Candidate
Evie is working on a Marsden project investigating the molecular machines responsible for building and secreting Inoviridae virions by bacteria.
Jose Benjamin Dar Juan – PhD Candidate
JB is working on a platform for the production of phage derived antimicrobials
Xinyuan Wang (Helen) – MSc
Helen is working on engineering receptor binding domains to better target gram positive bacteria
Yi Yuan (YY) – MSc
YY is working on engineering receptor binding domains to better target Gram negative bacteria
Alumni
Banyon Carnell – MSc 2021. Banyon worked in collaboration with A/Prof Matt Templeton and his team at Plant and Food Research to investigate the cell surface targeting of phage tails that have been co-opted by bacteria for intraspecies warfare.
Arrafy Rhaman- PhD 2024. Arrafy (Raffy) was a NZ MFAT Commonwealth Scholar. Raffy’s thesis investigated phage derived biofilm degrading enzymes, particularly those targeting Pseudomonas aeruginosa extracellular polysaccharides. Arrafy is now a as Lecturer in Biochemistry and Biotechnology in his home country of Bangladesh.