Bacterial Cell Biology Lab
School of Biological Sciences | The University of AucklandPeople
Iain Hay – Lab Head
I 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 early 2019. I’m interested in all things bacterial (including the viruses that infect them).
Arrafy Rhaman – PhD Candidate
Arrafy (Raffy) is a NZ MFAT Commonwealth Scholar. Raffy’s thesis is investigating phage derived biofilm degrading enzymes, particularly those targeting Pseudomonas aeruginosa extracellular polysaccharides.
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 – BBiomedSC(Hons)
JB is working on isolating phage targeting mucoid clinical Pseudomonas aeriginosa isolates
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.