Principial Investigator

Dr Matthias Fellner (matthias.fellner@otago.ac.nz)

Current staff members

George Randall – Postdoctoral Fellow – Peptide inhibitor discovery

Shilpa Saseendran Nair – Assistant Research Fellow – Bacterial metabolomics

Malcolm Rutledge – Assistant Research Fellow – Protein & enzyme characterisation

Current PhD students

Caleb Trimble – Colour protein in sea stars; co-supervised by Dr. Nathan Kenny (Biochemistry), Professor Miles Lamare (Marine Science) and Dr. Suzanne Williams (Natural History Museum, London)

Haziq Anwar – Characterisation of FphD as diagnostic probe for diagnosing and monitoring disease progression of Staphylococcus aureus infections; co-supervised by Dr. Daniel Pletzer (Microbiology and Immunology) and Dr. Andrea Vernall (Chemistry)

You Xiangyan – Targeting Staphylococcus aureus serine hydrolases FphA, FphE and FphH for the development of diagnostic probes; co-supervised by Dr. Daniel Pletzer (Microbiology and Immunology)

Pragya Bradu – Characterisation of DONSON (protein downstream neighbour of Son); main supervisor Associate Professor Louise Bicknell; co-supervisors Dr. Matthias Fellner and Associate Professor Liz Ledgerwood (all Biochemistry).

Previous lab members

Adrian Isaac Soleil Smith-Beech (MSc student 2023/24) – The ATP-binding Protein of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, UspN, and the Cofactor Theory of Universal Stress Protein Function; co-supervised by Dr. Daniel Pletzer (Microbiology and Immunology)

Ianah Rae Clarice Guasch Bitac (Summer student 2023/24) – S. aureus serine hydrolases

Annabel Walsh (Summer student 2022/23) – Received Otago Medical Research Foundation Renshaw Prize 2022-23 for her summer project on S. aureus serine hydrolase FphH