{"id":184,"date":"2023-06-01T13:08:38","date_gmt":"2023-06-01T01:08:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/fellner\/?page_id=184"},"modified":"2026-03-25T12:14:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T23:14:25","slug":"our-team","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/fellner\/our-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Our team"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Principal Investigator<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Dr Matthias Fellne<\/strong>r (matthias.fellner@otago.ac.nz<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2025:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2024:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Current staff member<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Malcolm Rutledge<\/strong> – Assistant Research Fellow – Protein & enzyme characterisations<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Current PhD students<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Caleb Trimble<\/strong> – Colour protein in sea stars<\/em>; co-supervised by Dr. Nathan Kenny<\/a> (Biochemistry), Professor Miles Lamare<\/a> (Marine Science) and Dr. Suzanne Williams<\/a> (Natural History Museum, London)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Haziq Anwar<\/strong> – Characterisation of FphD as diagnostic probe for diagnosing and monitoring disease progression of Staphylococcus aureus infections<\/em>; co-supervised by Associate Professor Daniel Pletzer <\/a>(Microbiology and Immunology) and Dr. Andrea Vernall<\/a> (Chemistry)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Xiangyan You<\/strong> – Targeting Staphylococcus aureus serine hydrolases FphA for the development of diagnostic probes<\/em>; co-supervised by Associate Professor <\/a>Daniel Pletzer <\/a>(Microbiology and Immunology)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pragya Bradu<\/strong> – Characterisation of DONSON<\/em> (protein downstream neighbour of Son); main supervisor Professor Louise Bicknell<\/a>; co-supervisors Dr. Matthias Fellner and Professor Liz Ledgerwood<\/a> (all Biochemistry).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shuxian Li<\/strong> – Enzymes in food products<\/em>; main supervisor Professor Aladin Bekhit<\/a> (Department of Food Science); co-supervisor Dr. Matthias Fellner<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tianming Chen<\/strong> – Using Gene Editing to Produce High Activity Keratinases to Hydrolyze Wool Protein for Food Applications<\/em>; main supervisor Professor Aladin Bekhit<\/a> (Department of Food Science); co-supervisors Dr. Matthias Fellner and Professor Shyamal Das<\/a> (School of Pharmacy)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yin Wang<\/strong> – Investigation of fermentation of brewer\u2019s spent grain byproduct using food grade filamentous fungi to enhance extraction of protein<\/em>; main supervisor Professor Aladin Bekhit<\/a> (Department of Food Science); co-supervisor Dr. Matthias Fellner<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jack Coakley<\/strong><\/strong> – Effects of ultraviolet radiation on sea stars<\/em>; main supervisor Professor Miles Lamare<\/a> (Marine Science); co-supervisors Dr. Matthias Fellner; Dr. Nathan Kenny<\/a> (Biochemistry), and Dr. Suzanne Williams<\/a> (Natural History Museum, London)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previous lab members<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

George Randall<\/strong> – Postdoctoral Fellow (2023-2025) – Peptide inhibitor discovery<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shilpa Saseendran Nair<\/strong> – Assistant Research Fellow (2023-2025) – Bacterial metabolomics and lipidomics<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yoann Marjolet<\/strong> (MSc research internship from Biological Engineering at Polytech Clermont France, 2025) – Pseudomonas aeruginosa Universal Stress Proteins<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adrian Isaac Soleil Smith-Beech<\/strong> (MSc student 2023\/24) – The ATP-binding Protein of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, UspN, and the Cofactor Theory of Universal Stress Protein Function<\/em>; co-supervised by Associate Professor<\/a> Daniel Pletzer <\/a>(Microbiology and Immunology)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sathmi Bambarawana<\/strong> (Summer student 2025\/26) – Characterisation of FphJ<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ianah Rae Clarice Guasch Bitac<\/strong> (Summer student 2023\/24) – S. aureus<\/em> serine hydrolases<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Annabel Walsh <\/strong>(Summer student 2022\/23) – Received Otago Medical Research Foundation Renshaw Prize 2022-23<\/span> for her summer project on S. aureus<\/em> serine hydrolase FphH<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Principal Investigator Dr Matthias Fellner (matthias.fellner@otago.ac.nz) 2025: 2024: Current staff member Malcolm Rutledge – Assistant Research Fellow – Protein & enzyme characterisations 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40025,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":49,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-184","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/fellner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/fellner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/fellner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/fellner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40025"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/fellner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/fellner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/184\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/fellner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}