Past news
We have contributed to a Science Advances paper from the Blower and Genevaux labs uncovering the mechanism of AbiE toxins in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
Leah has started in the lab as a post-doctoral researcher.
Leah's PhD has been recognised on the Health Sciences Divisional List of Exceptional Doctoral theses - amazing effort and well deserved.
Hannah and Peter contributed to a new study in collaboration with Tim Blower's lab (Durham) on toxin-antitoxin systems in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
Sadly we have had to bid farewell to Aroa with a lab dinner as she returns to her native Spain - you will be missed but new adventures await!
Lucia has started in the lab as a post-doctoral researcher.
Leah completely aced her PhD defence. Thanks to the Marsden Fund for supporting this research area.
Aroa successfully defended her PhD thesis. Thanks to support from the Bioprotection Research Centre and Otago.
Huge congratulations to Lucia - her thesis has been put on the Division of Health Sciences list of Exceptional Theses.
Nils and Peter contributed a commentary piece to Microbiology Today on CRISPR for their 75th anniversary edition.
We have discovered new anti-CRISPR proteins and anti-defence island clusters in a nice collaboration with the Brown, Sørenson and Bondy-Denomy labs.
Well done to Lucia on the successful defence of her PhD on CRISPR and phage evasion strategies.
New work led by Rob and Tess with David Taylor's lab at UT@Austin shows that CRISPR complexes express 'hidden' proteins due to alternative translation start sites.
Our collaboration with Matt Templeton (Plant & Food) on the variation in LPS in the kiwifruit pathogen, Psa is available on bioRxiv.
Massive congratulations to Leah for submitting her PhD during lockdown on the development of a new high-throughput method to discover CRISPR-Cas regulators.
We have entered Level 4 lockdown due to COVID-19 and are now working remotely from home.
Lucia gave her PhD swansong seminar to a full audience in Microbiology and Immunology.
Well done to Aroa on submitting her PhD on CRISPR-Cas regulation.
We are excited to have four new Honours students join the group this year - welcome Hazel, Kotaro, Natalie and Thomas.
We are really happy to have Sean Meaden starting his Marie Curie fellowship in the group.
Peter and our lab alumnus Bridget have contributed to a Nature paper led from Edze Westra's group at Exeter, UK.
Marijn has joined the lab for a MSc internship from Wageningen, NL - welcome to NZ.
Susie and Peter returned from a research visit to the Synbio group of Yves Briers for our MBIE project.
Check Hannah and Bridget's Nature review to learn about the latest advances in the phage defence field.
Stephanie has started her MSc in the group - welcome back to Micro!
Great to have Raymond Staals back from Wageningen, NL to visit the group.
Peter has finished his latest stint in Germany and is back in NZ.
Some phages produce a nucleus to protect them from CRISPR-Cas - see Lucia's Nature Microbiology paper.
Manuela has started in the lab to work on Phages against Psa
Bridget's Nature Comms paper shows that type I CRISPR-Cas systems can result in abortive infection!
Thomas and Leighton have started summer projects supervised by Rob and Simon, respectively.
David won a poster prize at the Joint Biochem/Micro Research celebration! Great job!
Our recent work was presented by Peter at the ETH, Zürich, Switzerland.
Peter visited University of Freiburg, Germany as an invited speaker to present the lab's work.
Peter was a PhD examiner and invited speaker at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Huge congratulations to Mariya who submitted her PhD thesis!
Peter spoke at the 3rd International Conference on CRISPR Technologies in Würzburg
Simon, Hannah, Howard and Tess presented their work at the Queenstown Research Week.
Peter was an invited speaker at the Genome Editing with CRISPR meeting in Berlin
We have published in Nucleic Acids Research that an Anti-CRISPR associated protein regulates Acr expression - the first paper from Nil's PhD - well done! See some of the media attention.
Peter headed to Germany as an Alexander von Humboldt Experienced Research Fellow.
We published an updated chapter on phage-mediated transduction for the Encyclopedia of Microbiology.
David Mayo has started his PhD in the lab! Welcome!
We were part of a huge international collaboration on the widespread crAssphage that was published in Nature Microbiology. The paper provoked a lot of international media.
Our collaboration with the Heck lab on MS on Cas complexes is available in RSC Chemical Science
Our latest piece of work on CRISPR regulation from Hannah and Adrian published in FEMS
Simon and Peter published a paper in Nature commenting on the recent work from the Marraffini lab
We had a huge contingent of the group at CRISPR2019 in Quebec Canada
Peter presented our labs work on CRISPR Regulation at CRISPR2019
Susie and Peter published a paper on a new jumbo phage that infects Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae
Peter gave his Inaugural Professorial Lecture at the University of Otago
Tim and Tess graduated (MSc and Hons, respectively) - well done!
Bridget published her work showing how phages escape targeting by single or multiple CRISPR spacers.
See our paper from a collaboration with Chris Brown's lab on the correlation between antibiotic resistance, CRISPR and anti-CRISPR.
We welcome Zacharie Paquet to the lab as part of his MSc internship from Wageningen Uni, NL
Our toxin-antitoxin work was presented by Peter at the first EMBO toxin-antitoxin meeting in Windsor, UK
Peter present the lab's work and talk science with Baojun Wang and his team at Edinburgh University, UK
Peter has just given his Fleming Prize lecture at the Microbiology Society (UK) annual meeting in Belfast, UK - online on Youtube and published in Microbiology
Peter visited our awesome collaborators in the Salmond laboratory, Cambridge, UK
Welcome to the lab Bridget and congratulations on getting a prestigious Duffus Lubecki Postgraduate Scholarship in Applied Science
David Mayo Muñoz has been awarded an Otago PhD scholarship and will join the lab in June! Congrats.
Maureen and Leighton have started Honours projects in the group.
Tess has started in the lab for her PhD - welcome back!
Bridget Fellows has been awarded a University of Otago Master's scholarship to join the lab - great job!
Tess was awarded a University of Otago Doctoral Scholarship!
Bridget has started a post-doc position with Edze Westra in Exeter - good luck, you will be missed!
Peter was an invited speaker at the CRISPR Ecology and Evolution meeting in London at the Royal Society
Bridget presented a poster of her work at the CRISPR Ecology and Evolution meeting
Jo Turnbull is joining us from Heather Hendrickson's group at Massey for a month of fun phage experiments!
Howard has been at the Summer Internship for Indigenous Genomics (SING) Aotearoa course.
Check out our Cell Host & Microbe paper on how imprecise spacer acquisition promotes rapid primed CRISPR adaptation
News coverage of the Cell Host & Microbe paper in the ODT, Newstalk ZB, Voxy etc.
We describe in Methods in Enzymology how to perform in vitro CRISPR-Cas adaptation assays
Maureen was awarded the Margaret and John Loutit Prize as the top 300-level Microbiology student - congrats!
Tess received the John Miles Prize as the top 400-level Microbiology student - great work!
Tim has finished up in the lab. All the best for your future adventures!
See our publication in Nature Microbiology about work showing that CRISPR-Cas impedes archaeal mating
Congratulations to Bridget and Hannah who have graduated their PhDs today!
We have just published a review on "Phage-based biocontrol strategies and their application in agriculture and aquaculture"
We hosted 300 attendees including Sylvain Moineau and Yanli Wang at Microbes and Molecules at Otago - the joint meeting of the NZMS/NZSBMB societies.
Peter is the recipient of the Fleming Prize from the Microbiology Society, UK.
Tess is back for a summer project - great to have you back in the group!
Maureen has joint the lab for a summer project - welcome!
We have co-authored a new resource for tracking anti-CRISPR names in The CRISPR Journal.
Congratulations to Tess and Maureen who have been awarded summer studentships in the lab!
Peter was part of a gene-editing panel discussion "LATE 2018: CRISPR – Utopian or Dystopian? Post-nature" at Auckland Museum.
Hannah's PhD thesis was placed on the Health Sciences Division List of Exceptional Doctoral theses!
Well done to Bridget on defending her PhD thesis!
Peter was an invited speaker at the International Congress of Genetics in Brazil
Our work showing evidence of widespread priming in type I and II CRISPR-Cas systems in collaboration with the Brown lab was published in RNA Biology
Tim submitted his MSc thesis - great work!
Peter have a talk on Gene-editing to the HUGO Group CEO Retreat
Hannah successfully defended her PhD - fantastic effort!
Gisela has joined the lab for a visit from Buenos Aires to do some CRISPR experiments - bienvenido!
Peter was an invited speaker at the EMBO Viruses of Microbes in Poland.
Simon, Lucia, Mariya and Peter attended and presented at EMBO VoM.
Bridget submitted her PhD thesis - great work!
Jacob joined the lab from the USA as a 'summer' student - welcome!
Peter was an invited speaker at the CRISPR2018 conference in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Rob, Simon, Lucia, Mariya, Hannah and Peter attended and presented at CRISPR2018.
Hannah has submitted her PhD thesis - well done!
Hannah's paper on how a novel antitoxin autoregulates came out in JMB.
Dr Luciano Rigano is visiting the lab on sabbatical for 3-4 months.
Peter presented the group's work in Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
Peter visited Wageningen University, the Netherlands.
Lots of new people in the lab! Welcome to Hons students Tess and Nick. Welcome back to Howard who is starting his PhD and to Susie who joins us from the Biochemistry Department.
Former lab member Max Wilkinson was visiting from the LMB in Cambridge talking about his CryoEM work on the spliceosome.
We hosted Prof. Martin Loessner from ETH Zurich who presented their awesome work on phage re-booting recently published in PNAS.
CRISPR-Cas can enhance HGT and that phages can disseminate CRISPR-Cas systems - see Bridget's paper in mBio and Research Highlight in Nature Reviews Microbiology
Peter has received the Biomedical School top Distinguished Researcher Award for 2017.
Our quorum sensing paper gained the Best Paper Award in the Biomedical School for 2017.
Peter was an invited speaker at the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Congratulations to Nick, who was awarded the The Margaret and John Loutit prize for the best 300-level Microbiology student
Our latest data on CRISPR adaptation was presented by Peter as an invited speaker in Berlin Germany at a DFG CRISPR Meeting.
Peter was an invited speaker at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, hosted by Emmanuelle Charpentier
Peter was interviewed and quoted in an article by Kate Evans in the New Zealand Geographic on gene editing (Life Hackers)
The lab has been awarded a Marsden Fund grant to study CRISPR-Cas regulation in collaboration with Paul Gardner.
Rob has been awarded a Marsden Fast-Start grant to study CRISPR-Cas in cyanobacteria.
We have received a Dean's Bequest Grant for our CRISPR-Cas work.
Peter and Aroa are presenting at the Bio-protection CoRE meeting in Christchurch.
Howard Maxwell has been awarded an Māori Health Research PhD Scholarship! Coverage in ODT, NZ Herald and Waatea News.
Nick Donaldson has been awarded a summer scholarship in the laboratory - great work!
Peter presented the group's research at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), Argentina.
Peter is teaching on a phage course for South & Central Americans in UBA, Argentina.
Peter was on a Royal Society Panel discussion with Kim Hill - podcast - ODT article
Peter and Simon were on Radio NZ Our Changing World talking about phages and CRISPR-Cas
Mariya and Lucia received poster awards at the Queenstown Molecular Biology meeting
Peter received the Andrew Shelling Memorial Trophy at QMB2017! Thanks to the whole lab for their effort.
Simon was presented with the illumina™ Emerging Researcher Award at QMB2017.
Did you know that type III CRISPR-Cas systems borrow crRNAs from type I? New paper in eLife in collaboration with the Fire and Sanchez-Amat groups.
Congratulations to Simon Jackson - recipient of the illumina™ Emerging Researcher Award, 2017
Bridget and Peter attended and presented work from the lab at the Evergreen International Phage Biology Meeting in the USA
Peter gave the Ross Crozier Award Lecture at the Genetics Society of AustralAsia meeting
Adrian's PhD thesis was placed on the Health Sciences Division List of Exceptional Doctoral theses!
Check out our new PNAS paper on type I-F CRISPR-Cas adaptation - a great collaborative project.
Peter was the Keynote speaker at CRISPR2017 in Big Sky, Montana
Rob, Simon, Bridget and Peter attended and presented at CRISPR2017.
Congratulations to Howard who has been awarded a Hauora Māori Ministry of Health Postgraduate Scholarship!
Peter has been awarded the Ross Crozier Medal from the Genetics Society of AustralAsia
Adrian and Peter were interviewed about CRISPR-Cas and quorum sensing on abc radio in Australia.
We have a new review on CRISPR-Cas adaptation out in Science!
We have published a paper in Current Opinion in Microbiology about how CRISPR-Cas systems are regulated.
In collaboration with the Gardner, Mesarich, Gerth and Templeton labs we have generated a Psa mutant library.
Howard has returned to start his Honours project - welcome back!
Peter was external PhD examiner in Wageningen, NL and Uppsala, Sweden
Peter has been an invited speaker in Wageningen, TU Delft and Uppsala Universities
How does a phage evade bacterial innate immunity? - See our AEM paper in collaboration with the Salmond lab
Tim has returned to start his MSc - welcome back!
Raymond has returned to NL to lead his on group at Wageningen University - good luck!
Our Molecular Cell paper was highlighted in Science (Editors' Choice Commentary)
Quorum sensing regulates CRISPR-Cas activity! Read our new paper in Molecular Cell and the accompanying commentary.
Adrian won the NZMS poster prize and Bridget was 2nd in the NZSBMB poster prize - congrats!
Peter was a Plenary Speaker at the NZMS/NZSBMB 2016 in Christchurch, NZ
Bridget spoke at the NZMS/NZSBMB 2016 and Bridget, Hannah, Adrian, Leah, Brian and Mariya presented posters.
Howard has joined the lab for a summer project - welcome!
Peter has been speaking in Parliament on gene editing and CRISPR-Cas9.
Our latest work on CRISPR-Cas adaptation is published in Nature Communications.
Leah has joined the lab from the USA for her PhD!
Aroa has arrived from Spain to start her PhD - Welcome to NZ.
Nils returned to Germany after his 6 month visit - farwell!
Hannah and Peter visited George Salmond's lab at Cambridge University.
Hannah and Peter visited Tim Blower's lab at Durham University.
Peter was an invited speaker at EMBO Viruses of Microbes, Liverpool.
Hannah presented a poster at the EMBO Viruses of Microbes.
Lucia has joined the lab for her PhD - welcome!
Peter was an invited speaker at ASM Microbe in Boston.
We have published a new study on anti-CRISPRs in Nature Microbiology in collaboration with Alan Davidson's lab
The anti-CRISPR publication is a Nature Highlight and has a commentary in The Scientist.
Peter was an invited speaker at the CRISPR2016 meeting in Israel.
Ray gave a talk and Adrian presented a poster at CRISPR2016.
With Chris Brown we have published a CRISPRDetect(ion) tool in BMC Genomics.
Hannah has just published her work on CRISPR-Cas editing and SdhE regulation in Microbiology.
In collaboration with Andrew Pitman we have a new paper in Frontiers in Microbiology.
Welcome to Tim Ferguson who is doing his PGDipSci with the group.
We have just published the Cas1 structure in Biochem J with Kurt Krause's group
Peter is in North & South magazine talking about CRISPR-Cas and gene-editing.
Mariya has started her PhD. Welcome to the group!
Brian has returned to the group for his MSc in collaboration with Mihnea Bostina.
Nils has joined the lab as a visiting MSc student from Germany. Welcome!
Alison has finished her summer project. All the best Alison!
Bridget won 1st place for her poster at the Regulatory RNAs meeting in Cancun, Mexico!
Peter spoke about spacer acquisition at the Regulating with RNAs in Bacteria and Archaea meeting in Cancun, Mexico
Peter spoke at the Annual Bio-Protection conference in Christchurch.
We have published a paper in Genome Biology.
Alison has just started a summer project with the group.
We have just published in Nature Reviews Microbiology on phages!
Ray has been awarded a Marsden Fast Start grant! Congratulations!
Ray is speaking at the EMBO/EMBL Non-Coding Genome meeting in Heidelberg, Germany.
Peter was awarded the national 2015 NZSBMB Custom Science Award and gave a plenary lecture at ComBio, Melbourne.
Max is off to start his PhD at Cambridge University - good luck!
We have just had our lab retreat to Tekapo!
Adrian, Hannah, Max and Peter attended the Queenstown Research Week and presented their research.
Peter has been awarded the national 2015 Thermo Fisher Scientific Award for excellence in molecular biology (ODT story).
Peter has presented our current research at the Evergreen International Phage Biology Meeting in Olympia, USA.
Our Colombian collaboration has just resulted in a paper in Viruses.
We have published a study of a T7-like Pseudomonas phage in Viruses.
Peter has given a talk on our work at CRISPR2015 in New York, USA.
Adrian has presented his work at the ASM General Meeting in New Orleans, USA and the FEMS microbiology congress in Maastricht, Netherlands.
CRISPR: Methods and Protocols is now available (Eds. Lundgren, Charpentier and Fineran)
Adrian has published a study in Nucleic Acids Research on regulation of the Type I-F CRISPR-Cas system.
Ambarish's paper on how to detect targets of crRNAs have been published.
Max has graduated with his BSc (Hons)!
Welcome to Rob and Simon, who have just joined the group.
Raymond has published a Science paper on the Cmr CRISPR-Cas complex as part of an international collaboration. (media release)
Chris Lam has started an MSc in collaboration with Chris Brown.
Brian has joined the group and Mihnea Bostina's Lab for his PGDipSci. Welcome!
Bridget has started her PhD in the group. Good luck!
Max has been awarded the Prince of Wales Prize for the top undergraduate or honours student across the whole university. Well done, this is an amazing achievement!
