Structural and Mechanistic Enzymology
Ivan attended the 27th FAOBMB & 44th MSBMB Conference, which was held in Kuala Lumpur last week. Ivan gave a talk at the Protein Structure and Function session. The science and organisation of the conference was excellent. It was also nice to be able to catch up with colleagues and friends from Malaysia.
We farewelled Simran, who will be going to Hong Kong Baptist University to start her PhD studies in September.
Simran did very well in her MSc with us. She achieved an A grade for her thesis, and produced invaluable results understanding conformational change of the ethylene-forming enzyme upon ligand binding.
Well done Simran, and keep in touch!
Congratulations to Jinal for her new paper on the development of new TDP1 inhibitors in Applied Sciences (2018 impact factor: 2.217). This work was led by former School of Chemical Sciences colleague Dr Jóhannes Reynisson (now at Keele University) in collaboration with colleagues at the Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences. You can read the paper by following the link here.
Congratulations to Dr Yu Li for her new paper in Biochimie (impact factor: 3.362), which describes her work in the production and characterisation of recombinant grape polyphenol oxidase. Thanks also to everyone who has contributed to this project, including Mark, Martin, Stuart and Paul.
Mike and Ivan attended the New Zealand Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (NZSBMB) Conference, which was held between the 2nd and 4th of July in partnership with Victoria University of Wellington (VUW)’s Centre for Biodiscovery (CfB). Mike gave a poster presentation about his work on the development of new chemical agents that tackle polymyxin resistance, and Ivan gave an oral presentation about our work on mycobacterium isocitrate lyase.
Congratulations to Danilo and team for our new paper in Scientific Reports. In the paper, we describe an improved methodology for the production and purification of ribosomal proteins. Ribosomal proteins are very difficult to work with, but thanks to Danilo’s perseverance, we managed to develop a better method.
I would also like to acknowledge the University of Auckland Summer Research Scholarships scheme. Four summer scholars, José, Jane, Amy and Paris, contributed to this project! Thanks also to Praveen, who helped characterise the proteins.
Finally, I would like to thank our funders of this project – Neurological Foundation of New Zealand and Health Research Council of New Zealand.
Applications for the 2019-20 University of Auckland Summer Research Scholarships is now open. The summer scholarship scheme is open to high-achieving domestic and international students.
To be eligible for the scheme, you would have completed at least two years of your undergraduate degree and are either
The UoA Summer Research Scholarship scheme provides a perfect opportunity for students to gain research experience, enhance career opportunities and to help you to think about pursuing postgraduate study.
The Leung Group offers projects in the area of protein expression and purification. Previous summer research scholars of the group have done extremely well, and their work have contributed to several publications (for example see here).
You can find more information about the available projects from the Leung Group (as well as those from the School of Chemical Sciences) via the link here.
If you are eligible and are interested in the summer scholarship scheme, please follow the link here to apply.
Applications must be submitted by midnight (NZ time) on 26 July 2019. Late applications cannot be accepted.
The Leung Group was well represented at yesterday’s 11th School of Chemical Sciences Annual Research Showcase.
Well done everyone, and congratulations to our prize winners!
Second Year Poster Competition
First Prize: Nabangshu Sharma
PhD Fifteen Minute Oral Presentations
First Prize: Annabelle Collins (main supervisor: A/Prof. Jonathan Sperry)
Third Prize: Dona Gunawardana
Here is a list of everyone who has presented!
First Year PhD 3 Minute Talks
Raina Chand
Sunandita Ghosh (main supervisor: A/Prof. Duncan McGillivray)
Vicky Juan
Poster Presentations
Eva Antony
Ryan Dixon (main supervisor: A/Prof. Jonathan Sperry)
Mike Renjie Huang
Brooke Kwai
Oi Wei Mak
Naasson Mbenza
Jinal Patel
Nabangshu Sharma
PhD Fifteen Minute Oral Presentations
Annabelle Collins (main supervisor: A/Prof. Jonathan Sperry)
Dona Gunawardana
Ivan was delighted to have been awarded an University of Auckland Early Career Research Excellence Award (ECREA) tonight at the Celebrating Research Excellence 2019: The Future of World of Work: Te Ao Mahi ā Mua event. Ivan would in particularly like to thank all members of the group (students and postdoc past and present), as the award would not have been possible without their ideas and hard work. Ivan would also like to thank his collaborators for their help in our projects, colleagues and friends for their support, as well as funders who put their trust in our research. We hope to produce more excellent research in the future!
Congratulations to Danilo, who submitted his Thesis for examination today (remotely from Italy). Danilo joined us in 2015. His PhD was funded by a doctoral scholarship by the School of Chemical Sciences as part of my startup at the University of Auckland. Danilo did well on a challenging project. He was also very good at coming up with new ideas and setting his research direction. Two manuscripts that are currently under review wouldn’t have been written without his ideas to get those projects started. He was also an instrumental member of the group, training new students and giving them good advice. Good luck and hope to see you at your oral examination.
Number of posts found: 183