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Welcome!

We are a diverse group of researchers in the Australian Institute for Microbiology and Infection (AIMI) at UTS that are trying to figure out how bacteria go about living their lives in various contexts.  

 

To do this we primarily use various high-resolution fluorescence microscopy techniques in combination with nanobody labeling-, genetics-, nanoengineering- and microfluidics approaches. 

 

We believe that understanding bacteria and their behaviour will hold the key to identify new targets for therapeutics. â€‹We are primarily using the Gram-negative bacterium Uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC) as a model system to look at the dynamics and components involved in cell division, shape shifting and filamentation. 


We also use various other pathogenic bacteria, such as Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosaProteus mirabilis and Enterococcus faecalis to investigate their behaviour in model urinary tract infection systems. 

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Have a look at the research page for further reading about some of our current projects.

 

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  RECENT LAB NEWS:

 

 

     2024

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    - Sept:

    The JAMS13 conference at Ground of Alexandria was a lab success! 3 x Posters (Lachy, Ciara and Diana) and 1 x Talk (Alaska). 

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    - Aug:
    Thanks Mona for spending some time with us! Now back to Sweden to finish up her MSc thesis at KTH.

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    - July:

   Bill was part of an UTS led team (collaborators include CSIRO and UNSW) that was awarded a $1.8m Medical Research Future Fund    
    (MRFF) grant from the Federal Government towards the development of a 
mRNA vaccine for urinary tract infections. UTS NEWS here.

   

    - May:

    Alaska presented a great poster at the EMBO bacterial cell division meeting in Portugal. Well done Alaska!   

 

    - May:

    We are super happy and proud that former Honours student Charlie's paper on 'bacterial multi-species invasions of human host cells' was        published in Pathogens & Disease. Congrats Charlie! A little blog post on #FEMSmicroBlog here: To the post!
    

    - April:

     Huge congratulations to Ariana for winning an Aus-Fra mobility grant from the FASIC! 
     
FASIC is the Franco-Australian Hubert Curien Program. FASIC is implemented jointly by the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEAE)      and the Ministry of Higher Education and Research (MESR) in France, and by research partners in Australia.

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    - Feb/March:

    Welcome to Diana, Ciara and Mona, new Honours/Masters students in the lab. Very cool and highly diverse projects in Forensic
     Microbiology, Infection Biology and High-resolution Imaging
to be done.

     And we welcome Lachy back for his PhD, he will become an expert in UTI related bacterial morphology changes. 

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   2023

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   - Nov:

    Congrats to Matt for winning the best talk prize at the MIF imaging symposium.

      And congrats to Alaska for winning a best image prize at the same symposium.  

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   - Sep/Oct

    Welcome to new postdocs Drs. Pauline Coulon and Arthika Manoharan in the lab!
     Great having you on 
board for the infection projects. 

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    - July:

     Bill was awarded an ARC Future Fellowship! Let's go! More exciting UTI work to come. UTS News here.

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    - April:
    We say ‘Hejdå’ to Emma, who is going back to Sweden today after finishing up her MSc thesis work, which is now published

     in Current GeneticsThank you for spending some time with us! 

 

    We also say ‘à plus tard’ to Ariana, who is leaving for Paris to start lab work with the Ingersoll lab at Institut Cochin
    as a part of her PhD progra
m at UTS. 

   

    - February:

    Congratulations to Charlotte and Emma for your respective pre-prints on multi-species urinary tract infection models and 
     nanobody tagged FtsZ imaged by single-molecule PALM in live bacteria.   

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     Welcome to our new Honours student Lachy! 

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    - January:
   
Welcome back Ariana, who will do her PhD work with us! Great having you back

 

   2022

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    -December:

    Congratulations Ariana and Charlotte for your First class Honours marks. Fantastic achievement!

     And for your first publication, co-first name authors in PLOS Pathogens. Woop woop!

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  - August: 

    Welcome to visiting Master's student Emma! She will perform lab work in our lab as a part of her thesis in Engineering Physics      
     (KTH, Sweden). We are very happy to have you with us!  

 

  - June: 

    The labs latest paperon Infection-Related Filamentation is now on-line at Nature Communications. Congrats all involved!

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  - June:

    Warm welcome to Dr. Alaska Pokhrel, the lab's first ever postdoc!  

     Dr. Pokhrel is joining us from Prof. Paulsen's group at Macquarie University, where she completed her PhD in 2022.

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  - February:

    Welcome to Honours students Ariana and Charlotte, great to have you onboard!
     
Big congratulations on your AIMI Excellence in Research Honours Scholarships. Well deserved!

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  - January:

    Welcome to the first PhD student of the lab, former Honours student Matthew!
     
...and congrats to your PhD scholarship! It's going to be great to follow you on your journey towards your PhD.

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  2021

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  - December 24th(!):

    Bill (as lead CI), together with Prof. Liz Harry, was awarded a Discovery Project grant from the Australian Research Council.

    Merry Christmas lab!

 

  - December:

    First pre-print of the lab is out. DamX dynamics during filamentation in an infection model system. 
    Dynamic localisation of DamX regulates bacterial filamentation and division during UPEC dispersal from host cells

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  - December:

    Congratulations Matthew to your First class Honours!  

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  - November 9th:

    10 years since Bill's first paper was accepted! Have a look here:
     Sequential Closure of the Cytoplasm and Then the Periplasm during Cell Division in Escherichia coli​

   

  - ~ July - October:
    Oh my gosh, Sydeny lockdowns AGAIN...

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  - February: 
    Welcome to first lab students. Honours Students Matthew and Johnathan (deferred to 2022).
    Great having you here!

    ...And congrats on your iThree Excellence in Microbiology (iEiM) Honours Scholarships! 

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  2020

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  - November:

    First paper from the lab published.
    "An OregonGreen488-labelled d-amino acid for visualizing peptidoglycan by super-resolution STED nanoscopy"
    Collaboration with Stockholm Uni. making a STED optimised FDAA.

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  - April:     
    Funding for a Nikon N-STORM microscope secured. Yey! 

 

  - ~ March - June:   
    Sydeny lockdowns, not much going on in the lab.

 

  - January:   
    The lab started January 2020.

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