I have made a career of combining my twin passions of bioluminescence (think glow worms and fireflies) and infectious diseases. I studied medical microbiology at the University of Edinburgh, UK and did a Ph.D. in microbiology at CEH Oxford (formally the Institute of Virology and Environmental Microbiology) and Napier University, Edinburgh. I then spent my postdoctoral years at Imperial College London, developing bioluminescent derivatives of various infectious organisms. My work on Citrobacter rodentium culminated in winning the inaugural 3Rs prize from the UK National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) in 2006. 

In 2007 I was appointed as a Lecturer within the Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunity at Imperial and began to work on Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pyogenes. In 2009 I was awarded the Sir Charles Hercus Fellowship from the Health Research Council of New Zealand and relocated to Auckland, maintaining an honorary position at Imperial. I was recently awarded the NZ National Animal Ethics Advisory Committee's 3Rs award for 2011. My area of expertise is biophotonic imaging, while my research interests lie in investigating microbial transmission and hyperinfectivity.

I am completely in awe of the natural world and the power of the scientific method to aid our understanding of it. Unfortunately, people often have the impression that science is irrelevant, boring or too hard to understand and that scientists are geeky and aloof. I believe scientists have a responsibility to dispel these myths and act as advocates, both for science in general, as well as their field of interest. For these reasons, you will find me writing about miscellaneous science and skeptical stories at Infectious Thoughts on Sciblogs, the biggest blog network of scientists in New Zealand. I can also be found ranting about pseudoscience on the Completely Unnecessary Skeptical Podcast (CUSP).

May 2012: Crowdfunding for Science - the SciFund Challenge


I’ll be spending the month trying to raise money for my research using the crowd funding model on the RocketHub platform, where contributors exchange small donations (in the 10-100 dollar ballpark) in return for ‘rewards’. As a microbiologist who makes glow-in-the-dark bacteria for a living, my rewards are things like sending donors a picture of their name written in glowing bacteria or naming one of my bacteria after them.

The challenge came about partly as a result of the lack of funding for basic science, but it is also about getting the public more interested and involved in science. 


So why did I get involved? I want to tell the world how amazing bacteria are. They are masters at adapting to their environment, rearranging their genetic material or gaining new genes from their surroundings. This has allowed them to colonise pretty much every conceivable environment. From boiling hot geysers to human beings. While many are harmless or pretty beneficial, plenty have evolved to cause us serious harm. Bacterial adaptation is how we get antibiotic resistance and new diseases emerging. 


So what I want to know is, how do bacteria evolve to cause disease? And that's where my SciFund project comes in. I need your to help unravel how these amazing microbes keep outsmarting us. For more information, check out my project, Evolution in Action. Wish me luck!

For those unfamiliar with RocketHub:

• RocketHub is a legitimate site, used mainly by artists and musicians to launch their projects.
• RocketHub is not an investment or charity. It is a site that allows the project owner to exchange rewards for contributions.
• RocketHub is based in the USA so all the rewards are listed in US dollars. For those outside of the US, 10 US dollars are roughly equivalent to: 6.20 UK pounds/ 7.60 EUROs/ 10 AUS dollars/ 12 NZ dollars/ 10 Canadian dollars. For an up to date currency conversion check here.
• RocketHub is an ‘all and more’ funding mechanism. If I don’t reach my financial goal I get to keep what I raise. And if I raise more than my goal I get to do even more cool science.
• RocketHub take a 4% cut of whatever I raise if I make my target, and 8% if I don’t.  In addition to this, there is a 4% credit card transaction fee.
• All contributions are handled by RocketHub, and the money raised (minus fees) will not be sent directly to me, but to the University of Auckland like a traditional science grant.

February 2012: Meet the Lampyridae II: Fireflies in Space!


Luke and I have made another animation....

December 2011: Meet the Lampyridae
Watch this to see how fireflies are helping scientists battle against some of the world's nastiest microbes!

I was recently interviewed for Radio New Zealand's weekly science show Our Changing World which aired on 8/12/11 so a longer explanation of my research without the amazing graphics can be found here.


28th November 2011: This weekend I was Interviewed by the lovely Aimee and Elf for The Official SciBlogs Podcast (TOSP) where I ranted about 'pox pops' and TB


31st October 2011: Today I appeared on Breakfast with Spanky (RDU 98.5 FM) to talk about a blog post I wrote about using bees to diagnose TB....