University of Auckland

New staff

Welcome to Dr Chris Marsh who has joined the School as a new Professional Teaching Fellow. 

Staff awards

Congratulations to Christian Hartinger for receipt of the Hector Medal by Royal Society Te Apārangi.

Student awards

Congratulations to Keely Bowler who took out the top poster prize in the Faculty of Science Research Poster Competition. 

Congratulations to Miriama Narayan who was runner-up in the University-wide School of Graduate Studies Research Image competition and to Marco Vas and Josefina Barrera Morelli who received special mentions in the corresponding poster competition.

Grant success

Congratulations to Associate Professor Ziyun Wang who received a Marsden Fund Grant as PI and Professor Geoff Waterhouse, Professor Dame Margaret Brimble, Professor Tilo Söhnel and Associate Professor Dan Furkert who were named AIs on successful Marsden Fund grants. 

Congratulations to the many staff in the School involved in successful MBIE Endeavour grants (Professor Dame Margaret Brimble, Professor Jadranka Travas-Sejdic, Professor Paul Kilmartin, Associate Professor Lisa Pilkington, Dr Bicheng (Amy) Zhu, Professor Bruno Fedrizzi, Dr Rebecca Deed and Dr Davide Mercadante).

AUT news

New faces

Emma Davison's research group is welcoming three new postgraduate students this month. Juho Helminen has just arrived from Finland to start his Health Research Council funded PhD exploring novel nucleoside monomers in antisense oligonucleotides targeting cancer. Sabrina Harada and Tobias Swanepoel are starting their BSc(Hons) degrees which have been supported by AUT scholarships. Sabrina is working on the total synthesis of a nucleoside natural product, while Tobias will be working on developing antisense oligonucleotides for treatment of multiple sclerosis.

Talks and seminars

Professor Nicola Brasch presented an invited lecture at the Metals in Biology Gordon Research Conference in Ventura, USA, in January.

Grant success

Dot Ingredients, Auckland University of Technology (AUT) and Allegro Energy have jointly been awarded funding under the Applied Doctorates Scheme. The project, Sustainable particle surfactants for next-generation microemulsion flow batteries, is for a three-year PhD project focused on advancing green electrolyte chemistry for large-scale energy storage. The PhD candidate will be supervised by Associate Professor Jack Chen from AUT and Dr Victor Yim, Head of Product at Dot Ingredients.

In the media

AUT-based start-up Dot Ingredients was featured in the National Business Review article, “Surfactant startup Dot Ingredients seeks $3m in seed round.” Dot Ingredients was founded on research by Associate Professor Jack Chen and Dr Andres Tiban at AUT and now features Dr Mohinder Naiya as Head of Chemistry and Dr Victor Yim as Head of Product: https://www.nbr.co.nz/tech/surfactant-startup-dot-ingredients-seeks-3m-in-seed-round/.

Auckland Cancer Society Research Centre

Grant successes

Congratulations to Dr Leon Lu (PI), along with Petr Tomek and Jingyuan Wen, who were awarded $199,324 from the Maurice Wilkins Centre (MWC) Cancer Theme Funding 2025 for their project, Nitric oxide - releasing kinase inhibitor prodrugs for enhancing cancer immunotherapy (MWC4679). Lung cancer is New Zealand’s leading cause of cancer death, disproportionately affecting Māori communities. While targeted therapies like kinase inhibitors (e.g. crizotinib) and immunotherapies have improved outcomes for some patients, many still face poor responses or develop resistance.

This research seeks to develop smarter cancer treatments by combining targeted therapy and immune activation. The team will design new “prodrugs” that release both the active drug and nitric oxide, a natural signalling molecule that can make tumours more accessible to the immune system. By targeting high levels of a molecule called glutathione - common in cancer cells - this approach aims to selectively kill tumour cells while sparing healthy tissue.

The strategy could overcome drug resistance, enhance immune responses, and boost the effectiveness of existing treatments. If successful, it may provide safer, more effective therapies for lung cancer and other hard-to-treat cancers, offering particular benefit to high-risk groups such as Māori.

New students

Roma Nasser, an Honours student, is working on, “Regulated induced proximity targeting chimeras (RIPTACs) for selective killing of SDHB deficient cancers” with Dr Daniel Conole (PI).

Yifei Chen and Chongchong Chen are both Masters students working with Dr Leon Lu (PI) on, “Nitric-oxide–releasing anticancer drugs”.