Our iGEM team is hard at work this semester, to catch up on their adventures (and the adventures of their peers) see their video here
In the News
Find out what’s happening in the world of Geoscience
Meet our iGEM team
Greetings! We are the DeNovoCastrians, the inaugural iGEM team from University of Newcastle. iGEM (international Genetically Engineered Machine) is a competition that gives students the opportunity to push the boundaries of synthetic biology by tackling everyday challenges. Synthetic biology is the designing, engineering, testing and validating of a biological system made from interchangeable biological parts […]
Evolution of Type III PKS from cyanobacteria and investigation of a Type III PKS gene cluster
Joachim S. Larsen, Michelle Quezada, Konstantinos Vavitsas, Claudia Vickers and Brett A. Neilan ABSTRACT PRESENTED AT EAPS2018 SYMPOSIUM Cyanobacteria are known as prolific producers of bioactive metabolites many of which are assembled by specialized enzymes called polyketide synthases (PKSs) found co-localized in genomic clusters. Genome mining has greatly advanced discovery of gene clusters. Here, a phylogenomic […]
Characterisation of the modification enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of two novel lanthipeptides
Carolin von Lupin, Michelle Quezada, Rabia Mazmouz, Brett Neilan ABSTRACT PRESENTED AT: GRC – Natural Products and Bioactive Compounds Ribosomally synthesised and post-translationally modified peptides (RiPPs) present a large class of natural products. Lanthipeptides, or lantibiotics, are the most abundant group of RiPPs that generally exhibit antibacterial activity, which makes them attractive for the pharmaceutical […]
New drugs from old bugs
One of the greatest challenges in medicine is the provision of new antibiotics in the face of increasing resistance. One solution may prove to be natural product biosynthetic engineering to create unnatural antibiotics, antivirals, and immunosuppressants. The past two decades have witnessed major advances in our understanding of natural product biosynthesis, including the genetic basis […]
Meet Brett Neilan
Brett Neilan conducted a candid interview with In The Loop UoN; Mum was a cleaner and dad was a garbo. I grew up in Maroubra in Sydney. I was the first in my family to go to University and I studied biomedical science at UTS. Mum was extremely proud. Dad had no concept, three years […]