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Elise Tu (PhD) Postdoc, Virology Division Prince of Wales Hospital Sydney

Elise completed her Honours project in 2004 under the supervision of Pete and Chris McIver.  She began her PhD studies in 2005 as a recipient of a UPA award and finished in 2009.  The main aims of her projects were the detection of human enteric viruses, namely, norovirus in clinical and environmental settings.  This involved investigating the clinical molecular epidemiology of norovirus in outbreak and sporadic cases of gastroenteritis in Australia. Her project also involved the development of a suitable internal control for RNA-based viral amplification assays as current detection methodologies for nucleic acid amplification of RNA viruses lack control for validation.  Elise is only 5 mins away at the hospital next door to UNSW, working in our collaborator’s Lab, Professor Bill Rawlinson.

 

 

Jennifer Mak (PhD) Abbott Diagnostics

Jenny is currently employed by Abbott Diagnostics and she is working mainly on the Abbott m2000, which is a sample preparation and real-time PCR system that measures viral load and does genotyping.  After graduating with Honours in 2004 Jenny started a PhD focused on mechanisms of antibiotic resistance in bacteria and was supported by a UPA scholarship.  The work included analyzing outbreak strains of bacteria from clinical environments for resistance genes, and looking in particular at integrons.  Integrons are systems possessed by a range of gram negative bacteria which mediate resistance.  The key to this system is an integrase enzyme, responsible for the capture of different resistance genes. As part of her PhD project, Jenny developed a novel assay based on real-time PCR which allowed the measurement of integrase activity.  

 

 

Charlotte Morgan  (PhD student now Senior Scientist, BTF Plc Ltd)

Charlotte is a senior scientist at BTF, a biotechnology company in Sydney.  She completed a part-time PhD in March 2009.  BTF provides the world's most precise reference standards for microbiological testing. Our group co-developed the MS2 phage BioBallTM marketed to water testing facilities.  To learn more about BTF, visit www.btf.com

 

Aileen Oon (Hons and M.Sc)

Aileen completed her Honours in the Molecular Microbiology Lab in 2005.  She then decided to continue her studies into Hepatitis C and completed an M.Sc in molecular virology the following year.  Following a successful application into Postgraduate Medicine at USyd, Aileen worked for us on a part-time basis as a Research Assistant for two years.

 

                                                                                   

 

 

 

 

Dr. Mi-Jurng Kim (Postdoc)                                                                 

Dr Mi-Jurng Kim graduated with her PhD from Macquarie University in 1999.  After dabbling in a number of different types of employment including accounting, computer studies and jewellery making, she decided to join Peter in his newly established lab in 2003, as a part-time senior Postdoctoral Scientist.  Through the years Mi-Jurng has worked on a number of different projects, including viral quantification, quasispecies of HCV and kinetics of HCV RNA-dependent RNA polymerases, as well as the identification of multi-resistance genes of outbreak strains.  Her multiple skills and wide knowledge of molecular biology and lab techniques have made her a real asset to the lab, especially in assisting and supervising the students.  In addition to her research roles, Mi-Jurng was also the Molecular Microbiology Lab Manager.  Mi-Jurng left the team in 2007, we wish her all the best.

 

 

Melanie Renkin (Hons, 2008): Research assistant at the Virology Research Lab, Prince of Wales Hospital

Dr. Leighton Clancy (PhD, 2007): Postdoctoral scientist at the Westmead Millennium Institute

Dr. Louisa Jones (PhD, 2006, Hons, 2001): Postgraduate Medicine at the University of Sydney

Sharon Chan (Hons, 2005): PhD studies at the Prince of Wales Hospital

Joanne Tan (Hons, 2004): PhD studies at the Westmead Millennium Institute

Zena Kassir (Hons, 2004): Research Assistant (The Garvan)

Victoria Madigan (Hons, 2003): Medicine

Megan Duckworth (Hons, 2002): Police officer

Dr. Joanne Micallef (Hons, 2001): Postdoctoral scientist at GlaxoSmithKline, UK.

Joanne Dable (Hons, 2001); Secondary school teacher.