NZMS 2025

17-20 November, Rotorua, new Zealand

Watch this space - Saurb will attend the NZMS and deliver an oral presentation of his work on metabolism and Quorum Sensing in H. influenzae

Congratulation! Saurab just won a Travel award to support his attendance at the NZMS conference

MoTec 2025 Molybdenum & Tungsten enzymes

20-25 July, Long Beach, CA, USA

Yang presented his research on novel Mo- and tungsten enzymes at the 2025 MoTec conference in Long Beach, generating significant interest in his work with S-oxide reductases.

Yang presented new insights into electrode-driven catalysis for different S-oxide reductases,

The conference venue was the Queen Mary, an old cruise ship

New paper: Bacterial Lactate metabolism

Our latest review paper out now - bacterial lactate metabolism, Led by my colleague and long-time collaborator Alastair McEwan, with Jennifer Hosmer who did her PhD in my lab as another co-author.

https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.ampbs.2025.07.001

The review covers the enzymology of lactate metabolism, as well as its role in bacteria and in interactions between host organisms and bacteria. A research area that is receiving increasing attention.

ASM 2025

14-17 July, Adelaide

We had a great time at the Annual ASm meeting in Adelaide - Saurab, Riay and myself presented work from the lab

Highlights of the conference were the poster sessions where lively discussion took place.

Congratulations to Riya who took out the Science Communications award - ASM2025 Flash story

EMBO Cell Biology of Host- Pathogen Interactions

26-30 May, Blois, France

After the great week in Noosa, another highlight: presenting our work at the inaugural EMBO Cell Biology of Host Pathogen Interactions meeting in beautiful Blois in the Loirre Valey

Another great exchange of ideas and new methods - I am looking forward to the next meeting in two years!

Blois is home to a beutiful castle - and a lot of very steep stairs

ASI Mucosal Immunology and Microbiome Forum - Noosa, 20 -23 May 2025

Thanks a lot to the organizers of the Mucosal Immunology Forum of the Australian Society for Immunology for inviting me as a speaker on host-pathogen interactions.

Noosa and exchanging ideas with so many wonderful researchers was great!

Our latest research - Mo-containing sulfoxide reductases support host interactions not only in Haemophilus influenzae, but also Escherichia coli

Congratulations to Dr. Qifeng Zhong who graduated from his PhD in the lab last year, as well as Dr. Marufa Nasreen and Ruizhe Yang.

Qifeng’s work demonstrated that the DmsABC sulfoxide reductase is specifically induced by HOCl, a chemical produced by the human immune system during infection. DmsABC was required for successful host interactions.

Phylogenetic analyses revealed that enzymes closely related to DmsABC from E. coli and H. influenzae form a large and diverse group, indicating that this enzyme might have similar roles in many bacteria.

https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/jb.00463-24

Shortlisted for Faculty of Science PhD Graduate of the year award - Dr. Jennifer Hosmer

Jenni graduated from her PhD last year having done excellent work on how metabolic dependencies between Haemophilus influenzae and human epithelia affect bacterial virulence and human immune responses.

CONGRATULATIONS, JENNI

FoS award ceremony, Prof. Melissa Brown

Celebrating Riya’s confirmation as a PhD student

Microbiology in Moreton Bay - MiM 2025

We all had a great time at MiM2025 held at the beautiful USC Petrie Campus.

As part of the program Marufa presented her work on bacterial S-oxide reductases, while Riya was a finalist for the Nancy Millis Award and took out second place - congratulations,

& thanks to the ASM-Qld for organizing this great event