Team Parker

Synthetic and Chemical biology

Chemistry and biochemistry of enzyme-catalysed reactions to aid the development of new treatments for diseases and using the natural biosynthetic machinery for the efficient generation of valuable products. Using computational and experimental approaches her team also studies the molecular details of communication networks in proteins.

Team Leader

Prof Emily Parker

Professor of Chemical Biology
Ferrier Research Institute

LB 217, Laby Building, Gate 7, Kelburn Pde

Deputy Director Academic and Research
Ferrier Research Institute

LB 217, Laby Building, Gate 7, Kelburn Pde

emily.parker@vuw.ac.nz

Dr Wanting Jiao

Senior Scientist · Computational Biochemistry
Ferrier Research Institute

wanting.jiao@vuw.ac.nz
04 46 39057
LB 217, Laby Building, Gate 7, Kelburn Pde

Dr Alistair Richardson

Scientist
Ferrier Research Institute

alistair.richardson@vuw.ac.nz
LB 217, Laby Building, Gate 7, Kelburn Pde

Dr Rosannah Cameron

Scientist
Ferrier Research Institute

rosannah.cameron@vuw.ac.nz
LB 217, Laby Building, Gate 7, Kelburn Pde

Dr Gerd Mittelstadt

Scientist
Ferrier Research Institute · Synthetic and Chemical Biology Laboratory

gerd.mittelstadt@vuw.ac.nz
044639216
LB 217, Laby Building, Gate 7, Kelburn Pde

Dr Luke Stevenson

Scientist · Synthetic Biology
Ferrier Research Institute · Synthetic and Chemical Biology Laboratory

luke.stevenson@vuw.ac.nz
LB 217, Laby Building, Gate 7, Kelburn Pde

Jo Inglis

Team Coordinator
Ferrier Research Institute

jo.inglis@vuw.ac.nz
LB 217, Laby Building, Gate 7, Kelburn Pde

Eleanor Middleton

Technical Officer
Ferrier Research Institute

eleanor.middleton@vuw.ac.nz
LB 217, Laby Building, Gate 7, Kelburn Pde

Dr Rose McLellan

Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Ferrier Research Institute

rose.mclellan@vuw.ac.nz

Dr Yonathan Lukito

Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Ferrier Research Institute

yonathan.lukito@vuw.ac.nz
LB 217, Laby Building, Gate 7, Kelburn Pde

Dr Daniel Berry

Post Doctoral Research Fellow
Ferrier Research Institute

daniel.berry@vuw.ac.nz

Javier Ruiz Vargas

Research Fellow
Ferrier Research Institute

javier.ruizvargas@vuw.ac.nz
LB 217, Laby Building, Gate 7, Kelburn Pde

Kelly Styles

Research Assistant

Ferrier Research Institute

kelly.styles@vuw.ac.nz

Students

PhD candidates at the Ferrier Research Institute are listed below, along with their thesis title and supervisors.

Name	Topic	Supervisors
Lani Campbell	Investigating transcriptional regulation to enhance natural product biosynthesis in Penicillium paxillin	Emily Parker, Luke Stevenson
Florian de Pol	Unveiling the evolution of allostery in adenosine triphosphate phosphoribosyl transferases	Emily Parker, Gerd Mittelstadt
Taylor Hibbard	Characterisation of tolypocladium album genes required for indole-terpenoid biosynthesis	Emily Parker, Andrew Munkacsi
Natasha Nipper	Decoration of the indole ring in indole diterpene biosynthesis	Emily Parker, Rosannah Cameron
Yehezkiel (Kiel) Victorio	Development of metabolic engineering tools for endophytic fungi	Emily Parker, Yonthan Lukito
Adam Hannaford	Building a multidisciplinary pipeline to mine and verify unique indole diterpene cyclases that generate interesting cyclised structures	Emily Parker, Daniel Berry
Rue Parker		Emily Parker, Daniel Berry

Latest publications 2024

Two Iron(II), α-Ketoglutarate-Dependent Enzymes Encoded by the PPZ Gene Cluster of Metarhizium majus Enable Production of 8-Hydroxyperamine

K. W. Rothchild, M. Hagar, D. Berry and K. S. Ryan

Journal of the American Chemical Society 2024

Integrating Phenotypic and Chemoproteomic Approaches to Identify Covalent Targets of Dietary Electrophiles in Platelets

I. A. Guan, J. S. T. Liu, R. C. Sawyer, X. Li, W. Jiao, Y. Jiramongkol, et al.

ACS Central Science 2024 Vol. 10 Issue 2 Pages 344-357

Te Kāuru—Ferrier Research Institute