Our stories
SciGlow at Silo Park: the art of bioluminescent bacteria
Be wowed by the eerie glow of bioluminescent bacteria as art and science unite for SciGlow at Silo Park Auckland, 3-4 December. Microbiologist Dr Siouxsie Wiles has teamed up with artists, schoolchildren and bioluminescent bugs to create the unique bacterial paintings...
We take antibiotics for granted at our peril
When it comes to antibiotics, Dr Rachel Webb wants a firm regulatory hand of government to ensure responsible use. Her future health may depend on it.
What the NZ science system is doing to combat infectious disease
Two years ago, to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the original Longitude Prize, the UK government offered a ten million pound prize for the solution of a significant global problem. The original Longitude prize was set up in the eighteenth century by the British...
Cure Kids supporting research
At Cure Kids, we are dedicated to raising funds in order for research to be carried out that will best contribute to our vision of a healthy childhood for everyone. As the Research Manager, I am fortunate enough to have a close connection with all the research...
The costs of antimicrobial resistance
What might the economic costs of antibiotic/antimicrobial-resistant infections be in New Zealand? The simple answer is – we don’t know. As far as I’m aware, there’s been no New Zealand studies publicly disseminated on this topic. Therefore, we have to look overseas...
On the hunt for bacteriophages
The crisis of antibiotic resistant superbugs has been creeping up on us for the past 88 years. Alexander Flemming, discoverer of penicillin, the first antibiotic, in that year, said it well when he received is Nobel prize: “It is not difficult to make microbes...
The 3Rs of antimicrobial resistance: going back to basics to avert a crisis
Down in Otago, researchers’ focus on microbiology fundamentals is leading New Zealand’s fight against drug resistant pathogens. In May 2016 the UK government’s Review on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) published its final report, summarising the Review’s findings from...
A different approach to developing new antibiotics
We are nearing a crisis point in our use (and, sadly, misuse) of antibiotics. Indeed, the World Health Organisation recently described humanity as being in “a race against time” to develop antibiotics against multi-drug resistant superbugs [i]. If we cannot find...
What happens to children’s heart surgery without effective antibiotics?
Heart defects are collectively the commonest abnormality in newborn babies. About one infant in every 150 has some form of defect; a hole in the heart, or parts of the heart underdeveloped or in the wrong place. Four hundred children every year undergo heart surgery...
A future without antibiotics
Last week was World Antibiotic Awareness week, an initiative of the World Health Organization (WHO) to raise awareness and understanding of antimicrobial resistance. To follow-up, here at Te Pūnaha Matatini we are having a week-long conversation about the health,...
Antibiotics – invented by fungi, harnessed by humans
The fungi are a vast and distinctive kingdom of organisms that make up a significant component of most land ecosystems, intimately linked with bacteria, plants, and animals. Fungi cannot make their own food, so they live on or within their food, be that dead wood or...
Antimicrobial use in animals: where do we stand?
One thing is clearer than ever: the wellbeing of animals, humans and the environment is inseparable and, on a global scale, no issue represents this complex relationship better than the rise of antimicrobial resistance. The medical discovery that revolutionised our...