Ramsay lab

Karina Yui Eto

Kari is currently a University of Western Australia PhD student cosupervised by Prof. Charles Bond and Dr Josh Ramsay and will soon be an NHMRC-funded Post-Doc in the Ramsay lab. Karina studies the structural biology of DNA-binding proteins involved in the transfer of antimicrobial-resistance genes in Staphylococcus aureus "Golden Staph" MRSA.

Drew Hall 

Drew is a Curtin University PhD student supervised by Prof. Charles Bond, Dr Josh Ramsay and Prof. Clive Ronson from the University of Otago NZ. Drew studies the structural biology of a unique class of proteins called antiactivators. These antiactivators block cells from being able to respond to chemicals bacteria use to talk to each other.

Riley Murphy  

Riley is a Curtin University PhD student who uses modern genome sequencing approaches (Illumina and Pacbio) and linux-based bioinformatics tools to study pathogenic Staphylococcus aureus "Golden Staph" MRSA associated with humans and animals. People who work with animals can often contract S. aureus infections that are resistant to multiple antibiotics. Riley's work tries decipher where these strains are coming from and if they are being transmitted between humans and animals. Riley is cosupervised by Prof. Geoff Coombs and Dr Sam Abraham of Murdoch University.

Ratish Permala 

Ratish is supervised by Prof. Elizabeth Watkin, Dr Josh Ramsay and Director of the Curtin Water Quality Research Centre Prof. Jean-Philippe Croue. Ratish's work blends Microbiology and Chemistry to determine the effectiveness of next-generation water treatment technologies. Ratish's work also studies the persistence of antibiotic-resistant organisms and antibiotic-resistance genes after treatment. Ratish's work is cofunded by Water Corporation WA and Curtin University.

Tahlia Bastholm 

Tahlia is an ARC-funded PhD student who uses microbiology, chemistry and molecular genetics to dechiper new chemical communication molecules produced by bacteria. Bacteria produce chemical signals to talk to each other and control the switching of a variety of cooperative phenotypes including gene transfer, symbiosis, physical movement and even their colour! Tahlia is characterising newly identified molecules produced by agriculturally important rhizobia, supervised by Prof. Clive Ronson (University of Otago, NZ) and Dr Jason Terpolilli (Murdoch University). 

Callum Verdonk 

Callum is a University of Western Australia PhD student, cosupervised by Prof. Charles Bond, Dr Josh Ramsay and Prof. Clive Ronson (University of Otago, NZ). Callum is continuing the work from his honours project and plans to use surface plasmon resonance, structural biology and ChIPseq to understand the molecular events leading to excision and transfer of mobile DNA.

Amy Davis 

Amy is a Curtin University PhD student supervised by Dr Josh Ramsay, Prof. Geoff Coombs (Murdoch University) and Prof. Neville Firth (University of Sydney). Amy is continuing work from her honours project, looking at how different conjugative plasmids in S. aureus can stimulate spread of other antimicrobial-resistance gene plasmids to produce multi-drug resistance strains.