MWC people
The Maurice Wilkins Centre network comprises 109 investigators throughout the country, as well as more than 115 early-career affiliates.
Principal ScientistsThe Maurice Wilkins Centre is led by eight principal investigators |
Professor Rod Dunbar, MBChB, PhD, Director
Rod Dunbar trained as a doctor at Otago University, before gaining a Health Research Council training fellowship and completing his PhD. After 6 years at the University of Oxford, he returned to New Zealand in 2002 under a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellowship. His laboratory is focused on human cellular immunology, especially the development of therapies for cancer that exploit the immune system. r.dunbar@auckland.ac.nz |
Professor John Fraser, BSc, PhD, FRSNZ Deputy Director
A graduate of Victoria University and Auckland Universities, John did postdoctoral research with Jack Strominger at Harvard before returning to New Zealand in 1988 to the first NZ Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellowship. He is currently Dean of the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences at the University of Auckland. John’s research has focused on the modus operandi of bacterial superantigens, beginning with a seminal Nature paper in 1989, in particular the structural features of superantigens that make them so potent. With the advent of microbial genomics and the DNA sequencing of multiple bacterial genomes, his work has broadened to examine other potent pathogenicity and virulence factors whose genes are clustered in pathogenicity islands. jd.fraser@auckland.ac.nz |
Distinguished Professor Ted Baker, MSc, PhD, FRSNZ, FNZIC
Ted Baker established structural biology in New Zealand with his pioneering work at Massey University on the proteins actinidin and lactoferrin. Among national and international honours are an International Research Scholar award from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and election as President of the International Union of Crystallography. He received the 2006 Rutherford Medal, the highest accolade from the Royal Society of New Zealand. He currently leads a group of more than 40 researchers at the University of Auckland, focused on the analysis of protein structure and function, X-ray crystallography, structural genomics, molecular biology, bioinformatics and structure-based drug design. ted.baker@auckland.ac.nz |
Distinguished Professor Margaret Brimble, MNZM, MSc, PhD, FRSNZ, FRSC, FRACI, FNZIC
Margaret Brimble holds the Chair of Organic Chemistry at The University of Auckland. She is President of the International Society of Heterocyclic Chemistry and a Royal Society of NZ James Cook Research Fellow. She was appointed a Member of the NZ Order of Merit (2004) and has received the Novartis chemistry award, Rosalind Franklin lectureship, Federation of Asian Chemical Societies Distinguished Chemist Award and NZ Institute of Chemistry HortResearch Prize. She leads a team of over 20 researchers focused on the synthesis of bioactive natural products, peptide mimics as therapeutic agents for neurodegenerative diseases, and glycopeptides as components for melanoma vaccines. She leads the medicinal chemistry team for Neuren Pharmaceuticals Ltd. whose lead compound Glypromate® is in Phase 2 clinical trials for the treatment of brain injury resulting from Cardiac Bypass Graft Surgery (CABG). m.brimble@auckland.ac.nz |
Professor Garth Cooper, MBChB, DPhil, FRCPA,FRSNZ.
Garth Cooper’s early interest in diabetes culminated in DPhil studies at the University of Oxford, where he discovered the hormone amylin in the pancreatic beta cells, and invented amylin replacement therapy for diabetes. He co- founded Amylin Pharmaceuticals in San Diego, which recently received approval to market symlin®, for type 2 diabetes. In 1992, he established the Molecular Endocrinology Laboratory in the School of Biological Sciences, at The University of Auckland, to investigate the molecular basis of diabetes mellitus and related metabolic states, pioneering the development of proteomics in New Zealand. In 1999, he co-founded Protemix, a New Zealand-based biopharmaceutical corporation, to develop novel therapies for cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus and other metabolic disorders. g.cooper@auckland.ac.nz |
Distinguished Professor Bill Denny, ONZM, MSc, PhD, DSc, FRSNZ, FNZIC.
Bill Denny received his PhD (organic synthesis) and DSc (drug design) degrees from the University of Auckland. He is Director of the Auckland Cancer Society Research Centre at the University of Auckland, and a founding scientist of the company Proacta Therapeutics Ltd. He is a past-President of the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry and the New Zealand Society for Oncology. He received the Rutherford Medal of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1995, and was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2003. His interests include all aspects of the design and evaluation of small-molecule chemotherapeutic agents, and he has been involved in the development of eight anticancer drugs to clinical trial, work reported in 530 scientific publications and 70 patent applications. b.denny@auckland.ac.nz |
Distinguished Professor Peter Hunter, ME, DPhil, FRSNZ, FRS
Peter Hunter is Director of the Bioengineering Institute at the University of Auckland and Director of Computational Physiology at Oxford University. He received the 2009 Rutherford Medal of the Royal Society of New Zealand. As co-Chair of the Physiome and Bioengineering Committee of the International Union of Physiological Sciences he is helping to lead the Physiome Project which is using computational methods for understanding the integrated physiological function of the body in terms of the structure and function of tissues, cells and proteins. His major research interests are in developing anatomically and biophysically based approaches to modelling the interrelated electrical, mechanical and biochemical functions of the heart and other organs. p.hunter@auckland.ac.nz |
Professor Peter Shepherd PhD
Peter Shepherd graduated from Massey University and following post doctoral positions at Harvard and Cambridge he became a staff member at University College London where he was promoted to Professor in 2003. There he became involved in biotechnology and was named London Young Biotechnology Entrepreneur of the year in 2002. Since moving back to Auckland in 2004 he has continued to focus on research of the signal transduction pathways in the cell and how defects in these lead to the development of cancer and diabetes. He has also founded the biotechnology company Symansis which is developing novel tools for drug discovery. peter.shepherd@auckland.ac.nz |
Administration |
Ms. Rochelle Ramsay, Research Manager
CMB Manager. Rochelle is responsible for managerial and financial oversight and is the first point of contact for any equiries. rj.ramsay@auckland.ac.nz |
Mr. Peter Lai, Administrator
CMB Administrator. Peter is is responsible for organisation and activity management. p.lai@auckland.ac.nz |
