Associate Professor Michele R. Prinsep

Associate Professor
Qualifications: BSc(Hons) Canterbury, PhD. Canterbury, Post-doctoral Research Fellow, University of Hawaii (1990-1991). Research leave Cambridge (1994), ZONTA Award (2000).
Research Interests
- Natural products chemistry, particularly that of New Zealand marine bryozoans and terrestrial cyanobacteria (blue-green algae).
- Application of spectral methods, especially NMR spectroscopy and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry to structural determination.
- Biologically active compounds and structure-activity relationships.
- Chemical ecology.
Current projects are directed towards finding novel and/or bioactive metabolites from New Zealand and Antarctic bryozoans and cyanobacteria.
Research Supervised
PhD
- Webb, Nicki (in progress). Investigation of novel tremorgens expressed by endophyte-infected grasses.
- Murray, James (in progress). Ciguatera fish poisoning and bioaccumulation in food webs.
- Dean, Lewis (in progress). The chemistry of bioactive natural products from New Zealand marine microalgae and their potential as new agrichemicals.
- Kaufononga, Sangata (2019). Indole-diterpenoid secondary metabolites produced by the Epichloe festucae var lolii-Lolium perenne symbiosis.
- Omar, Syaliza (2013). Identifying iron-binding antioxidants in New Zealand honeydew honey. (chief supervisor Peter Molan).
- Puddick, Jonathan (2013). Spectroscopic investigations of oligopeptides from aquatic cyanobacteria: Characterisation of new oligopeptides, development of microcystin quantification tools and investigations in microcystin production.
MSc (Research)
- Voogt, Claire (in progress).
- Farr, Taylor (in progress).
- Shrubsall, Jacob (2018). Novel brominated alkaloids from the bryozoan Amathia citrina.
- Webb, Nicola (2015). Chemical ecological insights into metabolites of the New Zealand marine sponge, Cliona celata.
- Wang, Alice (2015). Elucidating the modes of action of the antitumour New Zealand marine natural product Pterocellin A.
MSc
- Kaufononga, Sangata (2014). Isolation and characterisation of Aeruginosin and microviridin variants from Microcystis species CAWBG11.
- Rogers, Shelley (2014). Investigation of microcystin processing, production and export by Microcystis sp.
- Hales, Richard (2013). Natural product analysis of coastal marine species of New Zealand.
- Andersen, Aaron (2011). Investigations of natural products from Bryozoa inhabiting Aotearoa New Zealand.
BSc (Hons)
- Crombie, William Cameron (2018). A natural products investigation of the New Zealand bryozoan Amathia gracei.
- Dean, Lewis (2016). The natural products and chemical ecology of NZ Bryozoa and Nudibranchs.
Teaching Commitments
Recent Publications
Carroll, A. R., Copp, B. R., Davis, R. A., Keyzers, R. A., & Prinsep, M. R. (2022). Marine natural products. Natural Product Reports. doi:10.1039/d1np00076d
Burrows, J., Dean, L. J., Prinsep, M., & Saunders, G. C. (2021). CCDC 2054585: Experimental Crystal Structure Determination. The Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre. doi:10.5517/ccdc.csd.cc26yyy2
Murray, J. S., Finch, S. C., Puddick, J., Rhodes, L. L., Harwood, D. T., van Ginkel, R., & Prinsep, M. R. (2021). Acute Toxicity of Gambierone and Quantitative Analysis of Gambierones Produced by Cohabitating Benthic Dinoflagellates. Toxins, 13(5), 333. doi:10.3390/toxins13050333
Puddick, J., van Ginkel, R., Page, C. D., Murray, J. S., Greenhough, H. E., Bowater, J., . . . Finch, S. C. (2021). Acute toxicity of dihydroanatoxin-a from Microcoleus autumnalis in comparison to anatoxin-a. Chemosphere, 263. doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.127937