Associate Professor Michele R. Prinsep
Associate Professor (Organic Chemistry)
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
- Kaufononga, Sangata (in progress). 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)
- Shrubsall, Jacob (in progress). 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)
- Dean, Lewis (2016). The natural products and chemical ecology of NZ Bryozoa and Nudibranchs.
Teaching Commitments
Recent Publications
Prinsep, M., Dean, L., & Hull, R. (2019). Chemical ecology of some Australasian nudibranchs. In New Zealand Institute of Chemistry Conference (NZIC2019). Conference held Christchurch, New Zealand.
Carroll, A. R., Copp, B. R., Davis, R. A., Keyzers, R. A., & Prinsep, M. R. (2019). Marine natural products. Natural Product Reports, 36(1), 122-173. doi:10.1039/c8np00092a
Prinsep, M. R. (2018). Finding new drugs from the seas. In Radio New Zealand podcast on Our Changing World. Retrieved from https://www.radionz.co.nz/
Prinsep, M. R. (2018). Bryozoans and biotechnology. In P. Cook, P. Bock, D. Gordon, & H. Weaver (Eds.), Australian Bryozoa Volume 1 Biology, Ecology and Natural History (pp. 121-138). Australia: CSIRO Publishing.