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
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.
Prinsep, M. (2018). Techniques for studying bioactive marine invertebrates. In Gordon Research Conference on Marine Natural Products. Conference held Ventura, CA, US.