GREENING LAB | NEWS
Apr 12, 2021: Welcome newcomers!
We’re delighted to welcome Anjali Lobo (Honours student), Michael Milton (bioinformatician; pictured left), and Luis Jimenez (research assistant; pictured right), who have each joined the lab in the last two months. Learn more about them here.
Jan 30, 2021: Four PhD completions
Amid the pandemic, Helena, Sean, Zahra, and Paul all managed to submit their PhD theses in 2020. Arise Dr Chen, Dr Bay, Dr Islam and Dr Cordero! You all did brilliantly and developed into accomplished scientists. Farewell to Helena, who has started a postdoc position at McGill University.
Jan 1, 2021: Farewell Rhys and Ele
Our postdocs Dr Rhys Grinter and Dr Eleonora Chiri have left the lab. Rhys has secured a prestigious NHMRC EL1 Fellowship to form his own group at Monash, while Ele will return to Europe. Both have been brilliant additions to the lab, will continue to collaborate, and have great futures ahead!
Dec 1, 2020: ARC Success
The lab has been awarded two Discovery Projects by the Australian Research Council, one with Dr Rhys Grinter (2020-2022) focused on understanding how mycobacteria live on air and another with Prof Perran Cook (2021-2023) focused on resolving interactions between marine eutrophication and climate change.
Oct 1, 2020: Centre to Impact AMR
The Greening Lab are key members of the new Centre to Impact AMR and have established its associated AMR Testing & Surveillance Facility. We are delighted to welcome Dr Laura Perlaza-Jimenez as a bioinformatician postdoc, who will be leading the associated metagenomic and genomic analyses.
Apr 21, 2020: Securing Antarctica
Chris will be a chief investigator of SAEF: Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future, a $36M international research venture led by Monash’s Prof Steven Chown, focused on forecasting change, conserving biodiversity, and supporting environmental stewardship throughout the Antarctic continent.
Jan 1, 2020: A new home
The Greening Lab have relocated to Monash University’s Department of Microbiology within the Biomedicine Discovery Institute. Here Chris will take up a medically-focused NHMRC EL2 Fellowship. We’re excited the new synergies this move will bring.
Dec 26, 2019: Medical fellowship
Chris is honoured to have received an intensely competitive NHMRC EL2 Fellowship. This five year $1.5M fellowship will allow him to develop a world-class medical research program, with a primary focus on understanding alternative energy sources for Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
Jun 30, 2019: Prestigious award
Chris has been awarded the Australian Society for Microbiology’s Jim Pittard Award for Early Career Researcher. He will present his award lecture, focusing on bacteria that live on air, at the ASM’s annual conference in Adelaide in July.
Apr 12, 2021: Trees, a new sink of methane
We have published a pair of articles in Nature Communications and New Phytologist that reveal tree bark hosts abundant and active methane-oxidising bacteria. This pioneering work was led by biogeochemist Dr Luke Jeffrey from Southern Cross University.
Jan 4, 2021: Nature Microbiology article
An amazing start for the year with a lab-led article in Nature Microbiology. Here Sean and co-authors provide definitive evidence that trace gas oxidisers are the majority in soil, not the minority as previously assumed. This has sweeping implications for understanding microbial ecology and biogeochemical cycling.
Jan 3, 2021: RISE protocol paper
We are key members of RISE: Revitalising Informal Settlements and their Environments, a transdisciplinary research program and randomised control trial aimed at improving environmental and human health in Fiji and Indonesia. Our protocol paper describing the primary and secondary outcomes is now out.
Nov 22, 2020: Hydrocarbon degradation
We are part of a Nature Communications manuscript, led by Calgary’s Casey Hubert and Xiyang Dong, revealing diverse microbial communities and hydrocarbon biodegradation pathways in a deep-sea cold seep through genome-resolved metagenomic and biogeochemical approaches.
Oct 29, 2020: Trio at ISME Journal
In a productive year for the lab, we have published three papers at the ISME Journal. These include Zahra’s report of atmospheric hydrogen oxidation during bacterial growth, Ele’s interdisciplinary study on methane mitigation by termite mounds, and a collaborative study led by A/Prof Dagmar Woebken.
Jul 24, 2020: Nature Reviews Microbiology
We have written a major review on the formation, structure, and function of the many diverse organelles found in bacteria. Synergising their expertise in metabolism and cell biology, Chris wrote the review with Prof Trevor Lithgow in the first of many collaborations in his new department.
Jan 29, 2020: Hydrogen for pathogens
We have written a definitive review on hydrogen cycling in pathogens at MMBR. Over 200 pathogens encode hydrogenases, with Salmonella, Helicobacter, Clostridium, and Trichomonas among those that depend on hydrogen metabolism for virulence.
Jun 22, 2019: Ruminant article
Chris has published a first-author article in the ISME Journal together with collaborators in Otago, Illinois, and AgResearch. The article, which focuses on hydrogen transactions in ruminants, reveals new pathways and will help efforts to mitigate methane emissions in agriculture.
Apr 05 2019: Nature Communications articles
We have published two papers in Nature Communications. The first, featuring major contributions from Chris and Blair, provides a revised biosynthesis pathway for F420 in mycobacteria. The second, led by Xiyang Dong and Casey Hubert, identifies new pathways for anaerobic hydrocarbon degradation.
News Archive
For older news from the lab, please check out the news archive.