People – Lab members rDNAome - GANLEY Laboratory
People – Lab members
Austen Ganley
Lab head. Senior lecturer in genetics and evolution.
E-mail: a.ganley<at>auckland.ac.nz
Austen completed his BSc, BSc(Hons) and PhD in Genetics all at Massey University. From there he voyaged to the USA, to post-doc in the mushroom lab of Rytas Vilgalys at Duke University in North Carolina. After a series of cultural exchanges involving mushroom identification and hangi building, he departed for the East (in a westerly direction), moving to Takashi Horiuchi’s lab at the National Institute of National Biology in Okazaki, Japan, to work with Takehiko Kobayashi. When Takehiko was appointed Professor at the National Institute of Genetics in Mishima (he is now at the University of Tokyo), Austen followed him there to continue his post-doc work on the rDNA. After being appointed Assistant Professor there and very nearly staying for good, Massey lured Austen back with a Senior Lectureship at the Albany campus, and at the very end of 2007, with much improved Japanese but much poorer English, he returned. Following eight years there, he decided to see what all the fuss about Auckland commuting is about, and so took up a position at the University of Auckland, in the School of Biological Sciences. He now spends his time teaching and figuring out ways to better research the two types of rDNA, but mostly annoying others people in his group.
Megan Schischka
PhD student in Genetics
Sylvie Hermann-Ledenmat
Lab Manager
Danni Maddock
Postdoctoral Fellow in Synthetic Biology
Brett Adey
PhD student in Computational Biology
Tithi Gandhi (based at Landcare Research with Thomas Buckley)
PhD student in Evolutionary Biology
Ashika Prasad (based at Plant & Food Research, Hawkes Bay with Nari Williams)
PhD student in Plant Pathology
Daniel Wing
Science scholar student
Student Volunteers
Rajeh Bukhiet, Catherine Franicevic, Minji Kim, Sanne Bosman
Lab photos
| SBS Xmas Party 2023 |  |
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| Xmas 2023 |  |
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| SBS Xmas Party 2022 |  |
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| Xmas 2021 |  |
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| SBS Xmas Party 2020 |  |
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| Xmas 2020 |  |
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| Halloween 2019 |  |
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| 2015 |  |
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| 2013 |  |
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| Holi 2013 |  |
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| 2011 |  |
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| 2010 |  |
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| 2009 |  |
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Alumni
Alastair Harris, PhD in Microbiology, 2018-2023
Ivan Hidalgo Castellanos, MSc in Genetics & Bioinformatics and research technician, 2020-2023
Atharva Bhide, MSc in Genetics, 2020-2022
Fiona Walter, BSc(Hons) in Genetics, 2022
Emma Macdonald, MSc in Genetics, 2019-2021
Diksha Sharma, PhD in Bioinformatics, 2015-2021
Alex Nyugen, Science Scholar student and research technician, 2019-2020
Rachel Benitez, BSc(Hons) in Microbiology, 2019
Cam Kay, MSc in Biotechnology, 2017-2019
Jack Clemens, MSc in Biotechnology, 2017-2019
Jennie Chan, BSc(Hons) in Bioinformatics, 2018
Daria Chudakova, Postdoc, 2015-2018
Jess Fitch, MSc in Genetics, 2016-2018
Daniela Quintana, PhD in Genetics, 2011-2016
Nour Ghamri, BSc(Hons) in Genetics, 2015-2016
Lisa Mill, Research Technician in Genetics, 2014-2015
GengGeng Shen, Postgraduate Certificate and Research Technician in Genetics, 2011-2015
Laura Nigon, Research Technician in Molecular Biosciences, 2012-2015
Saumya Agrawal, PhD in Bioinformatics, 2009-2014
Mat Woods, Post-doctoral Fellow in Yeast Genetics, 2011-2014
Ilog Seo, BSc (Honours) student in Molecular Biosciences/Genetics, 2011-2013
Nazanin Ebrahimi, Post-grad student in Genetics, 2009-2011
Naomi Davies, BSc(Hons), 2012
Aida Crombach, Postgraduate Certificate, 2011
Elizabeth Mbuba, Research Technician and Lab Boss, 2009-2011
Summer students, interns, visiting students
Suyeon Kim, Summer student, 2023-2024
Jamie Hyde & Macy Pascual, Science Scholar students, 2023
Sarah Kilian, Ben Buttle, Liam Ivanov-Fesien & Leeah Roughan, Student lab volunteers, 2022
Isabella Devlin, Jannai McCracken & Danica Hamlin, Student lab volunteers, 2021
Anika Correll Trnka, Summer student, 2020-2021
Teresa Zhou & Connor Tunnicliffe, Student lab volunteers, 2020
Jimmy Garden & Isabella Francis, Science Scholar students, 2019-2020
Talia Allan & Varima Narula, Student lab volunteers, 2019
Lucy Mitsugi-McHattie, Yuen Xin Chia, Mena Welford & Sydel Alvares, Student lab volunteers, 2018
Jessica Chase, Summer student, 2017-2018
Michelle Cao & Melody Tang, Student lab volunteers, 2017
Hannah Lee-Harwood, Summer student, 2016-2017
Georgia Breckell, Student lab volunteer, 2015
Chrissie Floden, Researcher in Molecular Biosciences, 2015
Mark Walker, visiting MSc student in Evolution from University of Canterbury, 2012-2013
Ting Dong, Summer student, 2011-2012
Shannon Fraser & Mac Purvin, Student lab volunteers, 2012
Yogesh Dalvi, Visiting PhD student, 2010-2011
Hiba Houssain, Student lab volunteer, 2010
Jessica Smith, Summer student, 2009-2010
Susan Morton, Summer student, 2008-2009
