Principal Investigator: Professor Mike Taylor

School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, New Zealand

Here's the team - check out our latest news at the bottom of this page...

Our group’s research interests span the broad field of microbial ecology, incorporating such varied disciplines as molecular biology, ecology, symbiosis, conservation and biomedicine.  Most of our work focuses on the associations formed between diverse animal “hosts” (including humans, mice, native birds and reptiles) and the microbes living in and around them.  Such interactions range from being pathogenic in nature, to microbes acting as a food source, to tightly linked mutualistic symbioses in which both partners benefit.  Understanding which microorganisms are associated with which hosts - and why - is central to our research.  While our research extends across a number of biological systems (including the human microbiome), and employs a range of molecular and cultivation-based approaches, the unifying theme to our work is to better understand how microbes interact with their host organisms.

LAB NewS...

14 December 2018: congrats to Kristi and MikeH, who both had papers accepted in the past few days. Kristi’s paper is in mSphere and Mike’s is in Rhinology.

13 December 2018: MikeT just returned from a few days in Hyderabad, where he attended the 59th Annual Conference of the Association of Microbiologists of India (AMI). He was Plenary speaker at a pre-conference workshop on metagenomics, organised jointly by ISME and the AMI. Lots of exciting microbial ecology happening in India!

12 December 2018: congratulations to Brett, who did very well in her PhD oral exam today!

29 November 2018: big congrats to Christian and Giselle, who respectively got 1st and 2nd place prizes in the NZMS Student Poster Competition. Syrie Hermans from the Lear group made it through to the finals of the Oral Presentation Competition. Well done all!

28 November 2018: at today’s AGM of the NZ Microbiological Society, MikeT became NZMS President. Mike’s been on the NZMS Executive Committee since 2008, and Vice-President since 2015.

26-29 November 2018: most of the team is at the joint meeting of the NZ Microbiological Society - NZ Society for Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, this week in Dunedin. There’s a great line-up of international and domestic speakers, including symbiosis legends Margaret McFall-Ngai and Ned Ruby in the microbial ecology space.

25 November 2018: Annie’s paper on “The microbiome in threatened species conservation” is now published in Biological Conservation. Well done Annie!

17 August 2018: ISME is coming to Auckland! It was announced today that the 19th International Symposium on Microbial Ecology will be held in Auckland in 2022. The successful bid was chaired by Mike Taylor, with UOA colleague Gavin Lear as co-chair. This is a fantastic thing for microbial ecology in NZ and we are extremely excited about it!

10 July 2018: New paper published in Ecology today, together with James Bell, Nicole Webster and other colleagues. Well done James and team for this nice paper!

12 May 2018: Our paper on the metagenome and co-occurrence networks of the kakapo microbiome was accepted in Scientific Reports today. Well done Dave!

11 May 2018: Congrats to Carmen Astudillo-Garcia (PhD) and Giselle Wong (MSc), who both graduated today!

11 May 2018: Congratulations to Annie, who received a Todd Foundation Award for Excellence to support her PhD research on the kakapo microbiome. Well done Annie!

13 April 2018: The two-day NZMEC5.0 workshop ended today. Many thanks to all of our speakers, poster presenters and other attendees who made this event such a success! See you in a couple of years for NZMEC6.0.

1 April 2018: Welcome back to Giselle, who officially starts her PhD with us today. A big congrats on securing a University of Auckland Doctoral Scholarship on the back of her excellent MSc thesis!

1 March 2018: Welcome to Tyler, who starts his MSc research in the lab today!

28 February 2018: Congratulations to Jonathan on submission of his MSc thesis today!

2 February 2018: planning for the NZMEC5.0 workshop in April is coming along well. We have all of our Plenary speakers lined up - Mike Manefield, Maureen O'Malley, Mike Taylor, Jason Tylianakis and Tanja Woyke. Looking forward to the big event!

31 January 2018: Congratulations to Jesse on submission of his MSc thesis today!

30 November 2017: Congratulations to Giselle on submission of her MSc thesis!

24 November 2017: Almost all of the team has been attending the NZ Microbiological Society annual conference in Auckland this week (20-23 Nov). There were a wide range of fantastic talks from international and local Plenary and Invited speakers, and equally interesting contributed talks and posters from local participants. Microbial ecology and the human microbiome were both very strong components of the conference, including Plenary lectures from David Bourne, Emma Allen-Vercoe and Colin Murrell, and Invited lectures from Kim Handley, Gerald Tannock and Xochitl Morgan. A big congratulations to David Broderick from our group for progressing to the final of the Student Oral Presentation competition! 

8 November 2017: Prof. Ingela Dahllof, from the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences at the University of Gothenburg, joined us today for a 4.5-month sabbatical. Welcome Ingela!

5 November 2017: We have a lab website!!! Watch this space for updates on new lab members, published articles, upcoming events etc.