Associate Professor Siouxsie Wiles - From glowing grubs to superbugs: The quest For new medicines

Discover the groundbreaking work Siouxsie's lab is performing by using glowing bacteria to understand superbugs and find new antibiotics to combat them.

About the webinar

Bioluminescence (which literally means ‘living light’) allows glow worms to lure food, fireflies to find a mate, and nocturnal squid to camouflage themselves from predators. The light is a by-product of a simple chemical reaction, and only living creatures can glow. But can it be harnessed for new medicines?  

Siouxsie talks about how bioluminescence is used to better understand the infectious microbes that make us sick. Discover the groundbreaking work her lab is performing by using glowing bacteria to understand superbugs and find new antibiotics to combat them.

Speaker's bio

Dr Siouxsie Wiles MNZM is an award-winning scientist and communicator who has made a career of manipulating microbes. Siouxsie studied medical microbiology at the University of Edinburgh, UK and then did a PhD in microbiology at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in Oxford. She is now based at the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences. During COVID-19 Siouxsie joined forces with Spinoff cartoonist Toby Morris to make the science of the pandemic clear and understandable. Their graphics have been translated into many different languages and shared all around the world.

Support Siouxsie's work

You can make a donation online to support the work of Siouxsie's lab.

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Our virtual event series runs every Wednesday until 24 June.