News
Today, an article written by Belinda, titled “There could be alien life on Mars, but will our rovers be able to find it?” was published in The Conversation. In it she discusses the issues associated with identifying life on our own planet, let alone on our celestial neighbours. Click here to read more!
Happy new year, dear readers. Just a quick update from us at the Ferrari lab to start off the year: on March 1st we will be attending the first monthly JAMS seminar of the year at the Keg and Brew in Surry Hills. Our very own Honours student, Georgia, will be presenting her work on the potential anti-cancer properties of a novel species of Antarctic Kribbella. Click here to see the event info. JAMS events are always great oppourtunities to learn about and connect with other researchers so, as always, we highly recommend attending one if you can.
With that said, we hope you all had a wonderful break over the summer and are ready for a new year! 2023 is looking to be an action-packed year for us so stay tuned in in the coming months!
It’s been a busy few months since our last update, so bare with me as I try to recount everything from August until now. Firstly, fresh off her PhD submission and newly minted doctorate, Angelique wasted no time publishing her first paper as a postdoctoral fellow of the Ferrari lab. The paper, titled “Atmospheric chemosynthesis is phylogenetically and geographically widespread and contributes significantly to carbon fixation throughout cold deserts,” was published in ISME in early August and, through phylogenetic- and activity-based analyses, concludes that "atmospheric chemosynthesis is a globally-distributed phenomenon with significant implications for the global carbon cycle and bacterial survival within environmental reservoirs.” Click here to read more!
Screenshot of Angelique’s announcement on Twitter.
Following this publication, after years of delayed and cancelled ceremonies, Nicole was finally able to celebrate her PhD graduation. Despite completing her PhD in 2019, Nicole had to wait until this August to formally graduate (thanks, COVID) and, through a lucky coincidence, was able to celebrate alongside incoming Honours student, Georgia, who was graduating from a Bachelor of Psychological Sciences (Management). Congradulations to Nic and Georgia!
Dr. Nicole Benaud and Georgia looking great on their graduation day!
On September 13th, our lab had the pleasure of attending the 11th JAMS annual symposium and dinner, which took place at Sydney Luna Park. This year Belinda was invited as a guest speaker and gave a great presentation outlining the lab and the work we do, as well as sharing some breathtaking photos and amusing anecdotes from her time in Antarctica - two critical features of any Ferrari lab presentation. In addition to Belinda’s talk, Jordan gave the first public seminar of her PhD candidacy, where she shared the findings from her Honours year, while Devan presented a poster detailing his analysis of the connections between Antarctic microbial communities and the features of their ecosystem. JAMS also served as a welcome two new lab members: Kevin, who joins us as an Honours student, and Merle, who has come to the lab from Germany as an Academic exchange student for the term.
Jordan (left) and Devan (right) sharing their great work at JAMS 11 ☆
Soon after JAMS, Belinda, Jordan and Kris took a quick trip to Hobart to visit our friends from the Australian Antarctic Division to discuss potential bioremediation projects for Jordan and Kris. Investigating bioremediation strategies for Antarctic soils is really important to our lab and we’re really glad to be expanding our contribution to building a cleaner Antarctica and mending the damage that humans have done to its ecosystems.
The work our lab does gives us a front row seat to the toll that science and research can have on the environment and so we couldn’t have been happier to see the Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework (LEAF) program be introduced in UNSW. If this is the first time you’re hearing of LEAF, it is a program that aims to reduce the enviromental impact of research by promoting sustainable practices in labs and providing tools to monitor and reduce their ecological impact. Labs can receive bronze, silver or gold certification by implementing the practices associated with each tier and, thanks to Jordan’s exhaustive efforts, we were able to meet every criteria of the silver tier. At the LEAF awards ceremony on December 2nd, we were one of only four UNSW labs to be awarded with a silver certification which we couldn’t have been more proud of. The LEAF program is an awesome initiative and we highly recommend that you, dear reader, look into getting your lab involved today. Next year we’ll definitely be aiming for gold and so should you be! Click here to see the UNSW LEAF website where you can learn more about LEAF and how to register (even if you’re not a UNSW lab).
Last, but most certainly not least, the lab went for lunch at the Chinese Gardens of Friendship to celebrate the end of the year, to farewell Merle (whose three month tenure in our lab has been far, far too short) and congradulate Belinda and her dear friend and “PhD buddy” Dr. Michelle Power on their promotions to professor, starting in January next year. Wonderful food, a great view and a beautiful day: what more could you want from a lunch celebration.
It goes without saying that the food and gardens were a fantastic backdrop for such an occassion.
And that’s it for 2022! I hope you enjoyed reading about our last 6 months and you can look forward to hearing more from us next year!
Merry Christmas, happy holidays and happy new year!
Last week was a great week for the Ferrari lab. First and foremost, our latest paper, spearheaded by Nicole Benaud, was published in Extremophiles. Titled, “Soil substrate culturing approaches recover diverse members of Actinomycetota from desert soils of Herring Island, East Antarctica,” the paper highlights the promise that cold-adapted bacteria of Antarctica have as targets in further research into natural products. Click here to read it online.
Screenshot of Nicole’s announcement on Twitter. Click here to see it and her summary of the paper.
Secondly, the annual ASM conference took place last week and, as expected, it was a fantastic experience for the entire Ferrari lab. Words can’t express how refreshing it was to, finally, after two long years, be able to attend such a large, in-person event. A number of members were given the opportunity to proudly share their work, especially Angelique and Dana, who gave live seminars. Thank you to everyone who took the time to talk with our lab members and discuss the research they presented; we always relish the opportunity to talk about the implications of our work and to hear feedback from others members of the scientific community.
Angelique (left) and Dana (right) presenting their research at ASM.
That’s all for now, but be sure to follow Belinda @ferrari_belinda on Twitter to stay up-to-date with the Ferrari lab. The year is only halfway done and we have some exciting things in the works that we hope to share before the end of 2022.
Congratulations to Angelique on submitting her PhD thesis - titled “Living on a Pr(Air); Characterising atmospheric chemosynthesis in bacteria and cold desert biomes” - after nearly four long years of hard work! We all couldn’t be more proud of you and we can’t wait to see what the future has in store for you!
Follow Angelique @Ray_AngeliqueE on Twitter
Congratulations to Devan, Carol and Nicky for being among the 18 recipients of the ASF “Traversing the COVID Gap” grant this year!
Image from the announcement on the ASF twitter page @AntarcticSF
The Ferrari Lab has secured an ARC Linkage grant supporting our research into Antarctic fungi and their innate resistance to environmental pressures.
From Belinda’s twitter @ferrari_belinda
Ah microbes, beloved by ecologists, biochemists and now… photographers? Check out these stunning images captured by two of our budding photographers here at the Ferrari Lab.
Unidentified Antarctic Fungi, Image by Dr Nicole Benaud.
Streptomyces INR7, by HDR candidate Carolina Gutierrez Chavez
For the original post featuring the Antarctic fungi check out Dr Nicole Benaud on twitter @BenaudNic,
for more info on the Streptomyces captured by Carolina check out the original post on The Illuminators website https://www.edi.unsw.edu.au/the-illuminators.
Congratulations to Eden for submitting her PhD thesis! The bioinformatics backbone of the Ferrari lab; wherever life may take you, you’ll undoubtedly excel.
InBLOOM exhibit (main) photograph by Alinta Furnell, Possum (inset) photograph by Alinta Furnell, Just keep sciencing (inset) photo by Nicole Benaud, Herbarium collection (inset) photograph by Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney.
We had a wonderful excursion to the Royal Botanical Garden Sydney, where Director of Research & Chief Botanist Brett Summerell gave us a tour of the labs and the Herbarium. We met the herberium’s resident sight-impaired possum, viewed some of the precious collection dating back to 1770 collected by Joseph Banks, and watched the process of photographing and cataloguing currently being performed for the large collection.
We are very excited to working with Brett on a project to characterize some of our Antarctic fungal isolates.
More info on the Botanic Gardens Herbarium can be found on their website: https://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/Science/Branch-Out/What-is-a-herbarium
