Email: | david.burritt@otago.ac.nz |
Telephone: | +64 3 479 9057 |
Fields of Research
- Oxidative stress and redox biology
- Plant based foods and bioactive molecules
- Plant breeding and biotechnology
- Cryopreservation of germplasm
- The stress biology of plants, animals and algae, including the impacts of pollution and climate change
Researcher Summary
My research is focused on answering fundamental questions associated with how organisms survive under environmental stress and when exposed to toxins and other pollutants, both increasing global problems.
Much of my research has applications in the biotechnology, crop, food and biomedical industries.
Selected Research Overviews
Plant and seaweed bioactives
Plants and seaweeds (macroalgae) contain a wide range of bioactive molecules of potential valuable to the food, wine and pharmaceutical industries.
We are investigating effective ways of extracting these molecules and the ability of bioactive molecules to improve the quality of foods and wine, and to protect human cells from stress-induced damage.
Plant tissue culture and cryopreservation of plant and animal cells
Plant tissue culture involves a wide range of techniques used to grow plant cells, tissues or organs on a nutrient culture medium under sterile conditions.
We investigate and develop tissue culture techniques that can be used to efficiently clone commercially important plants and to store valuable germplasm at ultra-low temperatures, using a technique called cryopreservation.
Oxidative stress biology
While oxygen is important for life is can also be harmful. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are small highly reactive molecules formed as a by-product of the normal metabolism of oxygen in cells. However, under conditions of stress, which can be caused by pollutants or adverse environmental conditions, ROS levels can increase past the point that they can be neutralized. Oxidative damage occurs and an organism is said to be under oxidative stress.
We investigate the importance of ROS production and oxidative stress in plants and other organisms exposed to pollutants and a range of other environmental stressors.
Postgraduate students
Tingting (Lily) Lui | PhD | Food Sci |
Nusyanna Cham Pi | PhD | Botany |
Paulo Lagos Jimenez | PhD | Marine Science |
Mi Tang | PhD | Botany |
Amirreza Zarekarizi | PhD | Botany |
Chelsea Kerr | MSc | Botany (PLBI) |
Madeleine Post | MSc | Botany (PLBI) |
Cecila Richardson | MSc | Marine Science |
Yuta Ogawa | MSc | Botany (PLBI) |
Oscar Yip | MSc | Botany |
Jessica Fitzgerald | BSc Hons | Botany (PLBI) |
Joshua Rich | PGDP Sci | Botany (PLBI) |
Research Theme/Centre Involvement
David is involved with the Ag@Otago research theme, and the Otago Global Health Institute.
Teaching
BIOL123 | Plants: How They Shape the World |
BTNY201 | Plant Functional Biology and Biotechnology |
BTNY461 | Plant Physiology and Biotechnology |
PLBI301 | Applied Plant Science |
PLBI302 | Plants for the Future |
PLBI351 | Special Topics |
PLBI401 | Plant Biotechnology |