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Contact Details

Email
scott.lawrence@otago.ac.nz
Position
Assistant Research Fellow
Department
Department of Microbiology and Immunology
Research summary
Antimicrobials; microbiology

Research

I am currently working to find new treatment and control options for the plant pathogens Phytophthora agathidicida (causative agent of kauri dieback disease) and P. cinnamomi (pathogen of various commercially-important trees). This work involves high-throughput screening of existing antimicrobials, as well as discovery of novel antimicrobials from native NZ plants. Additionally, I am using next-generation sequencing and protein modelling to try and gain a better understanding? of the chemotaxis of P. agathidicida zoospores towards their kauri hosts.

Publications

Lawrence, S. A., Robinson, H. F., Furkert, D. P., Brimble, M. A., & Gerth, M. L. (2021). Screening a natural product-inspired library for anti-Phytophthora activities. Molecules, 26(7), 1819. doi: 10.3390/molecules26071819 Journal - Research Article

Lawrence, S., Burgess, E., Pairama, C., Black, A., Patrick, W., Mitchell, I., Perry, N., & Gerth, M. (2019). Mātauranga guided biodiscovery of anti-Phytophthora compounds from New Zealand native plants. Proceedings of the Joint Conference of the Australasian Systematic Botany Society (ASBS) and the New Zealand Plant Conservation Network (NZPCN): Taxonomy for Plant Conservation: Ruia mai i Rangiātea. (pp. 44). Retrieved from https://systematics.ourplants.org Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract

Lawrence, S. A., Burgess, E. J., Pairama, C., Black, A., Patrick, W. M., Mitchell, I., Perry, N. B., & Gerth, M. L. (2019). Mātauranga-guided screening of New Zealand native plants reveals flavonoids from kānuka (Kunzea robusta) with anti-Phytophthora activity. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 49(Suppl. 1), 137-154. doi: 10.1080/03036758.2019.1648303 Journal - Research Article

Lawrence, S. A., Floge, S. A., Davy, J. E., Davy, S. K., & Wilson, W. H. (2017). Exploratory analysis on Symbiodinium transcriptomes reveals potential latent infection by large dsDNA viruses. Environmental Microbiology, 19(10), 3909-3919. doi: 10.1111/1462-2920.13782 Journal - Research Article

Armstrong, L. B., Lawrence, S. A., & Gerth, M. L. (2017, September). Finding an Achilles heel to Phytophthora agathidicida. Poster session presented at the Queenstown Molecular Biology (QMB) Meetings, Queenstown, New Zealand. Conference Contribution - Poster Presentation (not in published proceedings)

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