Travel Reports
2010
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The conference offered a variety of seminars ranging from translational control of proteins like ribosome, virology to enzyme and drug targets, with the latter being more relevant to what I'm doing.

My PhD work involves synthesising a range of substrate analogues to probe the substrate specificity of a biologically important enzyme called DAH7P synthase. This enzyme is part of the first step of the shikimate pathway. This pathway is responsible for synthesising the aromatic amino acids in microorganism and plants and therefore is essential for survival. By investigating the substrate specificity of DAH7P synthase we can identify the important features of substrates for binding to the enzyme and probe the substrate specificity of the different types of DAH7P synthase. This information could then be used in better inhibitor designs.

I presented a poster at the conference where I showed a portion of the work that I’ve been doing for my PhD. This included the structures of the substrates that I had synthesised and tested along with other substrates that had been tested in the past. From the poster I was able to receive feedback on my work from numerous attendees of the conference which further helped me in my direction of my PhD. I was also able to meet, in person, Ada Yonath the 2009 Noble Prize laureate, which was a highlight of Lorne 2010.

Finally, I would like to thank the RSNZ Canterbury branch for their generous support to attend this conference. It was a worth wild experience!