Team Painter

Based in the Ferrier Research Institute in Gracefield, Lower Hutt, Team Painter's focus is mRNA and lipid nanoparticles.

On this page:

Research

Team Painter's research is focused on:

  • design and synthesis of vaccine adjuvants and ionisable lipids
  • subsequent use in vaccines and immunotherapeutics.
A microscopic view of some cells

Refining mRNA production to generate liver immunity

Learn more about how Team Painter is developing scalable mRNA purification methods to improve vaccine effectiveness
New-lipids

New lipids for RNA delivery

Learn more about how Team Painter is developing novel lipids to create cost-effective RNA delivery systems.
mRNA-Malaria-vaccine

mRNA malaria vaccine

Learn more about how Team Painter is developing an mRNA vaccine to overcome limitations of traditional malaria vaccines.
An image of pink, purple, and blue anti-cancer cells.

Anticancer immunotherapy

Learn more about how we developed a synthetic vaccine using a natural product and novel chemical linker as a potential anticancer therapy.

Team leader

Team members

Adjunct Fellow

Students

PhD candidates at the Ferrier Research Institute are listed below, along with their thesis title  and supervisors.

NameTopicSupervisor
Hsin-Chuan (David) Hsu Development of proximity induced bioorthogonal conjugation reaction Regan Anderson, Richard Furneaux, Todd Lowary

Publications

Latest publications 2024

2024
A Glycolipid-Peptide-Hapten Tricomponent Conjugate Vaccine Generates Durable Antihapten Antibody Responses in Mice

T. E. Pankhurst, I. Montgomerie, A. Marshall, S. L. Draper, T. Bilbrough, K. R. Button, et al.

ACS Chemical Biology 2024 Vol. 19 Issue 6 Pages 1366-1375

2024
NKT agonist-antigen conjugates as cancer vaccines

B. J. Compton and G. F. Painter

Critical Reviews™ in Oncogenesis 2024 Vol. 29

2023

2023
mRNA Synthesis and Encapsulation in Ionizable Lipid Nanoparticles

R. E. McKenzie, J. J. Minnell, M. Ganley, G. F. Painter and S. L. Draper

Current Protocols 2023 Vol. 3 Issue 9 Pages e898

2023
mRNA vaccine against malaria tailored for liver-resident memory T cells

Ganley M, Holz LE, Minnell JJ, de Menezes MN, Burn OK, Poa KCY, Draper SL, English K, Chan STS, Anderson RJ, Compton BJ, Marshall AJ, Cozijnsen A, Chua YC, Ge Z, Farrand KJ, Mamum JC, Xu C, Cockburn IA, Yui K, Bertolino P, Gras S, Le Nours J, Rossjohn J, Fernandez-Ruiz D, McFadden GI, Ackerley DF, Painter GF, Hermans IF, Heath WR

Nat Immunol (2023)

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Related stories

Scientific breakthrough harnesses mRNA technology to develop powerful malaria vaccine

A new mRNA vaccine targeting immune cells in the liver could be the key to tackling malaria, a disease that causes over half a million deaths each year according to the World Health Organization, yet has no effective long-lasting vaccine.

Group photo of 11 people standing on lawn with glass front of a building in background

Trans-Tasman collaboration to develop a malaria vaccine

Prof Gavin Painter and his team at the Ferrier Research Institute are part of a trans-Tasman collaboration aiming to develop a simple and effective malaria vaccine that could be manufactured efficiently and administered easily in at-risk countries.