Dr Rebecca McKenzie

Dr Rebecca McKenzie undertook her PhD at Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands in the department of bionanoscience under the supervision of Dr Stan Brouns. Her thesis involved the development of several molecular methods to characterise CRISPR-Cas defense the first known form of adaptive immunity in bacteria. Her most recent work used time-lapse microscopy and microfluidics to visualise and quantify the variation in CRISPR-Cas immune responses to phage infection between single cells within a population.

Rebecca is a project leader in the Malaghan Institute's RNA technology development facility and one of seven pillar leads in the national RNA development platform.

“RNA technology is revolutionising vaccine production due to its speed, adaptability, and safe production. These advances have opened a whole new field of RNA therapeutics that could allow us to tackle a number of diseases that are unique to Aotearoa. My research interest is getting this technology up and running here at the Malaghan so we can be ready with these skills when needed.”