Rhia specialises in the synthesis and biological evaluation of novel imaging agents
Rhia is from Wellington, New Zealand, where she completed her Bachelor's (2011) and Master's (2014) degrees in Chemistry. She moved to Brisbane to pursue a PhD with Prof. Mark Blaskovich at the Institute for Molecular Biosciences, the University of Queensland. During her doctorate, Rhia synthesised tagged antibiotics and utilised these probes to investigate bacterial infection and resistance. After completing her PhD in 2020, Rhia took up a Postdoctoral Researcher position with A. Prof. Enver İzgü at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. At Rutgers, she worked on synthesis and in vitro application of fluorogenic probes for detection of reactive oxygen species. Rhia returned to UQ in 2022 and now works for Prof. Kris Thurecht at the Centre for Advanced Imaging, helping to develop novel imaging agents and translate future therapeutics from lab to animal.
Key Publications
Stone, M. R. L.; Butler, M. S.; Phetsang, W.; Cooper, M. A.; Blaskovich, M. A. T., Fluorescent Antibiotics: New Research Tools to Fight Antibiotic Resistance. Trends Biotechnol. 2018, 36 (5), 523-536. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tibtech.2018.01.004
Stone, M. R. L.; Pagliara, S.; Łapińska, U.; Masi, M. Cooper, M. A.; Blaskovich, M. A. T.; Fluorescent Macrolide Probes – Synthesis and Use in Evaluation of Bacterial Resistance. RSC Chem. Biol., 2020, 1, 395-404. https://doi.org/10.1039/D0CB00118J
Stone, M. R. L.; Masi, M.; Phetsang, W.; Pagès, J.-M.; Cooper, M. A.; Blaskovich, M. A. T., Fluoroquinolone-derived fluorescent probes for studies of bacterial penetration and efflux. MedChemComm 2019, 10 (6), 901-906. https://doi.org/10.1039/C9MD00124G
Hast, K.; Stone, M. R. L.; Jia, Z.; Baci, M.; Aggarwal, T.; Izgu, E. C.; Bioorthogonal Functionalization of Material Surfaces with Bioactive Molecules; ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2023, 15, 4, 4996 – 5009. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.2c20942
Peschel, A.; Cardoso, F. C.; Walker, A. A.; Durek, T.; Stone, M. R. L.; Emidio, N. B.; Dawson, P. E.; Muttenthaler, M.; King, G. K.; Two for the Price of One: Heterobivalent Ligand Design Targeting Two Binding Sites on Voltage-Gated Sodium Channels Slows Ligand Dissociation and Enhances Potency. J. Med. Chem. 2020, 63 (21), 12773-12785. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jmedchem.0c01107