Alumni and Students

Natalie Lorenz

New Zealand based PhD researcher Natalie Lorenz is deeply immersed in the microscopic world of the infectious pathogen Staphylococcus aureus, seeking to counter its increasing resistance to antibiotics.

Natalie Lorenz is used to seeing the world from many different perspectives. If she’s not hovering high above it in her favourite sport of paragliding, she’s probing its complexity under the microscope.

The focus of Natalie’s attention is Staphylococcus aureus, a widespread pathogen responsible for high levels of infection and even death in humans and animals. It’s a major cause of hospital-acquired infection and post-surgical sepsis worldwide.

What worries researchers like Natalie, who is doing her PhD in New Zealand, is the disturbing tendency of Staphylococcus aureus strains to build resistance to antibiotics. Natalie is one of many international researchers seeking alternative methods to treat infections that don’t require traditional antibiotics. In particular, her work is focused on the interaction between the material proteins and the immune system during the manifestation of Staph aureus infections.

A graduate in molecular medicine, Natalie was encouraged by her professor in Germany to do an initial three month PhD internship in New Zealand. He and Natalie were so impressed with the quality of work she was able to do in New Zealand, she returned to complete her challenging, but very worthwhile, research assignment.