Karen Johnston

Karen Johnston

Karen didn’t know quite what to expect when she came to a job at IRL in 2008. “It was my first time in the southern hemisphere and I didn’t know anyone here, but it was a great opportunity and very exciting,” she said.

“I loved it right from the start and I’ve met lots of people. Some of the others in the Carbohydrate Chemistry group took me snowboarding and now I go every winter. We can get to Mt Ruapehu at weekends and this year we’ve booked a week away in the South Island. There is lots of outdoor stuff to do here, whether you’re into surfing, kayaking, mountain biking, rock climbing or walking— everything is so handy and accessible."

Karen is from north of Aberdeen in Scotland and completed her PhD in chemistry at Heriot-Watt University. She then completed a three-year post-doc at the University of Edinburgh working towards the synthesis of super azolophanes—two azole ring structures linked one on top of the other.

 “I’ve worked on several research projects since I started at IRL. I did some method development work for a series of PIM (phosphatidylinositol mannoside) compounds and presented that work at the International Carbohydrate Symposium in Tokyo last year. I really enjoyed the trip to Japan and meeting other chemists at the conference."

Karen has also worked on the computer modelling of some of the novel chemical structures made by the group. Some internal funding was available so she could be totally dedicated to the project for six weeks, enabling good progress to be made.

“Modelling is a really useful tool when you’re making biologically active molecules. If you can see how your molecule is interacting with a protein’s active site, it can influence the choice of targets you might synthesise. Of course the real test is always the activity itself, but it can potentially be very powerful. It has been great to develop our expertise in this area and my work is helping us look for new targets in a couple of research areas. It also possibly explained why we had seen poor activity in a target molecule that was screened recently.

“I also enjoy the commercial work at IRL too—it’s very focussed and can be quite challenging at times. I’ve definitely gained lots of useful experience here, things that will be great in my future career.

Karen can see herself in New Zealand for quite a while yet though. “I really enjoy my job and have made some good friends here. It’s a great country to live in and I feel very settled here.”