Lab head: Nick Scott
​ORCID: 0000-0003-2556-8316

Nick Scott completed his PhD at the University of Sydney (2007 to 2012) on mass spectrometry (MS) approaches for the study of bacterial protein modification under the guidance of Prof. Stuart Cordwell. The key focus of his doctorate was the establishment of a protocol for enriching bacterial glycopeptides irrespective of glycan composition. This approach has become the gold standard for the analysis of glycopeptides and enabled the exploration of glycosylation in a range of microbial pathogens including A. baumannii, R. solanacearum and B. cenocepacia.

In late 2011 Nick was awarded a NHMRC Early Career Fellowship and in 2012 he moved to the Foster lab at the University of British Columbia. Within the Foster lab he began developing quantitative proteomics approaches for the study of protein interactions using protein correlation profiling (PCP) as well as applying quantitative approaches to study bacterial glycosylation. In 2013, he was awarded a Michael Smith Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship to continue this work. 

In 2015, Nick was recruited to the University of Melbourne for the conclusion of his NHMRC fellowship (2016–2017) and to establish his own independent research career. This transition to independence has been facilitated by his success in gaining competitive funding through a sole CI NHMRC project grant (2016–2018) and a University of Melbourne Early Career Researcher (2016) award as well as co-CI NHMRC/ARC project grants (2018-2020).

Nick's research program aims to understand the function of microbial glycosylation and its influence on infection. For the O-linked glycosylation system of Burkholderia a key goal of my research is to understand how protein glycosylation effects/drives host immunity. Employing state of the art mass spectrometry (MS), molecular and immunological approaches, my research program aims to understand the glycoproteomes of Burkholderia species and how glycoproteins impact the host response. The long-term goal of these studies is to leverage this insight into Burkholderia O-linked glycosylation to produce novel glycoconjugates that can bolster human immunity and control these opportunistic pathogens. 
BSc (MOBT) (Hons. I University Medal) University of Sydney (2003-2006)
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Doctor of Philosophy, Cordwell Lab, University of Sydney,  (2007-2012)

Postdoctoral training, Foster lab (2012-2015), University of British Columbia, Canada

Postdoctoral training, Hartland lab (2016-2017), University of Melbourne
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Scott lab established November 2017

​ARC Future Fellow (2021-2024)
Current lab members
Taylor McDaniels
Taylor McDaniels graduated with a Bachelor of Science from the University of Melbourne with a major in Infection and Immunity (2018-2020) and did her Masters in the Scott lab (2021-2022). She is currently a research technician in the Scott Lab work focuses on the generation of CRISPRi tools to study O-linked glycosylation in Burkholderia cenocepacia. 

BSc, The University of Melbourne (2018-2020)
Master in Biomedical Research, The University of Melbourne (2021-2022 )


([email protected])
Michael Bacus 

​Michael Bacus graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of the Philippines Mindanao. His undergraduate thesis focused on understanding the spatiotemporal dynamics and risk factors of rotavirus A circulation in backyard pig farms using molecular tools and regression models. In 2019, Michael started working at the newly established Philippine Genome Center (PGC) Mindanao as a University Research Associate and his research work sought to understand the spread and evolution of several viral pathogens (RABV, Bat Betacoronaviruses, SARS-CoV2, ASFV) using genomics and phylogenetic tools. Michael is also part of the Interdisciplinary Applied Modelling, Data Analytics and Bioinformatics for Decision Support Systems in Health (AMDABiDSS-Health) program of the University of the Philippines Mindanao. He is currently involved in vulnerability assessment studies for emerging infectious diseases and betacoronavirus surveillance in animal reservoirs. Currently, Michael is pursuing a Master of Philosophy in Biomedical Science (by research) within the Scott Lab. Michael's work will focus on the host proteome changes induced by Burkholderia cenocepacia infection using proteomic techniques.

BSc, The University of Philippines (2014-2018)
Master in Biomedical Research, The University of Melbourne (2022- )


([email protected])
Kristian Tkalec

Kristian Tkalec graduated with a Bachelor of Biomedicine with a major in Infection and Immunity (2019-2021), followed by an Honours degree (2022) within the Scott Lab. His Honours thesis explored the proteome and phenotypic changes occurring with the loss of O-linked glycosylation Acinetobacter baumannii. Currently, Kristian is undertaking a Doctor of Philosophy within the Scott Lab, where his focus is to define the glycoproteome within A. baumannii and elucidate the role O-linked glycosylation plays in A. baumannii physiology.

​BSc Hons, The University of Melbourne (2019-2022)
PhD, The University of Melbourne (2023- )

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([email protected]​)
Hamza Tahir
Hamza completed his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) degree from the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Pakistan. He did his MPhil Microbiology and Molecular Genetics from the University of the Punjab, Pakistan. His MPhil research was focused on CRISPR/Cas9 based vaccines against Salmonella spp. Where he targeted the Type Three Secretion System (T3SS) apparatus and plasmid-based virulence genes as well as studying their impact on bacterial virulence supported by in-vivo infection models. In 2020, he joined the Bacteriophage Lab at the Institute of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics as a Research Associate. There his work was focused on synthetic phage biology and phage genome engineering as part of the funded research project "Antibiotic Alternative: Phages and Nutraceuticals for Pakistan Poultry Production" supported by the International Development Research Center (IDRC) Canada. He is currently pursuing his doctoral studies within Scott Group where he will be studying the glycoengineering of Burkholderia glycoproteins in E. coli their biophysical studies and development of novel platform for producing Burkholderia Vaccine.

DVM, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Pakistan (2014-2019)
MPhil Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of The Punjab, Pakistan (2019-2021)
PhD Microbiology and Immunology, University of Melbourne (2023-)


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([email protected]​)
Godfrey Mwiti
Godfrey completed his BSc. In Human Nutrition and Dietetics at Karatina University-Kenya in 2018. He then proceeded to South Korea through the Korean government scholarship program where he did a Korean language training program at Daegu University (2019-2020), followed by an MSc. In Food and Nutrition majoring in Food Science at Chungnam National University, Daejeon-S. Korea (2020-2022). At Chungnam, Godfrey completed his MSc. thesis with the Nutritional Food Microbiology Laboratory focusing on the characterization of the adaptive metabolic network in Staphylococcus aureus bacteria using label-free quantitative proteomics. Currently, Godfrey is pursuing his doctoral studies with the Scott lab. His PhD focuses on the application of novel proteomics techniques to better understand the pathobiology of Burkholderia cenocepacia bacteria during intracellular replication.

Karatina University, Kenya (2015-2018)
MSc, Chungnam National University, Korea  (2020-2022)​
PhD Microbiology and Immunology, University of Melbourne (2024-)

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([email protected])

Scott lab 2025 (March - Leila's Farewell Dinner)​

Scott lab 2024 (December - end of year picnic)​

Scott lab 2024 (October - Lab lunch)​

Scott lab 2024 (April - Michael's farewell)​

Scott lab 2023 (December -xmas party on the Yarra)​

Scott lab 2023 (July)​

Scott lab 2022 (November)

Scott lab 2022 (June)

Scott lab 2021 (April)

Previous lab members (Year- Degree) | Current position
Dr Leila Jebeli ​(2021-2025- Postdoc) | Postdoc Wang lab MCRI
Dr Jessica Lewis (2021-2023 -Postdoc) |  Postdoc Sagona lab University of Warwick
Catrina Lay (2022-Honours) | MDU University of Melbourne
Pauline M.L. Coulon (2021-Postdoc) |  Postdoc Stinear lab
Wafaa Adams (2020- Honours)
Ameera Raudah Ahmad Izaham (laboratory technician)
Camilla Taylor (2018- Honours) | Medicine (University of Melbourne)

Lab Mascots

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​Rubi and Meowcroft

Not the hardest working lab members but a constant source of equal parts joy and ​mischief
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​Millie

The youngest member of lab

Thank you to the gracious funders for there ongoing support

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Mizutani Foundation Grant
Grant number: 220040
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NHMRC Idea grant
Grant number: 2018980

ARC Discovery Project Grants 
​DP180101298,DP210100362
ARC Future fellowship
​FT200100270

Contact Us

The Scott lab is located within the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Melbourne at The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity

E-mail: [email protected]

Address: Level 6, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, 792 Elizabeth St, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000