Rate My Professor Rajni Wilson

Dr. Rajni Wilson serves as Chemistry Teacher in the University of Otago Pathway programme within the Academic Division at the University of Otago. She obtained her Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry from the University of Otago in 2013. Her PhD thesis, titled "[1+1] Macrocycles and Complexes derived from Diphenylamine-2,2'-dicarboxaldehydes and Carbazole-1,8-dicarboxaldehyde," was completed under the supervision of Professor Sally Brooker in the Department of Chemistry, focusing on the synthesis of novel Schiff-base macrocycles and their coordination complexes with transition metals.

Dr. Wilson's research spans coordination chemistry and molecular microbiology. In coordination chemistry, her contributions include studies on the oxidative dehydrogenation of a new tetra-amine N4-donor macrocycle that tunes nickel(II) spin states (2013), acridine-based ligands derived from cobalt(II)-mediated rearrangement of diphenylamine-based materials (2016), carbazole-based N4-donor Schiff base macrocycles obtained metal-free and as Cu(II) and Ni(II) complexes (2017), three manganese complexes of anionic N4-donor Schiff-base macrocycles including monomeric MnII, MnIII, and dimeric MnIV (2019), and a one-dimensional coordination polymer assembled from a macrocyclic Mn(III) single-molecule magnet and terephthalate (2020). At the Sir John Walsh Research Institute in the Faculty of Dentistry, her work has elucidated the structure and function of fungal lanosterol 14α-demethylase (CYP51), a critical target for azole antifungals. Key publications encompass structural insights into fluconazole binding to Saccharomyces cerevisiae CYP51 (2015), triazole resistance via mutations in a conserved active site tyrosine (2016), structural and functional analysis of yeast CYP51 with agrochemical antifungals (2016), crystal structures of full-length CYP51 from Candida albicans and Candida glabrata (2018), azole resistance impacting tetrazole antifungal VT-1161 susceptibility (2018), fungal CYP51 as a target for next-generation antifungals (2020), and azole resistance in Candida albicans Darlington strain using surrogate CYP51 (2021). These efforts have informed antifungal drug discovery and resistance mechanisms, with her work cited over 800 times.