Dr Karen Weynberg
Research Fellow
School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences
Researcher biography
Karen completed her PhD in virology at the University of Warwick, UK, where she discovered new viruses that infect marine phytoplankton. More recently, Karen was an ARC Super Science Fellow at the Australian Institute of Marine Science, Townsville, for 5 years studying coral-associated viruses on the Great Barrier Reef. In 2017, Karen began a CSIRO Synthetic Biology Future Science fellowship, held jointly at CSIRO and the University of Queensland. This new research will use synthetic biology to develop phage therapy for the control of antibiotic-resistant bacterial biofilms.
Book Chapter
Weynberg, Karen D. (2018). Viruses in marine ecosystems: from open waters to coral reefs. Environmental virology and virus ecology. (pp. 1-38) edited by Carolyn M. Malmstrom. Cambridge, MA, United States: Academic Press. doi: 10.1016/bs.aivir.2018.02.001
Journal Articles
Weynberg, Karen D. and Jaschke, Paul R. (2020). Building better bacteriophage with biofoundries to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria. PHAGE, 1 (1), 23-26. doi: 10.1089/phage.2019.0005
Laffy, Patrick W., Botté, Emmanuelle S., Wood‐Charlson, Elisha M., Weynberg, Karen D., Rattei, Thomas and Webster, Nicole S. (2019). Thermal stress modifies the marine sponge virome. Environmental Microbiology Reports, 11 (5) 1758-2229.12782, 690-698. doi: 10.1111/1758-2229.12782
Buerger, P., Weynberg, K.D., Wood-Charlson, E.M., Sato, Y., Willis, B.L. and van Oppen, M.J.H. (2018). Novel T4 bacteriophages associated with black band disease in corals. Environmental Microbiology, 21 (6), 1969-1979. doi: 10.1111/1462-2920.14432
Laffy, Patrick W., Wood-Charlson, Elisha M., Turaev, Dmitrij, Jutz, Sabrina, Pascelli, Cecilia, Botté, Emmanuelle S., Bell, Sara C., Peirce, Tyler, Weynberg, Karen D., van Oppen, Madeleine J. H., Rattei, Thomas and Webster, Nicole S. (2018). Reef invertebrate viromics: diversity, host-specificity & functional capacity. Environmental Microbiology, 20 (6), 2125-2141. doi: 10.1111/1462-2920.14110
Weynberg, Karen D., Laffy, Patrick W., Wood-Charlson, Elisha M., Turaev, Dmitrij, Rattei, Thomas, Webster, Nicole S. and van Oppen, Madeleine J. H. (2017). Coral-associated viral communities show high levels of diversity and host auxiliary functions. PeerJ, 5 (11) e4054, 1-17. doi: 10.7717/peerj.4054
Montalvo-Proano, Jose, Buerger, Patrick, Weynberg, Karen D. and van Oppen, Madeleine J. H. (2017). A PCR-based assay targeting the major capsid protein gene of a dinorna-like ssRNA virus that infects coral photosymbionts. Frontiers in Microbiology, 8 (SEP) 1665. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2017.01665
Weynberg, Karen D., Neave, Matthew, Clode, Peta L., Voolstra, Christian R., Brownlee, Christopher, Laffy, Patrick, Webster, Nicole S., Levin, Rachel A., Wood-Charlson, Elisha M. and van Oppen, Madeleine J. H. (2017). Prevalent and persistent viral infection in cultures of the coral algal endosymbiont Symbiodinium. Coral Reefs, 36 (3), 773-784. doi: 10.1007/s00338-017-1568-7
Weynberg, Karen D., Allen, Michael J. and Wilson, William H. (2017). Marine prasinoviruses and their tiny plankton hosts: a review. Viruses, 9 (3) 43, 43. doi: 10.3390/v9030043
Levin, Rachel Ashley, Voolstra, Christian Robert, Weynberg, Karen Dawn and van Oppen, Madeleine Josephine Henriette (2017). Evidence for a role of viruses in the thermal sensitivity of coral photosymbionts. ISME Journal, 11 (3), 808-812. doi: 10.1038/ismej.2016.154
Sato, Yui, Ling, Edmund Y. S., Turaev, Dmitrij, Laffy, Patrick, Weynberg, Karen D., Rattei, Thomas, Willis, Bette L. and Bourne, David G. (2017). Unraveling the microbial processes of black band disease in corals through integrated genomics. Scientific Reports, 7 (1) 40455, 40455. doi: 10.1038/srep40455
Buerger, Patrick, Wood-Charlson, Elisha M., Weynberg, Karen D., Willis, Bette L. and van Oppen, Madeleine J. H. (2016). CRISPR-Cas defense system and potential prophages in cyanobacteria associated with the coral black band disease. Frontiers in Microbiology, 7 (DEC) 2077. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2016.02077
Buerger, Patrick, Alvarez-Roa, Carlos, Weynberg, Karen D., Baekelandt, Sebastien and van Oppen, Madeleine J. H. (2016). Genetic, morphological and growth characterisation of a new Roseofilum strain (Oscillatoriales, Cyanobacteria) associated with coral black band disease. PeerJ, 2016 (6) e2110, e2110. doi: 10.7717/peerj.2110
Laffy, Patrick W., Wood-Charlson, Elisha M., Turaev, Dmitrij, Weynberg, Karen D., Botte, Emmanuelle S., van Oppen, Madeleine J. H., Webster, Nicole S. and Rattei, Thomas (2016). HoloVir: a workflow for investigating the diversity and function of viruses in invertebrate holobionts. Frontiers in Microbiology, 7 (JUN) 822. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2016.00822
Weynberg, Karen D., Voolstra, Christian R., Neave, Matthew J., Buerger, Patrick and van Oppen, Madeleine J. H. (2015). From cholera to corals: viruses as drivers of virulence in a major bacterial pathogen. Scientific Reports, 5 (1) 17889. doi: 10.1038/srep17889
Wood-Charlson, Elisha M., Weynberg, Karen D., Suttle, Curtis A., Roux, Simon and van Oppen, Madeleine J. H. (2015). Metagenomic characterization of viral communities in corals: mining biological signal from methodological noise. Environmental Microbiology, 17 (10), 3440-3449. doi: 10.1111/1462-2920.12803
ReFuGe 2020 Consortium, Voolstra, Christian R, Miller, David J., Ragan, Mark A., Hoffmann, Ary A., Hoegh-Guldberg, Ove, Bourne, David G., Ball, Eldon E., Ying, Hua, Forêt, Sylvain, Takahashi, Shunichi, Weynberg, Karen D., van Oppen, Madeleine J. H., Morrow, Kathleen, Chan, Cheong Xin, Rosic, Nedeljka, Leggat, William, Sprungala, Susanne, Imelfort, Michael, Tyson, Gene W., Kassahn, Karin S., Lundgren, Petra B., Beeden, Roger J., Ravasi, Timothy, Berumen, Michael L., Abal, Eva and Fyffe, Theresa (2015). The ReFuGe 2020 Consortium—using “omics” approaches to explore the adaptability and resilience of coral holobionts to environmental change. Frontiers in Marine Science, 2 (Art No.: 68) 68. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2015.00068
Pollock, F. Joseph, Wood-Charlson, Elisha M., van Oppen, Madeleine J. H., Bourne, David G., Willis, Bette L. and Weynberg, Karen D. (2014). Abundance and morphology of virus-like particles associated with the coral Acropora hyacinthus differ between healthy and white syndrome-infected states. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 510, 39-43. doi: 10.3354/meps10927
Weynberg, Karen D., Wood-Charlson, Elisha M., Suttle, Curtis A. and van Oppen, Madeleine J. H. (2014). Generating viral metagenomes from the coral holobiont. Frontiers in Microbiology, 5 (MAY) 206, 206. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2014.00206
Stevens, Kim, Weynberg, Karen, Bellas, Christopher, Brown, Sonja, Brownlee, Colin, Brown, Murray T. and Schroeder, Declan C. (2014). A novel evolutionary strategy revealed in the phaeoviruses. PLoS One, 9 (1) e86040, e86040. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0086040
Reid, Emma L., Weynberg, Karen D., Love, John, Isupov, Michail N., Littlechild, Jennifer A., Wilson, William H., Kelly, Steven L., Lamb, David C. and Allen, Michael J. (2013). Functional and structural characterisation of a viral cytochrome b5. FEBS Letters, 587 (22), 3633-3639. doi: 10.1016/j.febslet.2013.09.035
Allen, Michael J., Tait, Karen, Muehling, Martin, Weynberg, Karen, Bradley, Claire, Trivedi, Urmi, Gharbi, Karim, Nissimov, Jozef, Mavromatis, Konstantinos, Jensen, Chantel N., Grogan, Gideon and Ali, Sohail T. (2012). Genome sequence of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia PML168, which displays Baeyer-Villiger monooxygenase activity. Journal of Bacteriology, 194 (17), 4753-4754. doi: 10.1128/JB.00949-12
Weynberg, Karen D., Allen, Michael J., Gilg, Ilana C., Scanlan, David J. and Wilson, William H. (2011). Genome sequence of Ostreococcus tauri virus OtV-2 throws light on the role of picoeukaryote niche separation in the ocean. Journal of Virology, 85 (9), 4520-4529. doi: 10.1128/JVI.02131-10
Gilbert, Jack A., Field, Dawn, Swift, Paul, Thomas, Simon, Cummings, Denise, Temperton, Ben, Weynberg, Karen, Huse, Susan, Hughes, Margaret, Joint, Ian, Somerfield, Paul J. and Muhling, Martin (2010). The taxonomic and functional diversity of microbes at a temperate coastal site: a ‘multi-omic’study of seasonal and diel temporal variation. PLoS One, 5 (11) e15545, e15545. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0015545
Weynberg, Karen D., Allen, Michael J., Ashelford, Kevin, Scanlan, David J. and Wilson, William H. (2009). From small hosts come big viruses: The complete genome of a second Ostreococcus tauri virus, OtV-1. Environmental Microbiology, 11 (11), 2821-2839. doi: 10.1111/j.1462-2920.2009.01991.x