The group’s work on a novel way to fight Tb infections showed great promise, award organisers said.
The award recognises a team effort leading to "recognised contributions" and outstanding research performance at the university at a high international level.
Prof Cook leads the bacterial energetics and antimicrobial resistance group, which is making advances in the war against diseases such as Tb, including the drug-resistant strains of its causative bacterium and other pathogens against which existing drugs are proving increasingly ineffective. The award was "great recognition" for the group, and he was "delighted" for the members, and this "great honour had reflected "all the hard work" put in over a long time, he said yesterday.
As well as his group’s work towards developing a class of antibiotics aimed at crippling the metabolism of such Tb and other bacteria, and side-stepping existing bacterial drug-resistance mechanisms, members are also making progress in applying the approach for agricultural applications.
Between 2012 and last year, Prof Cook’s 22-strong group published 67 peer-reviewed publications and received funding from the Health Research Council of New Zealand, the Marsden Fund, MBIE, the Royal Society and the NZ Fund for Global Partnerships in Livestock Emissions Research.
Deputy research and enterprise vice-chancellor Prof Richard Blaikie said the group’s continuing work was "world-class science that has drawn considerable attention from leading researchers around the world, with whom they have formed a number of key collaborations".