I have PhD in Plant Molecular Biology from University of Bristol which involved the molecular characterisation and manipulation of a protein kinase in potato. Since then, I have diversified and expanded my skills and techniques, working on several cell biology and immunology projects at the Institute of Food Research and more recently, the University of East Anglia.
 
These projects include an in vitro study of the role of a specialised immune cell type of the gut in clearance of particulate antigens, looking at immune cells and cytokines involved in allergy, dissecting the mechanism for clearance of pathogens in the gut by dendritic cells, ascertaining immune changes in ageing human gut, looking at the effects of faecal microbial transplantation in the gut, brain and systemic immunity of ageing mice and finally, studying the changes in immune cells of transgenic autophagy-deficient mice.

I joined the Earlham Institute as a Postdoctoral Researcher in September 2017 to work on the project “Understanding influenza A virus: linking transmission, evolutionary dynamics, pathogenesis and immunity in pigs”. I am currently a Senior Postdoctoral Research Scientist in the Nieduszynski Group. 

As a Postdoctoral Researcher in Anthony Hall’s Group I am working on a BBSRC funded project that brings together field phenotyping and next generation genomics to investigate drought tolerance in bread wheat. In collaboration with researchers in India at ICAR-Indian Institute of Wheat Barley Research (IIWBR) and ICAR-National Institute Abiotic Stress Management (NIASM) together with the University of Lancaster, a wheat diversity panel consisting of over 300 lines prescreened for drought and heat tolerance will be extensively genetically and phenotypically characterized to uncover the genomic regions and key mechanisms associated with the ability of wheat to maintain yield stability under drought conditions. This project will demonstrate how genomic technologies and phenotyping strategies can be brought together and utilised to address important issues in crop stress biology and resource use efficiency.

Prior to joining the Earlham Institute I worked at the UEA on the bioinformatics analysis of next generation sequencing datasets generated from RNA-seq experiments, and am particularly interested in bringing together NGS transcriptomics and genetic analysis to explore the regulatory mechanisms underlying key agronomic traits.

I have a background in crop science, molecular genetics and bioinformatics and have worked with a range of agricultural and horticultural crop species; mapping genes controlling of disease resistance in brassica and apple, dwarfing ability of rootstocks in apple and identifying novel small RNA linked to fruit development in tomato.

I am fascinated by how organisms utilise their genomic diversity and the implications of aberrant regulatory processes or diversity loss for future evolutionary potential. I use an integrative approach encompassing bioinformatics, experimental data, and fieldwork to explore the mechanisms of genome regulation, change and persistence that influence this potential.

I work with a range of organisms and model systems, from population level to single-cell resolution and utilise several methodologies, with a recent focus on human long-read transcriptomics.

I’m currently a Senior Computational Biologist working with the Haerty and Macaulay Groups as part of the Cellular Genomics Research Programme.

In a recent project I used emerging technologies and approaches to understand mechanisms of transcription and epigenetic regulation in human development, in close collaboration with the Monk Group (UEA).

I received my BSc Zoology with Conservation (Hons) from Bangor University in 2009, working with critically endangered bongo (Tragelaphus eurycerus isaaci). I then completed my PhD in Molecular Ecology at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in 2014, during which I investigated evolutionary and conservation genetics of the Seychelles warbler (Acrocephalus sechellensis).

I subsequently worked on various projects including captive breeding program genetics for the Asian Houbara bustard (Chlamydotis macqueeni) and invasion biology in tree bumblebees (Bombus hypnorum) before moving to the Earlham Institute in 2017.