The Bakery

Our Alumni

We are happy to have hosted wonderful PhD students, PDRAs and, visitors in the Bakery. Scroll on down to find out more about our past members, their experiences with the Bakery and their next steps.

BACKSTORY

I undertook my undergraduate study at the University of Edinburgh in Biological Science (Cell Biology). Upon completion, I commenced my PhD at the Roslin Institute (University of Edinburgh) and joined the Laboratory for Bacterial Evolution and Pathogenesis (LBEP) group, under the supervision of Professor Ross Fitzgerald and Dr Tahar Ait-Ali. My study focused on the obligate intracellular pathogen Lawsonia intracellularis, the aetiological agent of a common non-zoonotic enteric disease in pigs and horses. During my PhD I utilised metagenomic sequencing to acquire draft genome sequences of the bacterium through direct sequencing of clinical samples and performed population genomic analysis.

EXPERIENCE IN THE BAKERY

NEXT STEPS

BACKSTORY

I graduated from the University of Liverpool in 2016 with a first-class honours degree in Tropical Disease Biology. As part of my final year project I conducted the first major study of Salmonella associated with a collection of venomous reptiles and was subsequently awarded Tropical Disease Biologist of the Year. Following my degree, I completed a Wellcome-Trust funded summer internship in the Hinton lab, continuing my work on reptile associated Salmonella using genomic methods. I found the integration of genomic and epidemiological approaches innovative and fascinating which prompted my decision to study towards a PhD.

EXPERIENCE IN THE BAKERY

During 2016 to 2020 I completed a PhD in Biological Sciences at the University of Liverpool. My project was co-supervised by Jay Hinton and Kate Baker and was funded by a John Lennon Memorial Scholarship. My thesis focused on understanding the genomic epidemiology of nontyphoidal Salmonella serovars and their association with invasive disease. This involved designing and executing studies involving large numbers (hundreds to thousands) of bacterial whole genome sequences and metadata, including extensive use of bioinformatic tools and statistical software. More specifically, I used these methods to study understudied pathogenic serovars in snake populations, and unpick the evolutionary events that paved the way for diarrhoeal salmonellae to be able to cause invasive disease in immunocompromised individuals in lower and middle income countries. My research involved significant national and international collaboration and I was able to spend part of my PhD at the Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Clinical Research Centre (Blantyre, Malawi), the Institut Pasteur (Paris, France) and Public Health England (London, UK). I published several pieces of research in peer reviewed journals including a first author publication in Nature Microbiology and I received the NOVA prize for significant early contributions in the field of biological sciences.

NEXT STEPS

Currently, I am working as a Senior Surveillance and Prevention Scientist for the National Infection Service at Public Health England. My role involves developing new initiatives for program delivery and service improvement of Hepatitis C in order to support WHO efforts to eliminate the virus as a public health problem by 2030. I am also applying my skills in genomics and epidemiology to several Health Protection Research Unit projects focused on a variety of sexually transmitted infections such as shigellosis and HIV.