I am looking for a job that allows me to pursue data analysis combined with biological interpretation of results. My academic background has allowed me to explore several very different biological fields, all of which have required handling of large datasets and have given me significant wet lab and field-work experience. I have a passion for problem solving and enjoy learning new techniques that help me develop as a data scientist.
I finished my PhD studies at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton (NOCS), UK with the focus of my research being the characterisation of the Pleuromamma copepod gut microbiome. I had the opportunity to join several research cruises while at NOCS, including two Atlantic Meridional Transect cruises, during which I gained experience in sample collection and working at sea. I then used a variety of traditional molecular (e.g. fluorescence in situ hybridisation) and next generation sequencing techniques (e.g. 16S amplicon sequencing and analysis) to gain an understanding of this fascinating host-microbe association.
I continued my Postdoctoral research in the Department of Symbiosis at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, in Bremen, Germany. I worked on further characterising the copepod gut microbiome and understanding the metabolic potential of the association using genomics and transcriptomics.
I am currently employed as a Bioinformatics Programmer at the Alkek Center for Metagenomics and Microbiome Research within Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas. Our goal is to understand the human microbiome and its impact on health and disease.