I'm a molecular microbiologist with over 7 years’ experience in academic and industry/government labs. My Masters focused on biophysical characterisation of Gram negative bacterial membranes, while my PhD thesis was on P. aerugionsa virulence factors and arginine utilisation in chronic wounds. My graduate training was mostly concerned with understanding bacterial virulence, with the aim of developing novel treatments for infectious disease.

Through the COVID-19 pandemic, I became interested in diagnostics, and their role in controlling infection transmission, guiding interventions, and reducing antimicrobial resistance. I am now pursuing this as a post-doc with SalivaDirect in the Wyllie-Weinberger lab at Yale School of Public Health, developing accessible, cheap and highly sensitive assays for use with saliva.

I enjoy sharing my science with the public, especially young people, and have volunteered as a STEM Ambassador, delivering microbiology workshops at primary and secondary schools. I was also shortlisted and later won the Bronze award for the STEM for Britain awards in 2022, where I had the exciting opportunity to talk to politicians at the Houses of Parliament about my PhD project. 

I also love teaching; making complicated but fascinating things accessible to students. In my PhD, I gained over 70 hours experience as a teaching assistant in undergraduate lab course, and this year, began my first teaching position as a Lecturer for the Molecular Biochemistry and Biophysics lab 251L course at Yale.

I believe in a collaborative lab culture where good training is a priority. I have contributed to this as a bench supervisor to PhD and MSc students, and managing a shift team of 5-10 people in the national COVID-19 testing labs.

I have previously contributed to peer-reviews and I’m open to invitations to contribute further,  particularly for not-for-profit journals. I also firmly believe in equitable access to science, and will always advocate for Open Science as well as making scientific opportunities as accessible to those from marginalised groups, especially women, black, and disabled people, as they are for those who have historically always had a seat at the table. To this end, I have had the privilege of serving as the Co-coordinator of the Yale Postdoctoral Association Advocacy Committee, hosting events to connect post docs with wellbeing resources, and advocating for improved working and living conditions for all post docs at Yale.