I'm a molecular microbiologist with 8 years’ experience in academic and industry/government labs. I focused on biophysical characterisation of Gram negative bacterial membranes during my Masters, then examined P. aerugionsa virulence factors and arginine utilisation in chronic wounds for my PhD thesis. My graduate training was mostly concerned with understanding bacterial virulence, with the aim of developing novel treatments for infectious disease.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a pivot in my interest to diagnostics, and their role in controlling infectious disease reducing antimicrobial resistance. I pursued this as a postdoc with SalivaDirect in the Wyllie-Weinberger lab at Yale School of Public Health, developing accessible, cheap and highly sensitive assays for use with saliva. Saliva is a rich sample type, containing information not just about infection, but also immunity. Following a transition to the Iwasaki lab, in Immunobiology, Yale School of Medicine, I am now focuseed on harnessing saliva to better understand post-viral illnesses such as Long-COVID, and find new biomarkers for mucosal immunity.

I love teaching; making complicated but fascinating things accessible to students. During my graduate studies, I volunteered as a STEM Ambassador, delivering microbiology workshops at primary and secondary schools, as well as I gaining over 70 hours experience as a teaching assistant in undergraduate lab classes. During my first postdoc, I advanced to teaching my own class as a Lecturer for the Molecular Biochemistry and Biophysics lab 251L course at Yale. We adapted an engaging, hands-on course, based on the UC Davis D2D curriculum and following in their footsteps, made our lab manual and teaching materials open to all.

Sharing my science with the public is important to me, and in 2022, I was 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 believe in a collaborative lab culture where good training is a priority. I have contributed to this as a bench supervisor to four undergraduate and four graduate students so far, and managing a shift team of 5-10 people in a national COVID-19 testing lab.

I have contributed to peer-reviews and I’m keen to contribute further, particularly for not-for-profit and society 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, people of colour, and disabled people, as they are for those who historically, have 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.