I'm a molecular microbiologist with over a decade of experience in academic and industry/government labs.  My graduate training focused on understanding bacterial genetics and physiology, with the aim of developing novel treatments for infectious diseases. I worked on biophysical characterisation of Gram negative bacterial membranes during my Masters, then examined P. aerugionsa virulence factors and arginine metabolism in chronic wounds for my PhD thesis.

The COVID-19 pandemic changed everything, and I became interested in developing diagnostics to better control infectious disease epidemics. I pursued this as a postdoc with SalivaDirect in the Wyllie-Weinberger lab at Yale School of Public Health, developing molecular assays for use with saliva. Following a transition to the Iwasaki lab, in Immunobiology, Yale School of Medicine, I am now focused on harnessing saliva to better understand post-viral illnesses such as Long-COVID, and find new biomarkers which can be used to diagnose and treat such diseases.

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 taught the Molecular Biochemistry and Biophysics lab 251L course as a Lecturer 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.