I am a research scientist who studies the DNA of bacteria using computational biology, then tests hypotheses in the laboratory using micro and molecular biology.

I am currently working as a postdoctoral research fellow with Dr. Kelly Wyres within the Infectious Diseases Genomics @ Alfed, within the Department of Infectious Diseases, School of Translational Medicine at Monash University (2020 - current). I use genomic and bioinformatic techniques to look at the evolutionary history of Klebsiella pneumoniae, a notable infectious pathogen. I study the metabolism of these pathogens via metabolic modelling and comparative genomics. 

Prior to this, I completed a 1.5 year postdoctoral position at the Griffith Institute of Drug Discovery, Griffith University (2018 - 2019). I used structural biology and computational approaches to inform wet-lab experiments to study the circular bacteriocin, plantacyclin B21AG.

I have also worked as a research scientist at RMIT university doing diagnostics, RNA sequencing analysis and genomics of chicken pathogen Campylobacter hepaticus, the cause of spotty liver disease (2018). 

I completed a PhD in molecular and microbiology at the Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University (2014 - 2018), where I worked on constructing a live vaccine for chickens, using the commensal bacteria Ligilactobacillus agilis. I discovered new constitutive promoters which I then used as genetic tools and novel expression systems.

I completed Honours at Deakin University (2013) where I constructed novel shuttle plasmids for commensal bacteria Ligilactobacillus agilis using native plasmids as a backbone.

I am concerned about antibiotic resistance and am focused on alternative approaches to combat this serious issue, such as developing vaccines, antimicrobial proteins, diagnostics and surveillance, all of which are informed by genetics-based approaches. Also, bacteria are just cool, so that makes them interesting and worthy of study in their own right.

Feel free to check out my Scholar and ORCID pages to see my written contributions to science 

I am offering the following research projects for potential Honours and Masters students:

• Identifying novel antimicrobials against bacteria resistant to traditional antibiotics

Outside of direct academic collaborations, I do bioinformatics consulting for biotech companies and research groups. Please feel free to get in touch if you have sequencing data and would like analysis performed.