My recent focus has been on learning molecular lab skills and conducting in-depth bioinformatics analyses. I have experience preparing and analysing whole-genome sequence and gene-expression data using Pooled Sequencing, Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS), and Differential Gene Expression pipelines. My research experience spans experimental planning and insect rearing through to molecular wet-lab processes, working safely with liquid nitrogen, and general project management in a lab setting. My lab experience included nucleic acid extraction, purification, quantification, and amplification using various techniques. I am proficient in R, Bash, and Unix, familiar with various command-line tools such as SLURM workload manager, and well-practised at running parallel jobs on high-performance computing systems. Another area I continue to nourish from my background is front-end and back-end web development.
Before attending university, I spent over a decade in web development, leading a team of developers and designers for seven years. The strong programming and visual communication skills I developed have been a valuable asset to my research career, as has my experience with server administration, version control, database management, and delivering at pace. During my undergraduate studies in biology, I acquired a broad range of laboratory, field, and statistical skills. I also learnt how to create agent-based models, which I used to ask questions about the evolution of polyploidy in plants. During that time, I freelanced on a range of interesting projects, which began to tie my technical experience with my new skills in biology; I made teaching tools with interactive population models in Shiny, contributed to R package development (resevol), and incorporated evolutionary models into a research game that aimed to find out how Brazilian farmers make decisions regarding pest control.
Using applications and games as research, workshop, and decision-making tools is an area that continues to interest me. Alongside my PhD, I am the Director of Myreton Ltd, which focuses on creative and intellectual programming briefs. A recent programming collaboration I worked on was a workshop tool designed to stimulate discussion amongst stakeholders who have vital roles in achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, especially regarding pollinator abundance and diversity.
Recent Education
- 2020-current: Research PhD, University of Stirling.
- 2016-2020: BSc Hons Biology - first class, University of Stirling.
Molecular Lab Experience
- DNA and RNA preservation/extraction/purification
- Polymerase chain reactions (PCR and qPCR)
- Gel electrophoresis
Programming Experience
- R
- PHP
- JavaScript
- jQuery
- Ajax
- Angular
- SQL
- JSON
- Bash
- HTML
- CSS
- SCSS
- LaTeX
- Markdown
- C++
Languages
- English (native)
- Italian (CEFR Lvl A2)
In addition to details of the published papers I've contributed to, I also post about papers in review, current findings that are not yet submitted for review, public reports I have been involved in creating, and tools I've developed for research or education.