Profile
- PhD Student
- Supervisor: Dr. Janet Hill, Veterinary Microbiology
- Home community: Woking, United Kingdom
Academic Credentials
- Bsc (Hons), Biomedical Science
- MSc, Medical Microbiology
Research Interests
My project revolves around the human microbiome - the communities of bacteria that live on and within our bodies. The microbiome has been suggested to play a large role in health and disease, with studies showing associations with diabetes, asthma, autism, obesity and several autoimmune diseases. However, there are a few studies documenting the possible origins and development of the human microbiome. I'm working as part of a multi-disciplinary team to investiage how these bacterial communities develop from birth, and if infants acquire their gut microbiomes from their mothers. To do this, we're using DNA sequencing to characterize the microbiomes of a large cohort of women from British Columbia and will be looking for evidence that these communities have been directly transferred from mother to baby.