Team Profiles Archive - Page 2 of 2 - Westra Lab

I am researching the evolution and ecology of multi-layered bacterial defence systems, focusing on the role of environmental conditions. I use mathematical modelling and simulation techniques to identify environments that select for multi-layered defence systems. I am co-supervised by Mario Recker and Edze Westra. During my Master’s I studied the role of environmental variations in […]

My PhD project investigates how a novel innate defence system coined MADS and the CRISPR-Cas adaptive immune system provide synergistic levels of immunity against bacteriophage infection in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Using experimental evolution and molecular biology techniques, I hope to elucidate how these antiviral defence systems are regulated and what environmental cues trigger their expression. This […]

I did my undergraduate degree at the University of Liverpool, where I studied the antiphage defence systems of P. aeruginosa, and the systems important for protection against LESB58 derived phages. I am currently working on testing the protection levels of multiple abundant P. aeruginosa antiphage defence systems using overexpression, and I also plan on studying […]

I am a Master’s by Research student at in Prof. Edze Westra’s lab. I completed my undergraduate degree in microbiology at Trinity College Dublin. My past research experience spans aspects of microbial interactions and evolution, including predator-prey dynamics and the gut microbiome. My current work focuses on bioinformatically exploring novel phage counter-defense systems in Pseudomonas […]

I have background in phage engineering and previously, I worked on engineering T5 like Lytic phages using CRISPR/Cas9 and Cas13 systems to elucidate their fundamental biological mechanisms. Currently working in the Westra Lab, I focus on developing bio-contained/non-replicative synthetic phages targeting P. aeruginosa, engineering phage production host to promote epigenetic modification of phages, with the […]

2024 Josie Elliot – Post-doctoral Fellow Josie’s project investigated how bacteria evolve to use and control viral defense systems that they acquire through horizontal gene transfer, and was co-supervised by Edze Westra and Tiffany Taylor (University of Bath). Josie’s model system is the transfer CRISPR-Cas systems and it is used to explore how naive hosts newly […]