My pronouns are he/him
I am a bioinformatician based at Oxford University, with a focus on the evolution and stability of symbiotic relationships in microbial systems. My current research investigates Paramecium bursaria and its intracellular algal symbionts, examining how these relationships evolved. Using high-throughput sequencing, genome assembly, and variant analysis, we aim to understand how the symbiont transitions from a host-dependent to a free-living state, and what genomic changes underpin this shift. This work integrates experimental evolution with comparative genomics and functional annotation, helping to clarify the trade-offs that maintain or disrupt symbiosis.
Beyond the group's core project, I contribute to broader questions in eukaryotic evolution, particularly around the Last Eukaryotic Common Ancestor (LECA), using phylogenomics and pan-genomic approaches. My analyses often involve developing or refining bioinformatic pipelines in R and Bash, with an emphasis on reproducibility and scalability. The potential impact of my research lies in revealing fundamental principles of host-microbe interaction and genome evolution, with implications for understanding symbiosis in ecological and applied contexts.
