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New group member

New group member: Adrienne Kerley

Since April 1st (and I was told it was not a joke), Adrienne has joined our group as part of the London NERC DTP programme.

Published:
Adrienne Kerley

Here is a short introduction written by Adrienne:

 
"Having recently finished an MSc in 2016 in Freshwater and Marine Ecology at QMUL working within the Eizaguirre and Harrod Lab (Universidad de Antofagasta, Chile), I have recently embarked on a PhD as part of the London NERC DTP. This begins with six months core training, visiting one of the nine partner institutions every week to learn different aspects of environmental sciences, from geology to conservation science. We also had ‘Skills Friday’ at the Natural History Museum where we would learn about the publishing process, ethics and stress management, to name a few as well as an extensive statistics module. During this six months it is up to you to network and meet with potential supervisors to discuss project ideas.
 
Having already worked with Chris and his group I knew that we work well together and have similar areas of research. I’m a marine biologist with a wide range of interests from marine ecology, fish biology, microbiomes, anthropogenic impacts to pretty much everything aquatic. When visiting QMUL I was introduced to Dr China Hanson and Dr Lee Henry, we quickly developed what is an extremely exciting project. The overarching aim is to observe how hosts have co-evolved with their gut microbiota and determine the role of the microbiota in host adaptation to new ecological niches. This work will consist of laboratory and field studies using three-spined sticklebacks as a model organism. This will be completed using high throughput sequencing to characterize bacterial flora. We will also screen for bacteria diversity across environmental gradients, then manipulate environment and microbe exposure to evaluate the role of gut microbiota on individual fitness and more broadly in speciation processes". 
 
With Adrienne and the support of China and Lee, we will embark in a new research theme, i.e. host-symbiont interaction. 

 

 

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