Summary
I'm a Postdoctoral Scientist working in Prof. Doug Higgs' lab at the MRC Weatherall Institute for Molecular Medicine in Oxford (rdm.ox.ac.uk/people/doug-higgs). I work on both wet-lab and bioinformatics projects, with a major interest in cis-regulatory elements in mammalian genomes. I'm especially fascinated by the regulation of gene expression by 3D chromatin folding, and the mechanisms of enhancer action.
Research
Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship
MRC Weatherall Institute, Oxford, UK
&
UMass Medical School, Worcester, USA
(Apr 2018 - Current)
Fulford Junior Research Fellow
Somerville College, Oxford, UK
(Oct 2018 - Sep 2020)
Postdoctoral Scientist
MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, Oxford
(Nov 2016 - Mar 2018)
- Working on enhancer function in early erythropoieis in Prof. Doug Higgs' laboratory
Postdoctoral Scientist
Berlin Institute for Medical Systems Biology, Berlin
(Aug 2015 - Nov 2016)
- Working on chromatin folding and nuclear organization in Prof. Ana Pombo's laboratory
MRC Funded PhD Studentship
MRC Clinical Sciences Centre, London
(Oct 2011 - Jul 2015)
- Implemented and applied Genome Architecture Mapping (GAM) to study chromatin folding in mouse embryonic stem cells
- Co-supervised by Prof. Ana Pombo (MDC) and Prof. Niall Dillon (CSC)
Research Assistant
Department of Biochemistry, Cambridge University
(Oct 2010 - Aug 2011)
- Studied C. crescentus polynucleotide phosphorylase in Prof. Ben Luisi’s group
- Cloning, expression, protein affinity purification, enzymatic assays and crystallography
Cancer Research UK Summer Studentship
CRUK London Research Institute, London (Holborn)
(Jun 2010 - Sep 2010)
- Studied Polycomb group proteins and their interaction with the ncRNA HOTAIR with Dr. Gordon Peters
- Chromatin Immunoprecipitation, qPCR, lentiviral shRNA knockdowns, qRT-PCR and western blotting
Research Assistant
Department of Biochemistry, Cambridge University
(Jan 2010 - May 2010)
- Development of the NMR analysis tool “DANGLE” with Dr. William Broadhurst
- Programming, data analysis and statistical work to improve the accuracy of the DANGLE algorithm for predicting protein dihedral angles from chemical shift data
Work Experience Student
Wellcome Trust Sanger Centre, Hinxton
(Jun 2005 - Jun 2005)
- 1 week placement with an ENCODE project group
- 1 week placement in the sequencing centre
Awards and Fellowships
Best "Preliminary Data" Talk
WIMM Postdoc Symposium, Oxford, UK
(Jan 2019 - Jan 2019)
Best Long Talk
Quantitative Genomics 2016, London, UK
(Apr 2017 - Apr 2017)
Paper of the month
Berlin Institute of Health, Berlin, Germany
(Mar 2017 - Mar 2017)
Keystone Scholarship
Keystone Symposia, Keystone, USA
(Apr 2016 - Apr 2016)
Honor Fell Travel Award
British Society for Cell Biology, UK
(Apr 2015 - Apr 2015)
Senior Scholarship
Robinson College, Cambridge, UK
(Oct 2011 - Oct 2011)
Prize for Natural Sciences
Robinson College, Cambridge, UK
(Aug 2009 - Aug 2009)
Posters and Talks
Complex multi-enhancer contacts captured by GAM, a ligation-free method for measuring chromatin topology.
Quantitative Genomics 2016, London, UK
(Jun 2016 - Jun 2016)
Complex multi-enhancer contacts captured by GAM, a ligation-free method for measuring chromatin topology.
EMBO Nuclear Structure Meeting, Isle sur la Sorgue, France
(Oct 2015 - Oct 2015)
GAM: A novel, ligation-free method for identifying chromatin interactions genome-wide
Keystone Symposium on Epigenomics, Keystone, USA
(Apr 2015 - Apr 2015)
Capturing complex multi-enhancer contacts with Genome Architecture Mapping (GAM), a novel ligation-free method
London Chromatin Club, London, UK
(Apr 2015 - Apr 2015)
Trans-splicing as a byproduct of the transcription of multiple genes at transcription factories
Quantitative Methods in Gene Regulation (IOP Conference), Cambridge, UK
(Dec 2013 - Dec 2013)
Teaching
Personal Tutor
Private One-on-One Tuition, London
(Oct 2012 - Sep 2015)
- Private tuition and exam preparation for undergraduate students in biology and genetics.
Demonstrator
Software Carpentry, London (Greenwich)
(Oct 2013 - Oct 2013)
- Helping to teach students best practices for reproducible research at a Software Carpentry workshop in Greenwich.
Organization
Publicity Chair
"Regulatory and Systems Genomics" COSI, ISCB
(Feb 2019 - Current)
Co-Chair
WIMM Postdoc Association, MRC Weatherall Institute
(Apr 2018 - Current)
Student Representative
Local Consultative Committee, MRC Clinical Sciences Centre
(Nov 2012 - Feb 2014)
- Communicating student views and concerns to CSC administration
Secretary and Chair
Robinson College Students Association, Cambridge
(Dec 2009 - Dec 2011)
- Chaired meetings of the RCSA
- Led meetings of the RCSA executive and helped to formulate new policy
Education
PhD Systems Biology & Epigenetics