Early Career Researcher Representatives Committee
UK-ICN are pleased to welcome our newly established early career researcher representatives committee. Isobel, Caitlin and Giulia begin their post on the 1st April 2023, and will be driving a subset of ECR development activities within the network. If you would like to get involved, please get in touch via UK-ICN@liverpool.ac.uk or the ECR reps directly.
Dr Isobel Webb – ECR Representative
Postdoctoral Research Associate
University of Bristol, UK
Isobel.Webb@bristol.ac.uk
Isobel began working on an avian coronavirus, infectious bronchitis virus (IBV), as an undergraduate placement student at The Pirbright Institute in 2016. This project was carried out in the Bickerton lab and used reverse genetics to generate fluorescent IBV particles. In 2018, she returned to The Pirbright Institute and started her PhD project on the IBV envelope (E) protein. During her PhD, Isobel used reverse genetics to modify the E protein; the resulting viruses were used to investigate the role of the E protein in viral replication and pathogenesis.
Currently, she works as a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Bristol in the Davidson lab. Her research focuses on SARS-CoV-2 reverse genetics as part of the Genotype to Phenotype National Virology Consortium.
Ms Caitlin Greenland-Bews – ECR Representative
PhD Student
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, UK
Caitlin.Greenland-Bews@lstmed.ac.uk
Caitlin Greenland-Bews is a PhD student at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM). She received her integrated-masters degree (MSci) in Biochemistry from the University of Manchester in 2019. Caitlin joined LSTM and Lancaster University as part of the MRC DTP in 2020 during which she has undertaken an MRes in Global Health as part of the DTP. She has now begun her PhD project in the diagnostics group, supervised by Dr Thomas Edwards and Dr Emily Adams.
Caitlin’s research focusses on the design and development of new diagnostic tests that can be used to support disease surveillance in low-resource settings. So far, her PhD has focussed on the design of a low-cost molecular assay to identify the key SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern and she is in the final stages of evaluating the performance of this assay in Kenya and Burkina Faso.
Dr Giulia Gallo – ECR Representative
Postdoctoral Research Associate
The Pirbright Institute/University of Oxford, UK
giulia.gallo@pirbright.ac.uk
I started working on viral zoonosis during my Master studies in Paris, France, and continued during my doctoral studies. In my project, I compared the innate immunity, transcriptomic and proteomic signatures of pathogenic and non-pathogenic hantaviruses upon infection of cells derived from rodents and human, their natural reservoir and accidental host, respectively. At the end of 2019, I concluded my PhD and kept working on the project as a post-doc for an additional year.
In December 2020, I moved to the UK and joined the Viral Glycoproteins group, supervised by Dr. Dalan Bailey. Here, I work on a BBSRC-funded project to assess the host range of alphacoronaviruses and arenaviruses at the first step of the viral cycle. Through unbiased selection of representatives species within these two viral families, the goal of our studies is to characterize their attachment proteins and interactions with known cellular receptors, to unravel sequence signatures involved in broad or restricted host range, and predict viral potential for spill-over and zoonosis.
Aside from research, I enjoy learning about nature – I am currently focusing on astrobiology and looking after my plants, and I spend most of my free time carrying out creative projects.
Dr. Jonathon D. Kotwa – ECR Representative
Postdoctoral fellow
Sunnybrook Research Institute, Canada
Jonathon.kotwa@sri.utoronto.ca
Jonathon Kotwa is a postdoctoral fellow at the Sunnybrook Research Institute in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He received his PhD in Pathobiology from the University of Guelph in 2019. During his PhD, Jonathon investigated the utility of wildlife as sentinels for pathogens of human and animal health importance. Jonathon joined the Sunnybrook Research Institute under the supervision of Dr Samira Mubareka in 2020 to focus on assessing surface and air contamination of SARS-CoV-2 in the acute care setting and the assess for spillover of SARS-CoV-2 in wildlife.
Jonathon’s research focuses on integrating approaches from microbiology, epidemiology, genomics, and fieldwork to understand the infectious disease ecology of emerging viruses at the human-wildlife interface. Jonathon is currently researching coronaviruses in key reservoir species, including bat and rodents.
Ms Bobbie-Anne Turner –ECR Representative
PhD Student
University of Liverpool, UK
Bobbie-Anne Turner is a PhD student at The University of Liverpool, where she also received her bachelor’s degree (BSc) in Biological Sciences in 2021. Whilst always interested in infectious diseases and their pathogens, Bobbie-Anne’s fascination with viruses intensified as a result of her second-year virology module.
Bobbie-Anne’s PhD project focuses on the nucleocapsid (N) protein of human coronaviruses, both seasonal and highly pathogenic, under the supervision of Prof. Julian Hiscox. Currently, her PhD aim is to identify interacting host proteins and understand their impacts on viral replication and pathogenesis. This is with the aim to uncover pan-coronavirus interactors and identification of anti-viral targets.
Bobbie-Anne is also very passionate about science communication and has recently joined a podcast ‘The Viral Talk’ as co-host with her colleague Federico!
Mr Federico De Angelis –ECR Representative
PhD Student
The Roslin Institute, UK
Federico started his work on the accessory genome of coronaviruses during his Master’s degree in Prof Paul Digard lab at the Roslin Institute in 2020. This project used molecular approaches to identify and characterise accessory protein functions in SARS-CoV-2. In 2021, he returned to The Roslin Institute and started his PhD project on the N-encoded accessory proteome of coronaviruses. During his PhD, Federico used a mixture of in silico and in vitro techniques to identify, characterise and perform evolutionary analyses of accessory proteins in various coronaviruses, with a particular focus on sarbe- and merbecoviruses.
Currently, he’s writing up his PhD thesis while simultaneously establishing a podcast on all things virology as a science communication project called ‘The Viral Talk’.
Dr Sophie-Marie Aicher – ECR Representative
Postdoctoral Research Associate
University of Toronto, Canada
Mr Andrew Hanton – ECR Representative
PhD Student
The Roslin Institute, UK
Andrew is a PhD student at the Roslin Institute, the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh, working within the lab group of Dr Christine Tait-Burkard. He completed a BSc (Hons) in Medical Sciences at the University of Edinburgh, graduating in 2020. He remained at the University of Edinburgh to complete a MScR in Biomedical Sciences in 2021, with a focus on immunology and host genomics. He joined the Roslin Institute in 2021 as part of the Wellcome Trust-funded One Health Models of Disease PhD programme, with a research focus on type I alphacoronaviruses. Currently, he is focussed on utilising functional genomics, high-throughput screening methods, and reverse genetics in studying transmissible gastroenteritis virus to develop novel research tools for porcine models. He has also contributed to work on the newly emerged FCoV-23, focussed on applying Oxford Nanopore Technologies sequencing to clinical samples as part of the epidemic investigation.