Much of my work has thematically focused on examining the mechanisms and evolution of different gene regulatory interactions across diverse organisms (plants, archaea, and both Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria).

I completed my PhD at Boston College (Chestnut Hill, MA, USA) under the supervision of Prof. Michelle M. Meyer. My thesis work investigated the in vivo behavior and fitness contributions of two unique cis-regulatory RNAs in Bacillus subtilis (the glycine riboswitch and the L20-interacting RNA leader) to gain insight into the factors influencing the emergence, evolution, and maintenance of structured regulatory RNAs in bacterial genomes.

After my PhD, I joined Prof. Dan I. Andersson's research group at Uppsala University (Uppsala, Sweden) as a Postdoctoral Researcher and later advanced to the role of Researcher within the team. During my time at Uppsala, I participated in a multidisciplinary collaboration focused on studying the de novo origins of new genes, particularly exploring how randomized DNA sequences can acquire novel gene regulatory functions through RNA-RNA, RNA-protein, or protein-protein interactions. This work led to the discovery of new antibiotic resistance genes and RNA-binding small proteins in Escherichia coli. Additionally, I investigated the molecular mechanisms underlying the emergence of antibiotic heteroresistance within bacterial populations.

My current research as a Lecturer in Bacteriology at the University of Glasgow builds upon my previous work, with a focus on how de novo genes can rewire gene regulatory networks within bacterial genomes.

The evolution of gene regulatory networks is central to bacterial adaptation to new environments and ecological niches, including the development of antimicrobial resistance and the adaptation of emerging pathogens to new hosts. My research group integrates molecular genetics, biochemistry, experimental evolution, and large-scale “-omics” approaches to comprehensively study how bacterial gene regulatory networks originate and adapt over time under diverse conditions. We particularly focus on how novel gene regulatory interactions (i.e. novel noncoding RNAs and small proteins) can emerge de novo, or from scratch,  from previously non-functional or non-coding DNA sequences. By examining how environmental changes shape the evolutionary trajectories of novel gene regulatory interactions within bacterial genomes, we aim to better understand how bacteria evolve to survive in a rapidly changing world, including how bacterial pathogens adapt to treatment, new hosts, or intra-host environments.

We are also broadly interested in the de novo origins of new genes and developing experimental approaches in different bacteria to further explore the diversity of novel functions encoded within random sequence space.

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