- Provided technical consultations to customers from academia to Big Pharma- Worked closely with the Marketing and Sales teams to identify and close sales opportunities- Led customer trainings on the SYNTAX platform- Participated in lead generation activities (customer demos, booth duty etc.)- Presented at scientific conferences and online seminars

- Designed and ran on site demo lab at the Institute Pasteur, Paris for 1 year- Established and managed 17 projects across 14 different labs- Designed and executed projects for collateral generation

Project 1: How bacteriophages drive evolution - IndividualBacteriophages (phages) drive the evolution of bacteria by antagonistic coevolution and by promoting transfer of genetic material between bacteria. Phages are intimately involved in a range of biological processes from carbon cycling to the maintenance of human health. Despite their global importance the coevolution between natural phage communities and their bacterial hosts remains poorly understood. This project seeks to understand the mechanism behind a novel Phage-Induced High-Cell-Density (PIHCD) phenotype using a droplet-based microfluidic device termed the Evolution Machine (Project funded by a Marie Curie Individual Fellowship)Project 2: How bacteriophages drive evolution - CommunityHorizontal Gene Transfer (HGT) drives the evolution of microbial communities through the dissemination and amplification of adaptive traits. To date most studies have investigated HGT using a comparative genomic approach of individual isolates against previously sequenced genomes to construct phylogenetic networks of HGT events. We designed an experimental regime to explore how HGT affects the evolution of cellulose-degrading microbial communities over the course of one year. Using comparative metagenomics, we provide evidence for large-scale movement of genetic material between communities that involves genes with various predicted functions including iron acquisition, virulence factors, transcription, and individual phage genomes. As a general proxy for community function we also measured the ammonia concentrations during the course of the two-week regime. Surprisingly, we found that the majority of horizontal communities had significantly higher ammonia production compared to their vertical counterparts. To our knowledge these data describe for the first time the emergence of a functional impact of HGT on a complex microbial community through direct experimentation.

Viruses have intimately shaped the evolution of Metazoans through a constant battle between host response and viral evasion tactics. Much of what we have learned about human immunology began through studies of virus-host interactions. Virally expressed homologs of the host immune system are able to manipulate the host in favor of viral production or quiescence. Therefore, we are able to better understand a particular host’s immune system by understanding their resident virus populations. In addition to their impact on host immunology viruses can also impact the evolution of host genomes through direct integration and expression of viral gene products. The phylum Cnidaria (corals, sea anemones, and Hydra) diverged from Bilateria 550 million years ago and is considered to be phylogenetically basal to all Metazoan life. The objective of my PhD thesis was to utilize reef-building corals as a model organism to better understand how viruses have driven Metazoan evolution.

Anaerobic propane oxidation, Stable Isotope Probing of methanotrophic viral DNA, viral metagenomics

Impact of ocean acidification on S. purpuratus molecular physiology

Involvement of Tau protein with Neurodegeneration and Alzheimer’s

Methanogenesis and mercury cycling in wetland environments