Scientia Associate Professor leading the Host-Microbiome interactions group

I lead a team that investigates host-associated microbial communities in health and disease. Our team pioneered methods to manipulate these microbial communities to treat diseases and to promote health. I completed my doctoral studies in the Faculty of Medicine at UNSW in 2008 during which I was invited to expand my expertise at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, France. Following my doctoral studies, I worked as a Research Associate in the School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, UNSW, where I investigated the role of mucosa-associated pathobionts in inflammatory bowel diseases. In 2011, I was awarded an NHMRC Early Career Fellowship (2011-2014) to study the role of the microbiota and its associated metabolome in IBD. In the latter stages of my fellowship, my interests expanded to the microbiome in upper gastrointestinal cancers, and in 2016, I was awarded a Career Development fellowship from the Cancer Institute NSW, and consequently, I relocated to the School of Medical Sciences. In 2019, I was appointed as a UNSW Scientia academic to expand my work on the microbiome, and to date, I have published >130 peer-reviewed outputs in the field of medical microbiology.