Agatha Treveil

Project: Networking Bifidobacterium: integrating genomics modelling and experimental validation to understand beneficial traits
Supervisor: Dr Tamas Korcsmaros

When I joined the University of Bath to read Biology, I had very little idea what I wanted to study or where I wanted my life to go. In my third year of my undergraduate degree I undertook a sandwich placement position at Oxford Gene Technology. The work carried out during this year introduced me to the fields Bioinformatics and Genomics: a perfect blend of Biology, Computing and Mathematics. With my enthusiasm captured (and in the interest of career progression) I decided to pursue a PhD in the area.

The Earlham Institute boasts a fantastic reputation for both Bioinformatics and Genomics, making it an obvious choice for me. Additionally, the BBSRC funded Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP) offered here provides a great PhD environment, incorporating into the 4 years an extensive training program, a strong support network and a professional internship placement.

After the success of my undergraduate placement I am particularly excited to be able to probe my career options and build my employable skills through the DTP internship opportunity.

In collaboration with Lindsay Hall from the Quadram Institute Bioscience, my PhD project focuses on understanding the biology behind the beneficial traits of the gut bacteria Bifidobacterium. The bacteria will be tested under various conditions to generate transcriptomic and metabolomics datasets which will be integrated and studied in order to reconstruct biological networks and models.