Biophysicist at the interface of microbiology and physics. Combines microbiology - mainly pathogenic bacterial spores - with optical tweezers, microwave systems and multiphysics modelling.
I did my PhD in Cardiff University, where I first started working with spores: small resilient seed-like forms of some disease-causing bacteria. My PhD project was on the disruption and rapid detection of these spores’ using microwaves and nanoparticles.
After a short project at University of Warwick, I joined Umeå University. I currently work in the Biophysics and Biophotonics group which uses a variety of biophysical methods to characterise biological objects on a chemical and physical level.
My current work focuses on characterising the biomechanical and biochemical properties of bacterial spores using Laser Tweezer Raman spectroscopy, fluorescence techniques and force spectroscopy measurements. I also enjoy working with electron microscopy in UCEM, both transmission and scanning, and look at the nanometer-scale detail that would otherwise be impossible to see.