My research priorities are genome assemblies for different barley genotypes and other species, using the integration of PacBio and Oxford Nanopore data. Further research interests are analysing big omics datasets in barley through detailed analysis of RNA-sequencing data for the barley pan-transcriptome and analysis of large whole genome shotgun sequencing datasets for marker identification.
Mar 2020 – Jun 2022 Post-Doctoral Research project: Barley gene network analysis
Managing and analysing a dataset of 200 spring barley genotypes to study gene networks through the history of barley breeding using a multi-Omics approach. Analysis of both RNA (across six tissues) and DNA, utilising the data for variant identification and downstream association studies. The work identified genomic regions for key agronomical traits like grain weight and plant height.
Mar 2016 – Mar 2020 Post-Doctoral Research project: Meiosis & Genomics
Providing bioinformatic expertise within a large-scale project on barley meiosis. Developing a custom capture array to screen for mutations in candidate genes and built the supporting bioinformatic pipelines to identify variants in semi-sterile mutants. Assembling the first genome assembly of the barley cultivar Golden Promise and contributing to the first barley pangenome. Developing the first anther-specific barley transcriptome, which identified uniquely expressed genes and served as the basis for new protein quantification and analysis pipelines.
Jan 2012 – Jan 2016 PhD Research project: Barley cell wall
In my doctoral research project, I studied the barley cell wall component 1,3;1,4-beta-glucan, using both a molecular biology and computational biology approach.
