Postdoctoral Fellow
I am a theoretical biologist specialising in individual-based modelling. In my current role at Oxford I am developing population models of interference competition (warfare) in microbial communities. My aim is to understand how and why bacteria have evolved different offensive and defensive weapon systems, and how their use influences community structure and stability in host-associated environments, such as the human gut.
As well as (anti)social interactions between bacteria, I am also interested in physical interactions within communities, and in the role of cellular shape as a means to manipulate community structure through self-organisation.
Key topics: bacterial competition, contact-dependent inhibition, individual-based modelling, microbial communities, bacterial morphology, confocal microscopy, computational and systems biology.