About

Hi and welcome!

I study how pathogens evolve and spread to help us understand how to better control and prevent infectious diseases. I also study how surveillance approaches, such as genomics and wastewater, can help us better quantify disease prevalence.

I am currently a researcher at the Statens Serum Institute, the national public health research institute of Denmark. I am part of the Section of Viral Genomics in the Department of Virology and Microbiological Preparedness where I contribute to developing new methods for virus surveillance perform and research on viral evolution and transmission.

Previously, I was a postdoctoral fellow working with Dr. Yonatan Grad in the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. I was also affiliated with the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics. I studied how Neisseria gonorrhoeae, the bacterium causing the sexually-transmitted infection gonorrhea, undergoes variation of its surface antigens to evade recognition by human adaptive immune system while maintaining functionality for binding to human cells. I also assessed equitability of wastewater sampling for surveillance of infectious diseases. My work combined whole genome sequencing, analysis of genomic data, and mathematical modeling of infectious diseases.

I completed my PhD with Dr. Oskar Hallatschek at UC Berkeley, where I studied how spatial structure affects the way that microbes evolve. In particular, I developed a new microscopy method to study genetic drift in microbial colonies. I also developed a statistical inference method that uses longitudinal genomics data to infer how much randomness there was in SARS-CoV-2 transmission. I used a combination of microbiology experiments, microscopy, statistical inference, and population genetics modeling in my PhD work.

During my PhD, I had the opportunity to be a National Science Policy Network Scholar-in-Residence where I completed a short internship with the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics, and Policy (now the One Health Trust). I contributed to policy briefs on national action plans on antimicrobial resistance in Mali, Kenya, and Malawi.

I completed my undergraduate degree in physics, where I did research in astronomy, atomic, molecular, and optical physics, and condensed matter physics.

Before starting my PhD, I spent a year developing an affordable science teaching lab model with the university program Kepler Kigali in Rwanda. I am passionate about science communication and outreach and regularly give talks and write for a general public audience.

I am always excited to talk about, learn about, and collaborate on any of these topics, so please don’t hesitate to reach out if you want to chat!