I am an NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow based within the Department of Infectious Diseases under the Infectious Disease Genomics research theme. Here, I co-lead the Fundamental Microbial Genomics Program, which encompasses a body of fundamental science projects that feed into translational research and refining pathogen control strategies. My research largely focuses on using computational biology and comparative genomics to investigate the genetic diversity and distribution of mobile elements (i.e. plasmids), which often confer drug resistance or virulence, across populations (i.e. lineages) of bacterial species like Klebsiella pneumoniae and Acinetobacter baumannii.

My research has culminated in several resources for genome surveillance:

• A genotyping tool, Kleborate, which facilitates rapid detection and typing of virulence loci and drug resistance genes from genomes of Klebsiella pneumoniae and related species, and has been integrated into the Centre for Genomic Pathogen Surveillance's Pathogenwatch platform.

• Typing schemes for five key virulence loci in Klebsiella pneumoniae, hosted on Institut Pasteur's K. pneumoniae BIGSdb site; a global database housing sequence variants linked to important virulence, AMR and sequence typing genes in Klebsiella.

• A plasmid typing scheme for Acinetobacter baumannii, wherein plasmids play a key role in the dissemination of drug resistance within the species.

I completed a Bachelor in Biomedical Science, Honours in Science and a Doctoral degree at The University of Melbourne.