Overview

Sophie completed her undergraduate degree in BSc Molecular Biology from the University of Exeter in 2010, graduating with first class honors and the Society of Biology Top Student award. During her degree, Sophie undertook a 10 week Genetics Society funded studentship investigating protein interactions during DNA replication in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, which lead into her undergraduate dissertation. From this, Sophie began her PhD at the University of Exeter on the pathogenic yeast species Candida albicans. The research project encompassed identification of allelic expression imbalance through computational analysis of RNA sequencing data and investigation of the functional consequences of this phenomenon through phenotypic screening of constructed strains. For more details, see http://eprofile.exeter.ac.uk/sophieshaw/.

Broad research specialisms:

Investigation of the functional consequences of gene expression patterns through a combination of computational analysis and wet lab experimentation.

Qualifications

2010: BSc (Hons) Molecular Biology, University of Exeter
2014 (pending): PhD Biological Sciences, University of Exeter

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Research

Research projects

Project Title: Analysis of Beneficial Plant-Microbe Interactions

Supervisors: Professor Murray Grant

Funding Body: BBSRC and Leverhulme

Project Description:

Trichodermaspecies are well characterised for their beneficial interactions with the surrounding environment, acting as both a biocontrol agent against soil pathogens and as an inducer of plant growth promotion. This project aims to use Illumina RNA sequencing data to uncover the gene expression patterns of the Trichoderma hamatum strain GD12 and the soil pathogen Sclerotinia sclerotiorum whilst grown both alone and together with lettuce. Through this, and in combination with metabolomics data, it is hoped that the key compounds secreted by T. hamatum GD12 for biocontrol and plant growth promotion can be identified.

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