Macqueen Group, PhD student Current Research Funded by the BBRSC EASTBIO doctoral training programme, my PhD project focuses on understanding transcript diversity in the immune function of Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar. The project is centred on developing methods for full-length RNA sequencing with the aim of identifying a diverse range of RNA transcripts expressed during immune challenge. The research is closely linked to the H2020 AQUA-FAANG project, which will be providing immune tissue samples for analysis, for which additional functional genomics data will be generated. In addition, I will be investigating the impact of the salmonid-specific whole genome duplication event on the evolution of transcript diversity. My project will contribute to the ongoing functional annotation of the Atlantic salmon genome as part of the 'Functional Annotation of All Salmonid Genomes' (FAASG) initiative. Favourite aquaculture species I should say Atlantic salmon, but I do like prawns because I can’t say no to a nice prawn bhuna! Background I graduated with a 1st class Marine Biology Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree from the University of Aberdeen in June 2019 and was awarded the Gordon Rae Memorial Prize for Outstanding Performance. For my final year research project, I investigated B-cell formation and IgNAR expression in the memory response of the Nurse shark under the supervision of Dr Helen Dooley at the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology (IMET) in Baltimore. [2016-2019] BSc (Hons) Marine Biology (University of Aberdeen) [2020-Present] PhD in the Macqueen Lab (Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh) Interests, hopes and dreams Aside from academia, I’m an avid musician and enjoy scuba diving, travelling and eating! This article was published on 2024-09-02
