Handley Lab

Senior Lecturer (School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland) and Rutherford Discovery Fellow (Royal Society Te Aparangi)

I completed a BSc in Environmental Sciences and a MSc in Environmental Science and Technology in Madrid, Spain. Then I moved to New Zealand to join the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Auckland to do a PhD in the microbiology of marine sponges under the supervision of Associate Professor Mike Taylor. During my PhD, I investigated the diversity, structure and function of microbial communities associated with different marine sponge species, utilising a multidisciplinary approach involving molecular biology techniques and ecological network analyses. I joined the Handley lab as a post-doc for Genomics Aotearoa working in the Environmental Metagenomics project. My goal is to investigate the impact of salinity on microbial communities present in an estuary and to understand their different mechanisms of tolerance.

I graduated from the University of Auckland in 2015 with a BA in philosophy, and a BSc (hons) in marine and freshwater ecology and biomedical science. I completed my PhD at the University of Auckland in 2019, investigating microbial ecology and inflammatory processes underlying chronic inflammatory disease. In April 2020, I joined the Handley lab as a member of the Genomics Aotearoa project, Freshwater to marine environmental genomics, with a particular focus on aquatic viral ecology.

I am researching the impact of macroalgae on estuarine sediment microbial communities and nitrogen cycling processes. I have carried out macroalgae transplant experiments and have also sampled at various points through a year long macroalgal bloom at the Hutt River estuary in Wellington to assess how microbial community structure responds to algae addition and whether key nitrogen cycling process changes.

I am interested in what delineates different microbial communities and their ecological roles in their respective niches relative to the larger community. My current project involves characterizing the community composition, structure and function of microbial communities across a mud gradient and observing their responses to perturbations via mesocosm incubations. I am also going to use data generated from the Genomics Aotearoa project to investigate changes in labile vs recalcitrant carbon metabolism across a large estuarine gradient.

I am interested in finding signature genes and organisms that indicate the health of aquifer systems. The main focus being nitrate pollution and identifying key microbial processes and microorganisms involved in the nitrogen cycle. I am currently analysing data from a survey of aquifers nationwide to test hypotheses created from metagenomes assembled from an aquifer well series. I have a particular interest in anaerobic ammonia oxidisers (Anammox bacteria) and the microbial processes involved in complete denitrification.

My PhD project aims to explore life habits of recently described ultra-small microorganims in groundwater and their role within microbial communities by using a multi-omics approach. My goal is to help characterize groundwater ecosystems and their metabolic potential, and try to understand how interconnected those metabolic processes are.

My project investigates the microbial diversity and functional variation in aquatic ecosystems by integrating multi-omics approaches. Specifically, I study the community dynamics and nutrient acquisition strategies in benthic sediments and the overlying water column across a stream to marine transect. I also examine how freshwater cyanobacteria, Microcoleus, establishes thick mats under phosphorus-limiting conditions in a temporal gradient, and further compare their genomic properties.

My project aims to use metagenome-assembled whole genomes to reconstruct the community metabolism in the hindgut of herbivorous fish, with a main focus in the metabolic pathways associated with seaweed carbohydrates degradation.

Co-supervised PhD candidate, Taylor Lab

My research focuses on the gut microbiome and autism spectrum disorder.  For my PhD project, in collaboration with investigators at the Centre for Brain Research, I am currently working on a mouse model of autism and the influence of a treatment towards the gut microbiome.