Claire Lamb

I am a PhD student at the Centre for Enzyme Innovation (CEI) working within the Environmental Microbiology (Discovery) group at the School of Biological Sciences under Professor Joy Watts and Professor Simon Cragg. My PhD research is entitled ‘Microbiome Species Specificity and Stability of two marine sponge species Hymeniacidon perlevis and Suberites massa and the potential for microbially mediated reductive dehalogenation’ which assesses the bacterial community diversity and seasonal stability of two temperature marine sponge species as well as the presence of dehalogenating bacteria occurring within these sponge microbiomes, specifically those capable of degrading brominated pollutants in the environment.

Previously my research experience focused on microbial ecology including the microbial diversity of floral nectar and changes associated with environmental exposure during my Masters of Research. Additionally, I have taken part in research placements investigating the seroprevalence of Hepatis E in clinical samples as well as the efficacy of current detection methods for E. coli and coliforms in recreational and drinking waters.

My PhD research focuses on the area of environmental microbiology, specifically the marine sponge microbiome and microbially mediated functional processes occurring within these microbiomes, with a focus on amplicon and metagenomic sequencing as well as anaerobic culturing and microcosm work.

My areas of interest are:

• Microbial Ecology
• Bioinformatics
• Anaerobic Microbiology
• Bacterial Genomics