People

Current Lab Members

Professor Chris Creevey - Principal Investigator
Prof. Chris Creevey is Professor for Computational Biology in the Institute for Global Food Security at Queen's University Belfast. His main interests are identifying the genomic factors influencing phenotypic changes in organisms from Bacteria to Eukaryotes with a focus on animal microbiomes. He received his Ph.D. in 2002 from the National University of Ireland for his work in the area of phylogenetics and comparative genomics. Following this he worked as a postdoctoral researcher in NUI Maynooth and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany. In 2009 he was awarded a Science Foundation Ireland Stokes lectureship in Teagasc Ireland and was awarded a Readership in Rumen Systems Biology in Aberystwyth University 2013. He started his current position in Queen's University Belfast in 2018.
Dr. Karen Siu Ting -
Postdoctoral Fellow

Dr. Karen Siu Ting project involves the study the genomics and microbiome of the poison arrow frogs of Peru. Karen is an experienced herpetologist who carried out her PhD in Ireland on methodological approaches to large-scale phylogenetic reconstructions. She kicked off her project with field work in the Peruvian amazon jungle in January and will be investigating the molecular basis behind the ability of poison arrow frogs to sequester toxins from their diet. This work is in conjunction with Dr. Mary O'Connell from Nottingham University.
Dr. Ben Thomas -
Postdoctoral Fellow

Ben did his undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences at the University of Warwick, and a Masters in Food and Water Security in Aberystwyth University, Having worked in the IT industry in the intervening years, his Ph.D. project was funded by the Life Science Research Network Wales, an initiative funded through the Welsh Government’s Ser Cymru program. Ben's project involved developing computational approaches to identifying anti-microbial peptides from genomic data. He is continuing this work in his as a postdoctoral fellow.
Jess Friedersdorff -
Ph.D. Student

Jess did her undergraduate degree in Biomedical Science at De Montfort University, and a Master's degree in Infection and Immunity from the University of Leicester. Sparked by her Master's project, Jess' interest is in bacteriophages, which brought her to Aberystwyth Univeristy where she will be researching the use of phage to reduce methane production and increase feed efficiency in ruminants. Funded by KESS II and the European Social Fund, this project is co-supervised by Prof. Jamie Newbold and Dr. Alison Kingston-Smith and has links to the company Sarum Biosciences.
Nick Dimonaco -
Ph.D. Student

Nick graduated with a first class degree in Computer Science at Aberystwyth University. His undergraduate major project focused on the use of machine learning to predict lethality In fly mutations. He then spent a few months in short-term research post under supervision of Dr Robert Hoehndorf in King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia. His PhD project is on applying computational techniques to characterising of the “Dark Matter” in microbial communities. He is co-supervised by Dr. Amanda Clare and Dr. Wayne Aubrey in the Computer Science Department in Aberystwyth University.
Stephen Courtney -
Ph.D. Student

Stephen graduated from the School of Biological Sciences at Queen's University Belfast. His PhD project involves the investigation of the ecological underpinnings of stability and resilience in vertebrate gut ecosystems.


Past Lab Members


Dr. Sam Nicholls -
Former Ph.D. Student

Sam has an undergraduate degree in Computer Science and Statistics during the study for which he spent a year out with the Numerical Algorithms Group and Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. Jointly supervised by Dr. Amanda Clare in the Computer Science Department in Aberystwyth University, Sam's project involved the development and implementation of methods for reconstructing haplotypes from metagenomic data. You can follow Sam on twitter here. Sam is currently working as a postdoctoral researcher in Birmingham, UK.
Dr. Thomas Hitch -
Former Ph.D. Student

Tom did his undergraduate degree in UWE, Bristol and is currently doing a PhD in Aberystwyth University and Teagasc, Ireland. For his PhD he analysed metagenomic data from the microbial community of cattle that are naturally divergent in the amount of methane they produce. This is in conjunction with Dr. Graeme Attwood of AgResearch New Zealand and Dr. Sinead Waters of Teagasc, Ireland. Tom is currently working as a Postdoctoral Researcher in Germany.
Dr. Wanchang Lin -
Former Postdoctoral Fellow

Dr Wanchang Lin is currently a Post-doctoral Fellow in Bioinformatics and Metagenomics at IBERS. He received his Ph.D. in 2005 from the University of Derby. After that, he worked as a post-doctoral researcher and experimental officer in several UK universities in the area of risk assessment, omics data analysis and clinical trail study. His research interests include omics data analysis, bioinformatics, statistical analysis, data mining, machine learning, chemometrics, evolutionary computation and fuzzy logic. He took up his current position here in June 2014 and his main research interests are bioinformatics and metagenomics.
Dr. Francesco Rubino -
Former Ph.D. Student

Francesco did his undergraduate degree in Biology at the University of Bari, Italy and his PhD in Aberystwyth University and Teagasc, Ireland. For his PhD he developed tools to investigate metagenomic and meta-transcriptomc data from the rumen microbial community. He is currently working as a postdoctoral researcher in the INRA, France
Dr. Bruce Moran -
Former Ph.D. student

Bruce did an undergraduate in botany in University College Dublin, Ireland, followed by a taught Masters in quantitative genetics and genome analysis in the University of Edinburgh. He then completed a research masters in population genetics in Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology. His Ph.D. project involved the transcriptomic and genomic investigation of bovine fertility using next-generation sequencing technologies. Bruce now works as a postdoctoral researcher in University College Dublin, Ireland.
Dr. Anthony Doran -
Former Ph.D. Student

Anthony did his undergraduate degree and PhD in NUI Maynooth, Ireland and Teagasc. His PhD project involved the analysis of the genomic factors influencing phenotypic variation in traits of economic importance in cattle. Anthony is currently working as a postdoctoral researcher at the Welcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton, UK.