Claire Gorrie

After completing both a MSc and PhD in computational biology and pathogen genomics with Prof. Kathryn Holt, I am now a full time bioinformatician under the supervision of Prof. Ben Howden at MDU PHL, researching the evolution and transmission of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria pathogens in the hospital environment. I work at the interface of traditional academic research and translation, with results being communicated back to hospitals in close-to-real time. My work includes genomic and phylogenetic analyses of bacteria genome sequences, to identify the population structure and infer strain relatedness. This approach employs a range of bioinformatic techniques to investigate large genomic data sets, and compare with relevant epidemiological data. I have won a number of awards for both my presentations and research, including: the 2018 MDHS-ECR Travel Grant; a 2018 Veski Victoria Fellowship, which took me overseas for several months; and I was selected as an outbound ambassador for the Melbourne Genomics Health Alliance in 2019.