Saskia Proud
DPhil Student
Biography
I am a Clinical Medicine DPhil Student in the Simmonds group under the supervision of Dr Tanya Golubchik, Professor Peter Simmonds, and Dr David Bonsall.
During my BSc in Biochemistry at the University of Southampton, I completed a Year in Industry within the Genomics of Rare and Emerging Human Pathogens Group at the UKHSA. I worked with a range of viral and bacterial pathogens, developing and optimising methods. I also took part in large scale SARS-CoV-2 sequencing through Covid-19 Genomics (COG) UK Consortium.
My DPhil is part of the BTRU-GEMS project and involves the optimisation of next generation sequencing technologies (NGS) to detect pathogens in blood and organ donations, ensuring safer transfusions and avoiding the deferral of eligible donors.