Rhys White

Rhys White

PhD in Microbial Genomics | Comparative Genomics | Bioinformatics | Antibioic Resistance | Phylogenomics

My journey into STEM: from primates, to parasites, pathogens

3 minute read

Published:

For National Science Week the communications ambassadors for the Australian Society for Microbiology shared their journeys on social media using the hashtag #STEMgotmehere

Here, I share my journey into STEM (Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) and microbiology.

ASM Ambassador Communication for the Australian Society for Microbiology

During my Bachelor of Science at Cardiff University (UK), I undertook a placement year with the Danau Girang Field Centre based in Sabah, Borneo. I witnessed deforestation first-hand and got involved with rehabilitation efforts by planting trees. We tracked primates using Ultra High Frequency downloads and radio telemetry, supervised primate surveys, field courses, and night walks. I developed my science communication skills at this time through co-writing newsletters.

During this placement, I designed and implemented a scientific project focusing on nocturnal mosquito diversity in varying secondary forest ecotypes. Sadly, this placement was cut short due to an accident during a visit to Kota Kinabalu - resulting with me breaking my leg.

On returning to the UK, I volunteered doing wet lab work for the BARC project at Cardiff Research into Infection and Parasites in Ecological Systems, based within the Organisms and Environment Division, School of Biosciences, Cardiff. BARC is a citizen science project “Bag and Remove in Cymru” with the aim of assessing the prevalence of UK soil parasites, raise awareness of the negative effects of dog fouling, and its impact on pet health.

In the final year of my BSc, I met Tom Connor (@tomrconnor) and Peter Kille (@PKille) where I discovered my passion for bioinformatics. Tom supervised me for my undergrad thesis where I investigated uropathogenic E. coli circulating hospitals across Wales. This was my first introduction to Illumina short-read sequencing.

Now, I don’t like discussing politics, but I originally had a place on a Master of Research programme at Cardiff University. But, as soon as BREXIT (remain!) happened, support for Welsh students seemed to vanish and I couldn’t afford the annual >GBP£8,000 tuition. I never enrolled and decided to look overseas.

Instead, I started as an intelligence analyst for Public Health Wales - the national public health agency in Wales where I met the Chief Executive Tracy Cooper (@tcooper321). I was part of a team leading a project around the prevalence of sexually transmitted infections across Wales.

I later found out that my application to undertake a PhD scholarship at the Beatson Lab at the University of Queensland was successful. I packed a bag and got on a flight to AUSTRALIA - how crazy! So #ThisIsMyLab - what a great bunch! The lab aims to better understand the molecular mechanisms of infectious disease and identify therapeutic and diagnostic targets by exploiting “Next-gen” genomic data.

I’m now in my final year of a PhD life and love it! I’ve presented a combination of posters and oral talks at 7 national conferences and an international conference in the UK. That, and I’ve met some incredible friends and colleagues along the way.

The international conference (UK) included a visit to colleagues at Edinburgh University and the Roslin Institute. I’m also passionate about my ASM communicator role, where I had the privilege to meet and talk with Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr Ruff. On reflection, I’ve had so many fantastic experiences, some of which most people may not ever experience. All this is because #STEMgotmehere!

Twitter thread

The first genomic insight into Chlamydia psittaci sequence type (ST)24 from a healthy captive psittacine host in Australia demonstrates evolutionary proximity with strains from psittacine, human, and equine hosts

2 minute read

Published:

In 2022, we went into a pet shop and collected a faecal sample from a healthy (asymptomatic) pet bird. We discovered that a strain of Chlamydia psittaci found in a pet bird in 2022 is very similar to the C. psittaci strains that caused foal loss in horses in 2016. This is a bit concerning because it means that there’s a possibility that people and animals could get sick from C. psittaci, so we need to keep a close eye on it to make sure everyone stays healthy. To do that, we need to figure out who is giving C. psittaci to whom so we can come up with evidence-based ways to stop C. psittaci from spreading.

One clone to rule them all: Culture-independent genomics of Chlamydia psittaci from equine and avian hosts in Australia

2 minute read

Published:

In Australia, novel C. psittaci infections in horses raise biosecurity concerns. Here, we used limited whole-genome sequencing to figure out ’who is giving it to who’ and when these modern C. psittaci strains may have appeared in Australia. Our findings suggest that strains from parrots and horses have likely descended from a single progenitor strain.

Phase variation in the glycosyltransferase genes of Pasteurella multocida associated with outbreaks of fowl cholera on free-range layer farms

2 minute read

Published:

In poultry, P. multocida causes fowl cholera which leads to acute and fatal septicaemia with significant economic loss on the poultry industry. In Australia, gene-centric molecular studies are valuable in studying the epidemiology of outbreaks and guiding autogenous vaccination programmes. But these techniques do not provide the resolution for insight into the LPS structure of strains - enter whole-genome sequencing.

Completing the genome sequence of Chlamydia pecorum strains MC/MarsBar and DBDeUG: New insights into this enigmatic koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) pathogen

2 minute read

Published:

We present the first two complete C. pecorum genomes sequenced from diseased koalas. With these genomes, we expand on previous works by improving the gene annotations and by providing the genomic context of important virulence and accessory gene content. These findings lay the foundations for identifying and understanding species specificity and host adaptation behind chlamydial infections affecting koalas.