Murray Gemma G R

I am an evolutionary biologist. I am interested in why and how bacteria evolve to cause disease in their hosts. My approach involves analysis of natural populations of bacterial pathogens, and their close commensal relatives. I use genome sequence data to understand the structure, and evolutionary dynamics of these populations. My work is collaborative, and involves working with scientists from other disciplines to better understand the ecologies of my study systems, and to develop applications of my research. I studied physics at the University of St Andrews, and philosophy of physics and mathematics at the University of Western Ontario and the University of Cambridge. I moved into the field of evolutionary biology and population genetics at the University of Edinburgh, where I completed a master’s degree. I moved to the University of Cambridge for my PhD, where I developed methods of analysing genome sequences to understand the adaptation of bacterial pathogens to new host species, and the dynamics of disease outbreaks. Following my PhD, I moved to the University of California, Santa Cruz, where I undertook research on the extinct passenger pigeon, using DNA from museum specimens to assess what factors may have led to its extraordinarily rapid decline. I held a Wheldale Onslow Research Fellowship at Newnham College and a Research Associate in the Department of Veterinary Medicine from 2018 to 2022. I then held a position at the Wellcome Sanger Institute for 6 months in 2022 before taking up a position as a group leader at UCL in the Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment.