Environment Network (UPEN)

January 2013

Dr Siobhan Watkins, School of Biological Sciences

Siobhans writes:

I’m an early career researcher. I completed my PhD, examining engineered and biological aspects of wastewater treatment, in 2011, and I’m now based in the School of Biological Sciences working on a project isolating and characterising viruses which infect cyanobacteria.  Cyanobacteria have an ancient lineage - their ancestors are thought to be responsible for the initial production of free oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere.  In the modern age, cyanobacteria are major ecosystem engineers, and are particularly important in aquatic environments where they can be the dominant primary producers, and where they fix nitrogen from the atmosphere into organic matter.  However, the presence of cyanobacteria can also be problematic.  In eutrophic waters, cyanobacteria can accumulate in massive surface blooms, which can have disastrous implications for aquatic life.  Many bloom forming cyanobacteria also produce toxins which can affect humans and other animals.  My project focuses on freshwater cyanobacteria, and the viruses which infect them, which are called cyanophages.  By isolating and examining freshwater cyanophages in the lab, I aim to identify specific viruses which can kill bloom-forming cyanobacteria in their natural environment.  I’m also interested in how these viruses interact with their hosts on a genetic level, and how this changes their behaviour both in the lab and the environment. 

What made you choose to work in your area of science?

I wanted to study microbiology because the influence that microorganisms have on the planet is fascinating to me.  I started my career in research as an environmental bacteriologist.  It has always been clear to microbial ecologists that our breadth of knowledge of the impact and diversity of bacteria on the global environment is severely limited.  Viruses infect every living thing.  Examining bacterial viruses (or ‘bacteriophages’, as they are widely referred to) at a time when the study of viruses in the environment is really coming under the spotlight, researchers understand that we understand very little of the impact that they have on the environment.  Bacteriophages exert direct pressure on the bacterial processes we know are so important to life on Earth.  They do this by killing bacteria, and therefore controlling microbial populations, but also by transferring genetic material between bacterial lineages, influencing bacterial genetic diversity. 

Bacteriophages are, essentially, scraps of DNA, floating around the planet.  They are barely classifiable as living organisms.  Yet they represent a huge resource for previously undescribed genetic information in the environment, and their influence on life processes is, as yet, unquantifiable – we simply don’t know enough about them.  To me, that is incredible - and as an early career researcher, the potential for discovery over the course of my career is very exciting. 

Do you have any advice for people interested in your job?

The best advice I could give to anyone is, if you’re going to do research, do it because you love it.  Scientific research is tough, and in the early stages of your career there is little in the way of job security.  Publish as soon as you can, and if you’re doing a PhD, try to design your experiments with papers in mind.  Even if you’re not comfortable with self-promotion, get used to introducing yourself to people and getting your name known.  Contact important people in your field and introduce yourself and your work.  Build up a web presence, maybe start a blog, use social media.  Being a young researcher requires a lot of commitment in the face of a lot of uncertainty - but if you love what you’re doing it can be the most rewarding and satisfying of jobs. 

Siobhan has been awarded the Heatley-Payne Award from the Society for General Microbiology. The award means she will be paid to attend and present at the American Society for Microbiology annual conference in Denver, Colorado, in May 2013. She will also spend three weeks at the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology in Baltimore, Maryland, conducting research into cyanophage communities in the environment and cyanophage genomics.

You can follow Siobhan through her blog or through twitter.