Carys Croft, PhD

My PhD research focused on the development of human innate lymphoid cells from circulating precursors. Activities: Purification, phenotyping, sorting and differentiation of human ILC precursors, as well as mature ILCs, employing a number of cellular and molecular techniques, resulting in the publication of 5 papers to date.

Activities: Design and employ of an assay to quantify B cells latently infected with murine gammaherpesvirus 68 as part of a murine disease model of multiple sclerosis exacerbated by EBV infection. Responsibilities included manipulation of murine models, tissue isolation, and molecular techniques.

Activities: Cloning, production and activity testing by GC-MS of enzymes isolated from the plant Crocosmia to identify the genes involved in the production of Montbretin A, an inhibitor of pancreatic amylase with therapeutic potential for the treatment of type II diabetes.

Activities: Bioinformatic analysis (R) of the interactions between the pathogenic fungus Aspergillus fumigatus and airway epithelial cells, resulting in a paper published in 2019. Writing a published literature review on the early interactions of conidia with airway epithelial cells and assisted in the writing of a second on systems biology in the study of fungal pathogens.

Activities: Production, purification and quality control of enyzmes, cytokines, growth factors and other proteins for use as research reagents. Assisted in the licensing and initiating technology transfer of 8 cell lines from academic institutions worldwide.

Activities: Characterization of a mutant strain of cucumber necrosis virus. Development and optimization of assays for the identification of novel strawberry viruses.

Activities: Planting and maintenance of lines of dry beans. Infection and resistance grading of lines of dry beans to a variety of fungal and bacterial pathogens as well as sampling and nucleic acid extraction.

Pasteur-Paris University International Doctoral Program