Training Academy Development Team

Frances Colles

Senior researcher

Fran is a lecturer in microbiology and infectious diseases at the University of Oxford, and she researches how disease spreads from animals to people along the food chain.  She is passionate about making science accessible to everyone and leads the Genome Detectives citizen science project.

Sophie MacKay

Research assistant

Sophie joined the Maiden Lab as a research assistant in 2022, having completed her MBiochem degree in Biochemistry at the University of Oxford. She designed, set-up and runs the Genome Detectives Training Academy website and is also a member of the Genome Detectives Zooniverse project team.  

Jemima Swain

Research assistant

Jemima completed her MBiol degree in Biological Sciences (specialising in Microbiology) with the Maiden Lab in 2023, and is now working as a research assistant on the Genome Detectives project. She acts as website developer, and designs and writes articles and other content for our Blog pages.