Research Interests

I am interested in the physical mechanisms that underpin the complex processes of chromatin replication, and their effects on genetic and epigenetic inheritance. My research is split into two main focuses: the development of computational tooling for TIRF microscopy analysis, and the jointly experimental and computational characterisation of chromatin mechanics.

Single-molecule TIRF microscopy is one of the Gruszka Lab's primary methods for investigating chromatin replication dynamics. Using a microfluidic Xenopus laevis egg extract system pioneered by Dominika, we are able to precisely determine statistics regarding parental histone transfer and other replication behaviours under canonical and non-canonical conditions. The computational tooling I develop automates the analysis of these experiments and serves to greatly improve the accuracy, repeatability and throughput of our work.

The focus of my DPhil research is to use a combined experimental and computational approach to investigate the mechanical properties of chromatin under different conditions, and to apply insights from this research into our understanding of eukaryotic replication. I will utilise state-of-the-art experimental techniques alongside multi-scale computational modelling techniques in order to manipulate and model chromatin with canonical nucleosomes, variant histones and post-translational modifications.

Biography

I obtained my MEng in Computer Science from the University of Durham (2025). My thesis focused on graph theoretic approaches for automatically generating user-customisable round-trip running and cycling routes. Inspired by a summer research project where I simulated ciliated tissues with Dr. Francesco Boselli in the Biophysical Sciences Institute, University of Durham (2024), I joined the Gruszka Lab as a Research Assistant shortly after graduating. As a research assistant, I developed a computational pipeline for the analysis of single-molecule TIRF replication experiments, and was awarded a DPhil studentship in Condensed Matter Physics at the University of Oxford (2026), supported by the Kavli Institute for Nanoscience Discovery and the Department of Condensed Matter Physics, University of Oxford.