DR. ROBYN WRIGHT

Microbial Ecologist / Bioinformatician / Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Photo of Robyn Wright

I completed my BSc in Marine Biology at the University of Plymouth (UK) in 2013 before earning my PhD in Biological Sciences at the University of Warwick (UK) at the end of 2019. My background is in marine microbial ecology and I studied the colonisation and biodegradation of plastics during my PhD as well as in my first postdoc, where I moved to the School for Resources and Environmental Studies at Dalhousie University (Nova Scotia, Canada). I currently work as a postdoc at Dalhousie University within the lab of Dr. Morgan Langille, where my research aims to understand the roles that microbial communities play in human and ecosystem health and disease, and to assess and benchmark the methods that we use to study microbial systems. I enjoy working on diverse microbial ecology topics and several of my current research projects study the associations between the oral microbiome and mental and physical health conditions. I currently hold a fellowship from Mitacs for a collaborative project with SickKids on linking the oral microbiome with child and adolescent mental health. I am from the UK but have been living in Canada since the end of 2019.

Research interests

My research interests lie in understanding the roles that microbial communities play in human and ecosystem health:

  • How are these communities impacted by different factors of their environments?
  • How do they change over time?
  • What functions are they capable of carrying out?

Current research

My current research is focussed on:

  • The association between the microbiome and human health and disease
  • The remediation of human or ecosystem health threats by bacteria
  • Assessing and benchmarking the methods that we use to study microbial systems

Bioinformatics workshops and consultation

For the last few years, I have been involved in teaching bioinformatics to others. This has been predominantly through Canadian Bioinformatics Workshops as well as other workshops that I have been involved with organising locally and one-on-one teaching. I am a big proponent for open science, and these tutorials are typically available on the Microbiome Helper wiki pages, which I also add workflows and tutorials to for the standard procedures and workflows that I use. You can see an incomplete list of everything that I contribute to on the Resources page.

I also sometimes take on freelance bioinformatics and consulting roles. Please reach out to me at my email below if you are interested in working together.

Photography

I’m also a keen photographer; I mainly enjoy taking landscape photos and documenting my adventures trail running and hiking, but I’ve also taken photos at a couple of trail running races. Hopefully soon I’ll add a gallery to showcase some of my favourites, but in the meantime, feel free to check out my Instagram or get in touch if you’re interested in working together.