Email: joao.po@ntu.edu.sg

Joao is a research fellow at the Case Lab, currently investigating the interactions between marine algae and bacteria, specifically Emiliania huxleyi and Phaeobacter inhibens, with the aim of developing methods and pipelines for transcriptomic analysis. His research interests encompass the exploration of these relationships at the cellular level, and using various omics tools as well as molecular biology techniques to study the genetics that drive processes in microbial-algal interactions such as host apoptosis.

As an honours student, Joao’s project involved the use of functional metagenomics to study the antibacterial effects of isolates from marine algae on strains of the human pathogen Shigella. During his PhD candidature, his research focused on the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites by cyanobacteria, namely the molecular and genetic factors governing the production and regulation of the neurotoxins collectively known as the paralytic shellfish toxins. Joao explored the roles of phenotype and genotype on toxicity, and employed bioinformatics and synthetic biology approaches to generate novel insights into the genes and proteins affecting the formation of these toxins.

Read more about Joao’s current research here.