Fiona Brinkman

She completed two post-doctorate fellowships at the University of British Columbia under the guidance of Drs Robert (Bob) Hancock and Ann Rose.

She has also developed bioinformatics methods that aid the more accurate identification of genomic islands (i.e. IslandViewer) and orthologs (i.e. OrtholugeDB).

Her research has provided new insights into the evolution of pathogens and the role that horizontal gene transfer and genomic islands play.

[6][7][8] She confirmed the anecdotal assumption that virulence factors (disease-causing genes in pathogens) are disproportionately associated with genomic islands.

[13][14][15] She has a growing interest in applying her methods to environmental applications as part of a broader interest in developing approaches for more holistic, sustainable infectious disease control and microbiome conservation - developing approaches that may select less for antimicrobial resistance, improve the tracking of pathogens and their origins, and better factor in the important role of societal changes and the environment in shaping microbiomes.