You’ve seen our products, now meet the team who knows our technologies from the inside out.
From designing bespoke sampling strategies to developing our product portfolio, our products team can be found developing and optimising our products for ease of use and performance at every stage of the client journey. This includes applying our technologies to your latest proposal, maintaining a high-quality sampling experience, and ensuring the biological complexity of your samples is suitably captured and represented in your reports.
Products Team
Dr Bastian Egeter - Head of New Product Development
Role
Bastian leads the Products Team, which collaborates with the Business Development, Product Delivery, Science, and Communication Teams to identify emerging client requirements, develop matching products, and provide support for field study design and results interpretation.
Academia
Postdoc in environmental metagenomics at CIBIO-InBIO, PhD in Zoology and PgDipSci in Wildlife Management from the University of Otago, BSc in Natural Science from Trinity College Dublin.
Significant Collaborations
Bastian has spent the last 20 years studying and working in the environmental field. He began his career as an ecological consultant, conducting environmental impact assessments for major national projects. During his PhD and postdoctoral positions, he focused on molecular diet analysis of invasive or threatened species, including cheetahs, toads, and scorpions. He also oversaw projects involving the detection of fauna and flora from aquatic eDNA, with each study involving both ecological data collection and the development of eDNA methods. Bastian has contributed to numerous scientific publications and supervised four MSc and two PhD students, and he now brings this wealth of knowledge to NatureMetrics.
Dr Malu Avila-Jimenez - Proposal Coordinator
Role
Malu assists with the development and grant application for R&D projects, as well as coordinating the reporting of R&D grants.
Academia
Malu holds a post-Doc in Ecosystem Services at the Environment and Sustainability Institute (University of Exeter) and PhD in Arctic Biology, from the University of Bergen (Norway), working from the remote High Arctic at the University Centre in Svalbard.
Significant Collaborations
During her PhD, Malu’s work in Arctic invertebrate biodiversity was based at a small research centre in Longyearbyen, in the Arctic Archipelago of Svalbard (Norway). This prompted her to establish early multiple international collaborations to compensate from the shortcomings of a small research group, facilitated by her work from the international research station in Ny-Ålesund and her participation in the Kinnvika Project for the 2007 International Polar Year. One of her first collaborations was with the British Antarctic Survey, where she carried out most of her DNA work.
She also worked closely with the Zoology Department at The University of Bergen and with an international network of invertebrate scientists mainly from Northern European countries and Russia. As post-doctoral scientist at the University of Exeter, she further developed her network to include a large suite of scientists working on ecosystem services and carbon capture within the UK, particularly supporting the SECURE project from Newcastle University. Malu’s strong ecological expertise led her onto becoming the Ecology editor at Nature Communications, and further onto developing her own initiatives as a consultant supporting scientists to prepare research for high impact publication and grant applications. She has supported scientists and business for UKRI and European funded projects in subjects ranging from battery architecture to Arctic and Antarctic microbial diversity and agriculture monitoring systems.
Dr Alexandra Crampton-Platt - Head of Data
Role
Alex leads our data team and is responsible for ensuring that metabarcoding data is analysed to a high standard with robust and replicable pipelines. Day to day, Alex focuses on analysis of the most challenging client projects and leads the ongoing development of our pipelines. Alex is always looking for ways to improve the way that data is analysed and presented for our clients, to ensure that the biological complexity of samples is correctly captured and summarised effectively.
Academia
Alex held a postdoctoral position at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Berlin. She holds a PhD in Biodiversity Genomics from University College London, an MSc in Entomology and a BSc in Biology from Imperial College London.
Significant Collaborations
During her PhD, Alex developed mitochondrial metagenomics, a technique for assessing the taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity of complex samples based on shotgun sequencing and reconstruction of mitochondrial genomes. This led to multiple collaborations with other academics looking to apply this method to their study system. Postdoctoral work at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research focussed on the problem of taxonomic assignment of short sequences derived from blood ingested by leeches, in ecosystems where reference data is limited. The experience of that project has subsequently informed Alex’s approach to taxonomic assignment for NatureMetrics’ client data and allowed for the integration of complex probabilistic methods into our pipelines.
Dr Judith Bakker - Marine Product Manager
Role
Judith is part of the New Product Development Team at NatureMetrics, working with our business development and science teams to provide support to clients and collaborators conducting marine monitoring projects, and to design optimal sampling strategies for complex client and R&D projects.
Academia
Judith is a marine biologist interested in multidisciplinary research rooted in molecular biology. She holds a BSc in Biomedical Sciences (focussed on human and animal anatomy and (neuro)physiology), and a MSc in Marine Biology from the University of Amsterdam, working on coral recruitment in Curaçao and the impacts of anthropogenic disturbances on juvenile lemon sharks in the Bahamas. During her PhD at the University of Salford, she worked on the development and application of environmental DNA approaches for the assessment and monitoring of marine communities with a special focus on sharks. Her post-doctoral research at Florida International University continued to build upon the advancement of eDNA applications for the assessment and monitoring of shark and fish diversity, seasonal migrations, and the high-resolution investigation of diet composition.
Evie Gardener - Product Assistant
About
Organizing and disseminating information about our product offerings, assisting in the creation of internal and external resources, assisting with large R&D or client projects, assisting the Research team in identifying and exploring future technologies, assisting with lab work and fieldwork for Product Development as needed
Academic Background
Bsc Marine Biology from the University of Exeter, with a year spent studying at the University of Victoria in Canada. Field work carried out in the Azores, around the UK, and in British Columbia.
About
Final year research project at university focussed on assessing the impact of an invasive species on native wildlife around the UK. Have previously volunteered for conservation organisations, including working on loggerhead turtle conservation in Greece.
Dr Hayley Craig - Research Scientist
Role
Hayley leads the research and development of soil and sediment science at NatureMetrics, overseeing client projects and applying our technologies to address specific client challenges. Hayley joined NatureMetrics in July 2020 and is currently leading an innovative, collaborative pilot project, investigating the differences in the soil microbial and fauna communities at agricultural sites across Kent.
Academia
Hayley worked at the University of Manchester on her postdoctoral research in greenhouse gas emissions from grassland soils, her PhD in Soil Microbial Ecology and her MSc in Plant Science. Hayley also holds a BSc in Biology from Macquarie University.
Significant Collaborations
Hayley previously worked as an Environmental Consultant in Australia on contaminated land projects for a range of clients including government, railways, developers, and property management companies. She has collaborated with Natural England and National Trust, working on projects to assess the effects of land management practices and development on the surrounding environment. Her PhD research looking at effects of nutrient pollution in mangrove sediments was conducted in Florida in collaboration with the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center and multiple academic institutes in both the UK and USA. Hayley’s varied experience working on ranging ecosystems puts her in great stead to develop our eDNA from Sediments and Soils services.
Owen Middleton - Junior Data Scientist
Role
Owen supports the development of state-of-the-art statistical analyses and visualisations of big biodiversity datasets that meet client needs for Nature Metrics. He is also responsible for building interactive tools and visualisations that allow clients to better understand their ecological datasets.
Academia
PhD at the University of Sussex in the School of Life Sciences. Master of Science in Ecology (MEcol) from the University of Southampton.
Significant Collaborations
In Owen’s PhD, he utilised methods from community ecology, macroecology, and paleoecology to identify opportunities to restore trophic complexity in mammalian food webs across the world. This work contributed to an international collaboration with fellow early-career researchers working across mammalian trophic levels, at global- and regional-scales in North America and Australia. With a passion for rewilding and restoration through evidence-based decision-making, Owen is now excited to use his skill set in a forward-thinking industry aimed at facilitating the large-scale restoration of ecosystems across the world.
Dr Sarah Chordekar - Bioinformatician
Role
Sarah is involved in the processing, quality assessment and taxonomic identification of metabarcoding sequencing data from client samples. Sarah helps maintain, optimise and automate existing analysis pipelines as well as develop new pipelines for all aspects of data processing within the company.
Academia
PhD in Plant Genetics from the University of Bath, MSc in Biosciences from the University of Bath, BSc in Life Sciences and Biochemistry from St.Xavier’s College, Mumbai University.
Significant Collaborations
Sarah has had extensive laboratory experience in molecular biology ranging from DNA and RNA extraction, next generation and minION sequencing, PCR, microscopy and flow cytometry. This, coupled with her programming experience in UNIX, Python, and R for statistics and data analysis equip her with the foundation and knowledge needed to appropriately analyse, interpret and troubleshoot sequencing data.
Peter Davey Bioinformatics - Research Scientist
Role
Peter works within the Data Team. He is involved with bioinformatics research development, whereby he seeks creative and innovative ways to improve existing bioinformatic analytical pipelines as well as devise new analytical methods to expand on the services offered by NatureMetrics.
Academia
- PhD in Seagrass Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics (University of Technology Sydney)
- MSc in Marine Biodiversity with Biotechnology (Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh)
- BSc Honours in Biology (Newcastle Upon Tyne University)
Significant Collaborations
Peter has studied and worked in the Life Sciences sector for 14 years, gaining experience in marine ecology and consultancy, molecular biology, pathogen detection, and bioinformatics.
Awarded a PhD scholarship (University of Technology Sydney & CSIRO), he studied the molecular responses of Australian seagrasses to climate change. He has also worked for environmental consultancies and completed two post-doctoral positions. The first, investigating mega-herbivore interactions with seagrass meadows in the Great Barrier Reef Lagoon and secondly, genetic regulation of bioadhesion in sea anemones.
Author of 12 scientific publications, Peter has demonstrated his capacity to lead and collaborate within international scientific teams.
Peter’s main expertise and passion is devising and applying bioinformatic methodologies to interpret high-throughput datasets. He has eight years of experience in this field, gained through academic and industry positions in Australia and the UK.
Hannah Flintham - Laboratory Technician
Role
Hannah joined NatureMetrics in September 2020 for an internship working alongside Dr Hayley Craig to develop our soil and sediment services whilst learning from and working with our laboratory technicians. Hannah also hopes to set up a pilot metatranscriptomic study on soil microbial communities.
Academia
MSc in Marine Biology from the University of Southampton.
Significant Collaborations
During Hannah’s degree she gained experience in a range of molecular biology techniques, in particular RNA extraction and sequencing. For her final year project she focused on understanding differences in biogeochemical functions of marine microbial communities on sinking versus suspended particles in the ocean using metatranscriptomic analyses.
Edith San Jose Jones - Laboratory Technician
Role
Edith has been using advanced molecular techniques to produce valuable environmental data for clients since August 2021. Edith prepares a wide range of samples for next generation sequencing using DNA extraction and PCR amplification.
Academia
MSc in Pharmacology with professional placement from the University of Bath.
Significant Collaborations
During professional placement, Edith worked as a laboratory assistant in a sleep and neuroscience laboratory, investigating the impact of an aging brain on overnight memory transfer using an electroencephalogram. During her degree, Edith wrote a project proposal which planned to investigate the use of bispecific antibodies for the neutralisation of HIV-1.
Dr Lynsey Harper - Freshwater Product Manager
Role
Lynsey is a Freshwater Product Manager in the Products team. Lynsey leads the research and development of freshwater monitoring at NatureMetrics, overseeing client projects and applying our technologies to address specific client challenges.
Academia
Lynsey has over two years of postdoctoral experience after completing positions with the University of Hull, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Liverpool John Moores University. She holds a PhD in Biological Sciences from the University of Hull, a MSc in Quantitative Methods in Biodiversity, Conservation and Epidemiology from the University of Glasgow, and a BSc (Hons) in Zoology from the University of Glasgow.
Significant Collaborations
Lynsey is an aquatic ecologist with over six years’ experience of developing and applying eDNA analysis for biodiversity monitoring. Before getting involved in eDNA research, she researched and conserved endangered herpetofauna in Tobago, and published on the benefits of expedition fieldwork for students and for science. She also assessed the post-translocation status of one of the largest Scottish great crested newt (Triturus cristatus) populations as well as habitat and survey criteria for great crested newts in Scotland. In her PhD and postdoctoral positions, she used single-species and community eDNA approaches to study species distribution, diet, and interactions in freshwater, marine and terrestrial contexts. Using aquatic eDNA monitoring, she assessed pond biodiversity to aid conservation and management, contributed to the development of an eDNA-based lake fish classification system under the EU Water Framework Directive, and developed single-species assays for threatened or invasive species, including invertebrates, fish, and reptiles. With faecal metabarcoding, she has analysed diet of threatened or invasive species, ranging from otters to minks to feral hogs to bats. She has contributed to the development of “natural sampler” DNA approaches, including metabarcoding of flowers to assess pollinator diversity and metabarcoding of sponge tissue for marine biodiversity assessment. All of these projects have given her substantial experience of data acquisition, analysis and dissemination as well as method development. Lynsey has authored multiple scientific publications, reports and eDNA protocols, and has supervised 1 MSc and 4 PhD students.
Meet the teams
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