Profile
Anthony Redmond
My CV
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Education:
University of Aberdeen 2013-2018 (PhD), Maynooth University 2009-2013 (BSc)
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Qualifications:
PhD in shark genomics and immune evolution, BSc in Genetics and Bioinformatics
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Work History:
Irish Centre for High-End Computing (summer internship 2013), University of Aberdeen (PhD student & demonstrator 2013-2018), Trinity College Dublin (Post-Doc: Right now!)
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Current Job:
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
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About Me:
I am a researcher and Trinity College Dublin interested in genetics and evolutionary history
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Read more
Evolutionary relationships: I am deeply interested in the evolutionary relationships between species. Especially in improving our understanding of relationships between major animal groups, as well as better understanding the deepest branches in the tree of life. This relies on finding interesting animals to build phylogenetic trees with, as well as developing better mathematical models that can more accurately reconstruct species relationships, and our evolutionary history. This type of genome analysis can also be combined with fossils to date the speciation events along a phylogenetic tree in geological time. Gaining this type of understanding of species relationships allows us to map important genetic events, and the emergence of new traits (e.g. having arms and legs instead of fins), onto an evolutionary time frame. During my career so far, I have used DNA from sharks, skates, and rays to better understand their evolutionary history, as well as from our most distant animal relatives to better understand animal origins.
Gene and Genome Duplication: Genes are the key to generating proteins and the functioning of our bodies. Sometimes genes are duplicated, and this can provide the material needed for either disease or for new adaptations to evolve! In my work I have shown that a partial duplication of a gene involved in helping antibodies fight pathogens provided mammals with a way to clean up haemoglobin accidentally released from damaged red blood cells, which otherwise could cause severe kidney damage and infections. Genome duplication results in the doubling of all of organisms DNA, similarly to gene duplications this can lead to better adaptation to the environment (it has played an important role in the evolution of many plants and animals), or can be involved in disease (recent studies suggest many cancers have undergone genome duplications).
Evolution of immunity: During my PhD I mainly focused on understanding the evolution of the immune system. To do this I used sharks and their genomes (including catsharks; which made an appearance in the lectures!), as these are our most distant relatives to also use antibodies to defend themselves from pathogens. I also searched genomes of many weird invertebrates like sponges and comb jellies (which look a bit like jellyfish but are completely different) to better understand what kind of immune systems the very first animals had well over 500 million years ago.
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My Typical Day:
I am completely reliant on one constant companion in this; my computer. My average day involves reading the latest research in my field, designing new experiments, writing code, analysing data (and getting data ready to analyse; which is often the most time consuming), writing up results and making pretty images to explain them, interacting with lab members (in person), and collaborators from other countries (by email).
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The most exciting thing that's happened this year in my research area:
The first full genomes of sharks were sequenced this year!
This told us new things about how appetite, sleep, and our immune systems evolved, and how sharks added defences against cancer work, as well as how sharks sense of smell and vision evolved, and how body sizes evolve in animals.
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My latest work:
Exploring new genetic approaches to help build the animal tree of life.
Understanding how animals are related to each other gives us a map with which to understand how and when important traits have evolved, e.g. brains, limbs.
To do this we look at genes from different species to work out how they are related to each other. My work currently is focused on using our understanding of how our genes evolve to work out these relationships.
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My favourite misconception about my area of science:
That humans are ‘more’ evolved than other species, or that they have evolved from other species that are alive now.
All living species have evolved for the same amount of time and are specialised in their own way and adapted to their environment. For example, we often consider ourselves as being extremely intelligent, but other species have evolved their own unique traits, e.g. plants can make their own ‘food’ from sunlight.