Profile

Hi I am Shannon, I am 25 years old and am originally from Germany.

I grew up in the countryside of Tipperary, where I loved to dance, sing and do Taekwondo. Once upon a time I was an all-Ireland fighting champion. Not much has changed since then except I am now the proud owner of a Bachelor of Science degree in Microbiology and instead of spending my time doing Taekwondo I am now an avid Netflix-watcher.

Science has always been my favourite subject and I always knew I’d do something science related. Originally I wanted to be a forensic scientist (I have possibly watched every episode of CSI in existence) but after a few years in college doing a general science degree I begun to fall in love with molecular biology, infectious diseases and diagnostics.

Ever since then I have thrown myself into the amazing world of microbiology and never looked back!

To paraphrase Shrek;

Pathogens “are like onions. Onions have layers”, pathogens “have layers. You get it? They both have layers”

The first couple of layers are what you can see either by eye or through a microscope

The layer I am most interested in is what you can’t really see. The inner workings of pathogens. How their “brains” work, how they survive within human bodies and how they “make decisions”.

My main focus are fungal pathogens. These are kinda like microscopic-deadly versions of the mushrooms you have in your fry at breakfast.