Tara Davis

Prior to starting her PhD, Tara graduated from the University of Bath with a BSc honours degree in Biochemistry. This included a year-long placement at the Pirbright Institute, where she worked in the Influenza Virus Group studying the interplay between the respiratory microbiome in chickens and avian influenza virus infection. She also completed a project in her final year where she identified genes involved in conferring resistance to common antimicrobial agents in a clinical isolate of Proteus mirabilis. In 2022, she joined the lab of Kiran Patil to continue her research into animal microbiota.

Tara’s research interests focus on the contribution of the gut microbiota to varying aspects of host health, such as drug metabolism. Her PhD project aims to study whether toxicity differences between humans and animal models can be explained by differences in the metabolic capabilities in their gut microbiota.