The Lab Group
We are a growing team and are always excited to welcome new members to our group.
Michelle Hawkins
PhD
Group Leader
Michelle's career has been spent studying different aspects of DNA replication in archaea, eukaryotes and prokaryotes. Michelle achieved an MBiol at the University of Bath and earned a PhD in Genetics from the University of Nottingham studying replication origins in the archaeon Haloferax volcanii. After post-doctoral work studying yeast replication origins and bacterial replication-transcription conflicts, she began her research group at the University of York in 2018. Current research in the group is focused on the study of replication termination, helicases and replication-transcription conflicts in E. coli.
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Outside of the lab she keeps busy singing in choirs and coaching/doing/watching gymnastics.
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ORCID: 0000-0001-9393-8206
Juliana Sanchez Alponti Millar
Post-doc (2023-2026)
Juliana is a Postdoctoral Research Associate who joined the group in July 2023. Juliana is investigating how collisions between replisome-barrier proteins happen at the molecular level.
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Juliana completed her undergraduate and Masters degree studies in Chemistry at the University of São Paulo before studying for her PhD at the University of York. During her PhD, Juliana focused on the discovery and characterization of enzymes from the marine environment for efficient lignocellulose degradation. For the past three years, Juliana has worked on a project to harness the invertebrate wood digestive system.
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Juliana anticipates that her comprehensive expertise in protein production/purification, along with the group's existing background knowledge and the utilization of advanced structural biology techniques, will enable the team to unveil the intricate structures involving replisome-barrier proteins.
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Outside of work, Juliana enjoys spending time with her sewing machine and creating patchwork blocks. She is also easily spotted watching snooker and/or Formula 1.
