Research interest
Michaela's interest lies in the Stem Cell and Gene Editing fields. She currently works as a Senior Research Assistant in the Gene Editing group at the Sanger Institute where she uses CRISPR/Cas9 technology to generate targeted cell lines (SNP, KO and endogenous-tagged proteins). Allied to this, she lead a programme of research that improved the efficiency of bespoke mutant cell line generation by pharmacological and environmental manipulation of DNA repair pathways. This work was the inspiration behind the PhD project she began in 2020, which focuses on understanding the DNA repair pathways utilised by cells upon targeted DNA damage.
CRISPR/Cas technology has changed the way genetic science is approached. Its dependence on the generation of a double-stranded break, a particularly toxic class of damage, potentially limits its applicability. In order to realise the full disease modelling and therapeutic potential of CRISPR/Cas technology, there is an important need to determine the genes and pathways preferentially utilised in repair, how different defects are handled by different cell types and how we can manipulate this process to bias towards precise genomic edits while reducing unwanted by-products.
Michaela is looking to apply CRISPR screens in human iPSCs and terminally differentiated cell types to investigate the changing relationship between DNA repair and lesion type.
