Dr. Paulina Flannery obtained her PhD in Microbiology from the National University of Ireland, Galway, in collaboration with the Marine Institute, Co. Galway. Her PhD research focused on norovirus contamination of shellfish and its impact on public health. In 2013, Paulina moved to the UK to work with exotic viruses at the Pirbright Institute – a world-leading research facility dedicated to studying viral disease in livestock animals.
There, she studied the molecular evolution of viruses belonging to the Orbivirus and Morbilivirus genera, contributing to disease outbreak investigations. Paulina designed several rapid molecular diagnostic assays that contribute to early disease identification, particularly in developing countries. She was actively engaged in delivering hands-on training on biosafety procedures, as well as serological and molecular diagnostics to international audiences. Paulina publishes under her maiden name of Rajko-Nenow and has authored over 35 peer-reviewed journal articles in the fields of virology, molecular diagnostics, epidemiology, and veterinary medicine.
Currently, her research interests focus on isolation and characterization of bacteriophages from wastewater and evaluating their efficacy against veterinary pathogens. She is also involved in developing high-throughput sequencing for characterizing phages genomes and investigating their potential in addressing the antibiotic-resistance crisis.
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