Adriana Tubb

Adriana joined Dr Trevor Sweeney’s research group at The Pirbright Institute in October 2023, to undertake a PhD in collaboration with the University of Surrey. Her PhD studies two prominent viruses in the orthoflavivirus family, Dengue and Zika. Her primary focus is characterising how the structure of their RNA genome interacts with host translational machinery. This also includes understanding how they are able to evade the innate immune system and continue to translate, even when host translation is shut down. 

Adriana studied Biomedical Sciences at an undergraduate level at Royal Holloway University of London from 2019-2022, where she developed a passion for Molecular Biology techniques. During her final year, she completed a computational dissertation in the field of Molecular Neuroscience, which involved designing and testing antisense oligonucleotides using online computational modelling and prediction tools. To further her understanding of Molecular Biology techniques, she then undertook an MRes, also at Royal Holloway. This involved designing morpholinos to set up a transient protein knockdown system, for an accessory protein that influences the activity of a protein significantly implicated in the development of Alzheimer’s disease.

Throughout her university studies, Adriana’s appreciation for molecular biology, immunology and biochemistry, has grown exponentially, and she is delighted to be involved in such an interesting PhD opportunity.