Meet the team
Our Sequencing team includes expert technicians with wide ranging experience across wet lab and post run analytics as well as bioinformatic specialists.
Aaron Jeffries
Senior Research Fellow and Head of Exeter Sequencing Facility
Aaron joined a developmental neurobiology group at King’s College London in 2005 where he shifted focus from his initial work around signalling pathways to studying allele specific heterogeneity observed in clonal cells, known as Random Monoallelic Expression. Working with clonal stem cells, and later epigenetic reprogramming techniques, he has furthered this work using stem cells as model systems. Aaron joined the Complex Disease Epigenetics group in January 2014 to further his research in single cell heterogeneity and its relation to disease. Through this he has performed single cell research using a variety of platforms and further psychiatric genetic/transcriptomic and epigenetic research.
In April 2017, Aaron joined the Exeter Sequencing Facility and continues to develop long read sequencing technology for applications in neurodegenerative disease and epigenetics and in July 2019 became Head of Exeter Sequencing Facility.
Among a variety of sequencing projects Aaron was involved in sequencing relating to the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic, first as a contributor to COG-UK and later through development and use of rapid SARS-CoV-2 genome sequencing from wastewater samples to track the dynamic nature of variants/lineages at a population level.
Bryony Williams
Senior Lecturer/Experimental Officer, Sequencing Facility
Bryony Williams is a molecular biologist with a background in microbial parasite diversity and a particular interest in the evolution of small eukaryotic genomes. She has worked on multiple comparative genomic and environmental diversity projects, generally working with DNA collected from environmental samples. She aims to support labs in experimental design and optimisation for high throughput sequencing projects.
Paul O'Neill
Experimental Officer- Exeter Sequencing Service
Originally from a computer scientist background I turned Bioinformatician in 2010. I now work for the Exeter Sequencing Service where I support the computation requirements of the service to QC, perform primary analysis, and deliver sequencing data to researchers.
Jemima Onime
DNA Sequencing Bioinformatician
Jemima is a Bioinformatician with a background in molecular biology. Currently she works for the Exeter Sequencing Service where she aims to develop and use bioinformatics pipelines to improve understanding of genomic systems.
After graduating Jemima worked as a software developer and as a grain quality analyst and during that period she realised that she wanted to pursue research combining computational tools with biological research. In 2020, she attended Imperial College London to do an MRes where she used computational tools to design oxygen evolving complex mimics.
Jemima has an appreciation for and expertise in both computational biology, bioinformatics and wet lab work. Her varied academic and work experiences have given her a broad set of skills and she enjoys providing bioinformatics support to several projects from different departments across the University. Her research interests are extremely wide and she is always open to learning new things.
Georgina Murray
Sequencing Technician
Georgina originally started as a Level 3 Laboratory Technician Apprentice, and upon completion in December 2019, became a full-time Sequencing Technician. After taking a year out from studying, Georgina started a Level 5 Science Technician Apprenticeship in 2020 with an aim to complete at the end of 2023.
Gina's main roles include: DNA and RNA sample preparation, protocol optimisation, sample QC, Illumina sequencing on the MiSeq and NovaSeq 6000 and Nanopore sequencing utilising the PromethIon and MinIon from Oxford Nanopore Technologies.
In her time at the University, Georgina has passed her Level 3 Apprenticeship, completed a BTEC in Applied Science, has been awarded a Top Project award by the Royal Society of Biology, and obtained a FdScBiosciences qualification.
Georgina is passionate about practical working. She has previous experience working in a busy commercial food Laboratory, and is always looking to extend her skills.
Chris Milne
Technician- Exeter Sequencing Service
Chris Milne has worked as a Technician in the Exeter Sequencing Facility since 2022.
Chris's previous roles at the University have included Assistant Lab Manager at the MRC Centre for Medical Mycology (2019 - 2022) and Biosciences Greenhouse Manager (2016 - 2019).
Audrey Farbos
Technician- Exeter Sequencing Service
Audrey Farbos has worked at the University of Exeter Sequencing Facility since October 2011. Her work involves preparing RNA and DNA libraries and sequencing them on the Illumina Novaseq 6000 or MiSeq or Oxford Nanopore Minion and Promethion instruments. She is experienced in sequencing protocol optimisation and troubleshooting.
Audrey teaches staff and PhD students to prepare and validate their own libraries, and check DNA and RNA quality, quantity and purity using the Tapestation (Agilent), Qubit (Invitrogen) and Promega plate reader. Audrey also has responsibility for the Covaris focused acoustic ultrasonicator.
Audrey manages and trains sequencing technicians to level 5. She is committed to promoting the work of Technicians in the Health and Life Science Faculty and has encouraged technicians to train and network with each other during monthly “Technical Lunches”. Audrey was a joint recipient of the University of Exeter Technical Services Award for Sustainability in 2022 for initiating and promoting this important programme of events.
In 2023 Audrey was selected to be a Gold level hands-on technical trainer at The Science Museum’s Technicians: The David Sainsbury Gallery. This groundbreaking interactive gallery is sponsored by The Gatsby Charitable Foundation and aims to educate and encourage young people into technical careers.
Previously, she worked as a Biological Engineer at CIRAD (2010-2011) on pre-development of a diagnostic tool for the detection of different gene groups of Ralstonia solanacearum.
Amanda Goodison
RF Administrator
Amanda joined the Research Facilities team in July 2022 working with Aquatic Resources Centre, Exeter Centre for Cytomics and Exeter Sequencing Facility as RF Administrator. Her remit is to provide support these three RFs in the areas of Engagement/Events, Finance and Operations.
Amanda’s background is in communications and marketing working across a wide variety of sectors including education, healthcare and professional services
A dual-national she was educated in the USA and worked in London before moving to the West Country in 2009 and Exeter in 2015. When not working she can be found playing tennis or attempting yoga.
