Danielle Smyth

Danielle Smyth's scientific career has a theme running through it: molecules and poking about in intestines or poo. Danielle's research in molecules and intestinal tracts has taken her up the evolutionary scale from pathogenic factors found in bacteria to cellulases from anaerobic fungi (found in the forestomach of the kangaroo) and onto immuno-modulatory molecules from gut dwelling parasitic worms.

In 2013 Danielle moved from Australia to Scotland to study the effect parasite molecules have on models of inflammatory bowel disease (Funded by The Kenneth Rainin Foundation) and decided to make Scotland her home. Danielle's work has been recently published in Nature Communications and she continues to investigate helminth molecules (and poking about in intestines) in the quest to find novel therapies for inflammatory conditions such as allergic asthma at The University of Dundee. Danielle holds a BSC with Honours degree and PhD in Microbiology from The University of Queensland, Australia.