Rapid Diagnosis and Biomedical Research

Dr Oliver Smith obtained his undergraduate degree in Archaeology from the University of Liverpool in 2005, and went on to complete a MSc in Biomedical & Forensic Archaeology at the University of Manchester.

Continuing this, Ollie then went on to obtain a PhD in Life Sciences from the University of Warwick, where he researched palaeo-epigenomics with ancient DNA and ancient RNA from a variety of archaeological materials. Here he sequenced the first ever viral genome derived from ancient RNA, from a 700-year-old cereal grain, showing that stress- responsive in-vivo mechanisms can be detected in long-dead organisms.

Following two further postdocs at Warwick (one on ancient DNA metagenomics from marine sediments, the other on population genomics of domesticated plants), he completed a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship in Denmark at Copenhagen University. Here he picked up his research into palaeo-epigenomics again, to research the domestication of dogs using ancient biomolecules, and further work on bacterial meta- pathogenomics from mummified remains.

Ollie joined Micropathology’s virology team in May 2019 as a postdoctoral scientist.