Poppy Pescod completed her BSc Hons in Tropical Disease Biology at the University of Liverpool (associated with Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine) in 2014, followed by an MRes studying bacteria infecting tsetse flies. She then moved to the University of Salford for her PhD, where she investigated the microbiomes of tsetse flies and sand flies using both bacterial culture and next-generation sequencing technologies. After completing her PhD, she worked as a Research Technician at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine on the ESSENTIALS project with Professor Philip McCall, before moving on to her first Post-Doctoral Research Associate position in the Functional Genomics Lab with Professor Tony Nolan, studying the dynamics of gene drive transmission in the malaria mosquito, anopheles. Poppy’s second Post-Doctoral Research Associate position was with the Vector Informatics and Genomics Group led by Professor Martin Donnelly, where she investigated gene duplications and their impact on insecticide resistance in anopheles.

Poppy contributes to marking on several MSc modules, supervises MSc and MRes student projects, and ran a one day undergraduate practical laboratory class on insecticide resistance for two cohorts.