Amjad became interested in insect-parasite interactions during his work in the Plant Sciences Department (University of Cambridge). He studied how Cucumber Mosaic Virus (CMV) affected aphid behaviour to increase its spread within a plant population. At the Sanger Institute, he first investigated various decontamination approaches employed by the Darwin Tree of Life (DToL) project on complex sequencing samples from the Aquatic Symbiosis Project (ASG) in order to optimise detection of various cobionts and potential endosymbionts. Amjad is currently working on surveying various UK BIOSCAN insects and Anopheles samples for microsporidia presence.
My timeline
Joined Wellcome Sanger Institute as PhD student
Student Researcher at the Ma Group, Gurdon Institute
Completed undergraduate at University of Cambridge
Student Researcher in the Imbeault Group (Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge)
Student Researcher in the Museum of Zoology (Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge)
Student Researcher in the Virology and Molecular Plant Pathology Group (Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge)