Josephine Solowiej-Wedderburn

Josephine has joined the IceLab and Department of Mathematics at Umeå on a multidisciplinary postdoctoral fellowship. Under the supervision of Eric Libby, Peter Lind, Ludvig Lizana and Björn Schröder she will be predicting the co-evolutionary trajectories of simple microbial communities.

Josephine’s fascination of life at the cell-scale took a hold during her masters’ in mathematical modelling at the University of Birmingham. Here, she investigated a potential mechanical system for the breaking of left-right symmetry in the embryo of vertebrates. This led Josephine to pursue a PhD in mechanobiology, working under the supervision of Carina Dunlop at the University of Surrey. She used biophysical models for cellular contractility to gain insights into cellular mechanosensation – the ability of a cell to sense (and adapt to) the mechanical properties of its microenvironment – focussing on the role of cell-substrate adhesion patterns. She followed her PhD with a 12-month postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Surrey to couple cell cytoskeletal models to the cell nucleus.

Now at IceLab, Josephine is enjoying the challenge of exploring a different form of life at the cell scale: microbial communities.  In particular, she is using metabolic models to search for environmental conditions conducive to microbial cooperation.

Aside from her fascination of the interactions between cells and their environments, Josephine enjoys swing dancing, hiking and drinking endless cups of tea. She is excited for the Swedish winters and all the magic they hold.