Image: Laura E. Williams (PhD 2009). After finishing her PhD with Dr. Anne Summers, Laura started her postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Jennifer Wernegreen's Laboratory (originally located at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass., but since moved to the Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy, Duke University, Durham, N.C.). Her research focuses on genome evolution in Blochmannia, which are bacterial endosymbionts of carpenter ants. In 2011, Laura was awarded a Career Development Grant for Postdoctoral Women from ASM, which funded her to spend some time in the laboratory of Elizabeth Sockett at the University of Nottingham, UK, to acquire new techniques for the isolation and characterization of predatory bacteria. Laura is currently investigating the evolution of predation in bacteria using genomics and molecular biology approaches.
