Daniella Pretorius
PhD Candidate at Imperial College London | Protein design | Biochemistry | Explainable AI
š Hi there! Iām Daniella Pretorius, a PhD student at Imperial College London in the James Murray lab as a part of the EPSRC BioDesign CDT. I also had the incredible opportunity to join the Sergey Ovchinnikov lab as a visiting PhD researcher at MIT.
š¬ My research interests lie in exploring protein space and designing novel proteins. I work in both wet and dry labs, taking ideas from the computer to experimentally determined structures. Iām particularly interested in using and manipulating ML models for protein structure and sequence, extracting insights to understand what these models learn, and using this information to guide protein design.
š§¬ Before my PhD, I trained as a biochemist at Imperial College London and then went on to set up COVID-19 diagnostics labs with OpenCell during the pandemic. Outside of my academic career, I have an active art practice šØ, enjoy running šāāļø, and have a facination with snails š.
š¬ Feel free to reach out to chat!