Gayle is currently contracted out to work as part of Prof Madeleine van Oppen’s Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship (2019-2023) project aiming to develop microbes which are able to enhance the climate resilience of corals. Prof van Oppen holds a Chair in Marine Biology at the University’s School of BioSciences.
Also, Gayle is working with Prof Peter Cowan from St Vincent’s Hospital analysing the accuracy of CRISPR genome editing in pig genomes. This research has wide ranging applications in medical research, xenotransplantation and agriculture.
Gayle is also co-coordinator for the Masters subject BINF90002: Elements of Bioinformatics.
These two roles coalesce with Gayle supervising the research of the Masters and PhD students in the van Oppen lab.
When asked what excites her most about bioinformatics, she says:
I’ve worked on many “omics” projects from transcriptomics of Guinea pig sclera, genome editing in pig genomes to clinical genomics for the Melbourne Genome Health Alliance. The fast pace and new developments of this relatively new discipline, and the ability to answer new questions with genomics, excites me the most.