Emilia Simmons
Appointments
Post-doctoral Scholar
Biography
With streamlined laboratory models, stringent controls over all environmental conditions have allowed scientists to examine and learn much about the world around us, but the natural world is typically far more complex than environments examined experimentally in the lab. With my training in physics, I'm broadly interested in slowly loosening the constraints on model systems. Currently, I work on theoretically examining the impacts that realistic spatial conditions have on these small tractable systems using biofilm simulations, interactions between bacteriophage and the biofilm structure in particular. My future interests include examining systems with higher numbers of species with methods analogous to statistical mechanics in physics.
Education
BS: University of Delaware
MS: University of Delaware
PhD: University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
Publications
Simmons EL, Bond MC, Koskella B, Drescher K, Bucci V, Nadell CD. (2020) Biofilm Structure Promotes Coexistence of Phage-Resistant and Phage-Susceptible Bacteria. mSystems. Jun 23;5(3):e00877-19. doi: 0.1128/mSystems.00877-19. PMID: 32576653
Simmons EL, Drescher K, Nadell CD, Bucci V. (2018) Phage mobility is a core determinant of phage-bacteria coexistence in biofilms. ISME J. Feb;12(2):531-543. doi: 10.1038/ismej. PMID: 29125597
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