Dr Anna Dewar

I am an evolutionary biologist, with a focus on how genomes evolve and why they vary so much across species.

Before joining St John’s, I was a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Biology (2021-24). I also completed my DPhil here in Oxford, where I used comparative genomics to study the evolution of cooperation and horizontal gene transfer in bacteria (2017-22).

I am excited to use my time as a Career Development Research Fellow to continue to develop my own research ideas and to form new collaborations.

Teaching

I give tutorials to undergraduates on topics including evolution, genetics, microbiology and statistics. I have previously run classes for undergraduate and graduate students on scientific writing and presentation skills.

We are now in a 'genomic age', with the quantity and quality of genomic data increasing rapidly. In my research, I use computational methods and statistics to gain broad insights from this new genomic data.

I am particularly interested in why genomes vary between different species, and what evolutionary forces are responsible for this variation. For example, how and why do bacterial genomes change as they evolve different lifestyles, such as living inside other organisms, inside other cells, or becoming pathogens?

I also use genomic data to understand the evolution of interactions between organisms. For example, whether bacteria are capable of harming or helping us could depend on whether they can transfer genes 'horizontally' to their neighbours, or if they can produce molecules which provide benefits to neighbouring cells.

Publications

Dewar AE, Hao C, Belcher LJ, Ghoul M, West SA. (2024) Bacterial lifestyle shapes pangenomes. PNAS, 121(21). DOI

Dewar AE, Belcher LJ, Scott TW, West SA. (2024) Genes for cooperation are not more likely to be carried by plasmids. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 291. DOI

Dewar AE, Thomas JL, Scott TW, Wild G, Griffin AS, West SA, Ghoul M. (2021) Plasmids do not consistently stabilize cooperation across bacteria but may promote broad pathogen host-range. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 5, 1624-1636. DOI

Belcher LJ, Dewar AE, Hao C, Katz Z, Ghoul M, West SA. (2023) SOCfinder: a genomic tool for identifying cooperative genes in bacteria. Microbial Genomics, 9(12), 001171. DOI

Awards and Distinction

Finalist in the Microbiology Society’s ‘Sir Howard Dalton Young Microbiologist of the Year’ competition (2023).

Winner of ‘Most Promising Science’ and ‘Best Oral Presentation’ prizes at Microbiology Society’s Annual Conferences (2021 & 2022).

BBSRC Interdisciplinary Bioscience Doctoral Training Program studentship (2017-2022).