After submitting her PhD thesis in Molecular Medicine at FMHS, University of Auckland, New Zealand, Joni Renee White relocated to Boston, MA, USA to work in the lab of Paolo Dotto (MD, PhD) at the Cutaneous Biology Research Centre (CBRC), Massachusetts General Hospital. Joni’s PhD research was under the mentorship of two main supervisors, Associate Prof. Simon Swift (PhD) and Prof. Anthony Phillips (MD, PhD), and she investigated the host-microbiome relationship. Particularly, her PhD work focused on how human extracellular vesicles (EVs) affect the resident and pathogenic microbiota in the gut, in the context of health and disease.
Joni also holds a BSc (Hons) in Biological Sciences with First Class Honours. Her interests and research experience include medical & food microbiology, EVs, cancer biology, and has further experience in spectrometry, prokaryotic RNA, flow cytometry, microfluidics, and microfabrication. Joni also volunteers for the executive committee of the virtual Student Network on Extracellular Vesicles (SNEV) which was established in 2020 and has since established a solid member base. SNEV now holds regular online events and seminars, and had its first virtual annual conference in 2021 which Joni helped to run and organise.