Ethan Redmond
Ethan Redmond is a PhD student in the Ezer lab (2020 - 2024), with a focus on systems biology and environmental signaling. He develops new statistical methods for high-dimensional biological datasets, with a focus on time series and functional data analysis (FDA). His PhD project centres around two key questions.
Firstly, how is gene expression noise linked to stochasticity in flowering time in Arabidopsis thaliana? A plant’s transition from growth to reproduction is influenced by both environmental and internal cues, such as temperature, light, and age. The mechanisms controlling this transition provide a model for rapidly changing biological systems. Ethan is applying methods from single cell RNA-sequencing to understand how each plant individually controls the timing of this transition. He has presented preliminary work at the International Conference for Arabidopsis Research 2022 (ICAR2022).
Secondly, how do the targets of the circadian clock change during the flowering transition? The clock is known to control flowering through the photoperiodic pathway, by processing information about day length. However, this pathway has primarily been studied in seedlings, instead of adult plants, and without considering the other pathways under circadian control. Ethan is developing techniques to study a ‘time series of time series’ of circadian RNA sequencing data to unravel these connections. He was awarded a Poster Merit Award at the European Biological Rhythm Society (EBRS) 2022 congress for this work.
Before joining the Ezer lab, Ethan completed his BA in Mathematics from the University of Cambridge. He has previously researched the problem of quantum compilation: taking complex quantum computing calculations and decomposing them into simple operations. Ethan enjoys teaching and was shortlisted for a student-nominated graduate teaching award in 2022. Outside of the lab, Ethan can be found escaping to the mountains or at jazz concerts.