Josephine Herbert is a PhD Student working within the Centre for Enzyme Innovation, University of Portsmouth as part of the Sequencing and Bioinformatics Group. Her research has focused on molecular, microbiological, and evolutionary studies of pathogens gained from her bachelor’s in Veterinary Bioscience at the University of Surrey (2015-2019), research placement at University Complutense of Madrid (2017-2018), and Master of Philosophy in Evolutionary Microbiology at the University of Cambridge (2019-2020). Her PhD project builds upon these specialisms directed towards environmental microbiology, specifically investigating the genomics of bacteria capable of plastic degradation, with particular focus on the use of next-generation sequencing techniques.