Career

2016: Herchel Smith Postdoctoral Fellow (DAMTP, University of Cambridge)

2016: Governing Body Fellow (Wolfson College, University of Cambridge)

2015: PhD in Zoology (University of Oxford, UK)

2008: MSc in Ecology (University of Lisbon, PT)

2006: BSc in Biology (University of Lisbon, PT)

Research

I study the marvels of microbial behaviour, ecology and evolution. In particular, my research aims to uncover the natural ecology of bacterial motility. How do bacteria sense clonemates, other bacterial species or potential hosts and control their motility accordingly? And how does that motile behaviour affect their impacts on us? To answer these questions I spy bacteria using time-lapse microscopy and single-cell tracking algorithms, which I combine with classical tools from molecular genetics and mathematical modelling.

Selected Publications

Oliveira NM, Foster KR, Durham WM (2016). Single-cell twitching chemotaxis in developing biofilms. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 23(113):6532-6537. 

Oliveira NM, Martinez-Garcia E, Xavier J, Durham WM, Kolter, R, Kim W, Foster KR (2015) Biofilm formation as a response to ecological competition. PLoS Biol 13(7). 

Oliveira NM, Niehus R, Foster KR (2014) Evolutionary limits to cooperation in microbial communities. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 111(50):17941-17946.