Biography
Dr. Berenice is a CERC Postdoctoral Fellow in the Digital Genome Engineering team, part of the Transformational Bioinformatics Group. She specialises in computational genomics, machine learning, and bioinformatics workflow automation to advance CSIRO’s capabilities in health, biosecurity, and sustainable biotechnology.
Her current research focuses on the prediction of phenotypic antimicrobial susceptibility from genomic data in Gram-negative bacterial isolates, integrating advanced data analytics and AI approaches to support culture-independent diagnostic innovation.
Dr. Berenice also leads bioinformatic analyses and fungal genome annotation for Precision Fermentation, enabling novel protein discovery, allergenicity assessment, and strain improvement for food and industrial biotechnology applications.
She has developed and deployed automated pipelines for virulence and allergen detection, improving the reproducibility and scalability of genomic analyses across multiple CSIRO projects. Her expertise in workflow design and HPC integration has streamlined cross-platform analysis and supported collaborative, multi-disciplinary research efforts.
Beyond her core projects, Dr. Berenice provides bioinformatic and metatranscriptomic support to cross-Research Unit initiatives such as “Snails as Vectors: Determining the Microbiome and Parasitome of Native and Invasive Snail Species in Australia.” In this role, she applies data stewardship best practices and contributes to the development of reproducible pipelines and datasets for long-term research reuse.
Her work exemplifies cross-group collaboration within CSIRO, linking teams across Agriculture & Food, Health & Biosecurity, and NCMI to deliver integrated genomic solutions that align with the organisation’s One Health and Future Protein missions.
Academic Qualifications
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2019
Doctor of Philosophy - Microbiology, Bioinformatics and Molecular Biology
University of Canberra -
2012
MBA - Supply Chain Management
ESAN Business School -
2012
Master in International Business
Tec de Monterrey -
2009
BEng Biotechnology
ITSON -
2005
Food and Beverages Technician
CETis100
Achievements and Awards
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2024-2024
AI in Science Award
ANU - CSIRO -
2024-2025
Ruby Payne-Scott Award
CSIRO
Current Roles
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Postdoctoral Fellow
Bioinformatician
Professional Experiences
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2013-2022
Service Manager | Data Analyst for Varietal ID of Australian crops
Diversity Arrays Technology Pty Ltd -
2022-2022
Laboratory Manager
Nourish -
2020-2020
Bioinformatician
University of Canberra -
2018-2018
Member of the Council - Postgrad Student Representative
University of Canberra
ORCID 0000-0001-6952-5276