Harriet completed her PhD with Dr Trevor Sweeney at the University of Cambridge, where she examined the biochemical interactions which underly innate immune antagonism of viral translation. As a Postdoctoral Research Associate she investigated the mechanism of translation initiation on the Dengue virus genome, before moving to the Francis Crick Institute as a Postdoctoral Fellow with Dr David Bauer. There she investigated novel gene expression in SARS-CoV-2 and the molecular mechanisms of coronavirus genome packaging, using sequencing methods to map RNA structure and RNA-protein interactions.

She started her lab at the University of Bristol in February 2025, integrating biochemical, sequencing and cell biology approaches to examine how RNA viruses regulate the transition from genome replication to packaging, during the final stages of infection.

Nima is a Virology and Immunology MSci student who joined the lab in October 2025 to study genome packaging in human coronavirus OC43.