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I was awarded my PhD from James Cook University in 2001 where my research project focussed on photosynthesis and bleaching in the symbiotic giant clam Tridacna gigas. I then moved to the University of Queensland where I was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Centre for Marine Studies in the laboratory of Prof Ove Hoegh-Guldberg. In 2007 I returned to James Cook Univeristy as a Lecturer in the discpline of Biochemistry, I am now a Senior Lecturer and head of the Symbiosis Genomics Research Group and a Chief Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies. The overarching aim of my research is to link trnascriptomic and metabolomic changes to whole organism responses and acclimation. My research utilises genomic and metabolomic techniques to determine how the coral holobiont responds to anthropogenic changes, including increasing temperatures, ocean acidification and eutrophication.

  Please note that only publications relevant to mesophotic reefs are indexed.

	The coral core microbiome identifies rare bacterial taxa as ubiquitous endosymbionts | article Ainsworth TD, Krause L, Bridge T, Torda G, Raina J-B, Zakrzewski M, Gates RD, Padilla-Gamiño JL, Spalding HL, Smith C, Woolsey ES, Bourne DG, Bongaerts P, Hoegh-Guldberg O, Leggat W (2015) ISME J 9:2261-2274
	The Microbial Signature Provides Insight into the Mechanistic Basis of Coral Success across Reef Habitats | article Hernandez-Agreda A, Leggat W, Bongaerts P, Ainsworth TD (2016) mBio 7:e00560-16
	Rethinking the Coral Microbiome: Simplicity Exists within a Diverse Microbial Biosphere | article Hernandez-Agreda A, Leggat W, Bongaerts P, Herrera C, Ainsworth TD (2018) mBio 9:e00812-18
	The Mesophotic Coral Microbial Biosphere | chapter Leggat W, Gierz S, Hernandez-Agreda A, Ainsworth TD (2019) in: Mesophotic Coral Ecosystems () by Loya Y, Puglise KA, Bridge TCL