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Biography:

I am a PhD student part of the Martins lab who joined at the start of 2023. Prior to joining, I had completed my BSc in Medical Sciences at the University of Edinburgh where I obtained a first class honours. Throughout my undergraduate degree I was passionate with being involved in research as much as I could. As such, I began a project in Professor Tilo Kunath's lab, which involved developing a non-invasive assay to measure the differentiation of midbrain dopaminergic neurons. I was employed as a research assistant in this lab, where I had learnt the process of differentiating these neurons. Following this, my final year project focussed on investigating the cytotoxicity of 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal (4-HNE), in neuronal cell models. Here I utilised cell-death assays to investigate how this lipid-peroxidation by-product causes cell death in models of Parkinson's. Since then, my passion for research has only grown and I am excited to pursue my PhD with the Martins group and my collaborators from Bitbio.

 

Research interests:

Antipsychotics can cause adverse side effects in a significant number of patients. Some of these side effects can be movement disorders which resemble Parkinson's Disease (PD). It is my interest to understand if these antipsychotics target the cells that are commonly degenerated in PD, and the potential mechanisms by which it does this. Data from our group implies that certain antipsychotics cause off-target toxicity to mitochondria, the powerhouse of the cells. As such, I am interested to discover if the mitochondria are key players in the selectivity of this response.

In addition, as a collaboration with BitBio, I am looking to investigate the role of mitochondria in the differentiation of different cell types. This is to add an extra level of quality control checks for the development of Bitbio's commercial cell lines.

PhD Student

Contact Details

MRC Toxicology Unit
Gleeson Building
Tennis Court Road
Cambridge

CB2 1QR

Telephone and Email

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