Profile

I originally studied Neuroscience in Manchester, which is where I first got interested in a career in biomedical research. It was also here that I had some amazing opportunities to travel and raise money for charity by climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and trekking to Machu Picchu in Peru as part of one of the university’s societies.

I then moved to Germany for two years for my PhD which was joint with the University of Birmingham where I spent the final year. This was an amazing experience and I loved living and working in another country and meeting people from all over the world.

I still enjoy travelling and hiking, although now this is mainly in the UK and Europe and always take my camera with me to capture my trips.

These cells are always patrolling our bodies looking for germs that could make us sick. If they find something they let other cells know and together they eat the germs to remove them. These cells can also release their DNA, which is very sticky and this can capture bugs and trap them so they can be removed from our bodies.

I look at how and why these traps are released and whether it is always a good thing. To do this I use different drugs to try to stop the traps being formed so I can understand how they form in the first place. I use a microscope and take lots of pictures of the cells to see if traps have formed and can use these to work out the size of the traps and whether different drugs have done anything.

I also look at difference between cells that have eaten a germ compared to ones that haven’t. To do this I use a technique that allows me to look at the building blocks of each individual cell which I can then use to look for similarities and differences between cells that eat and those that don’t.