Profile

I recently moved to Exeter, from Surrey, to start doing research as a PhD student at the University of Exeter Medical School. When I’m not doing research I like to keep busy so I’m always going something after work and during my weekends. I have joined lots of clubs where I can meet new people and learn non-science stuff. I think it’s great to have other interests and to learn about how the world works. For example, I really love being part of a debating club at the University. Every week, loads of students get together to debate about really interesting and varied topics like, whether we should be saving endangered species or whether economics courses at University teach too maths and not enough history. This allows me to broaden my knowledge and also learn how to make a strong argument to win a debate. When I get good enough I’d like to compete with students from other Universities; that’s one of my goals for the time being!

I am a PhD student at the University of Exeter. Being a PhD student means that you get to do research to ‘figure stuff out’ and hopefully make your text books more interesting (and bigger – sorry!) Not only that, I am lucky enough to be paid by a Research Council to ‘figure stuff out’ which is a bonus.
My research uses expertise from the Medical School and the Physics Department at the University of Exeter to figure out how and why some compounds are bad for us and why some are good for us. Here’s a little bit about the science…
Fats are made up of compounds called fatty acids. Different types of fatty acids cause all kinds of problems when they build-up in certain places in the body. The body is made up of loads of organs (like the heart and the pancreas) which are made up of things called ‘cells’. What I’m trying to figure out is how fatty acids get inside different types of cells in our bodies. Being able to understand these processes will help us prevent various diseases from developing, for example diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease and neurodegenerative diseases.
Some of the scientists in my laboratory have been doing some cool work to help people with Type 1 diabetes. People with type 1 diabetes cannot make insulin, a compound that regulates blood sugar levels so their sugar levels are all over the place which can be dangerous for their health. Check out this video
http://uk.reuters.com/video/2016/02/29/new-findings-could-boost-type-1-diabetes?videoId=367564695

Most days I am in the laboratory doing experiments. However, when I’m not in the lab I can be (1) at my desk reading about the most up-to-date research that has been published by other researchers that are doing similar stuff to me, (2) writing about my results and what they mean on the computer, (3) listening to fascinating talks about the research that is going on in my University, (4) representing other PhD students at meetings (with important University people) and getting problems that they may have sorted, or (5) teaching. I am lucky enough to be able to teach chemistry/biochemistry to students who are in the first year of their University degrees.

As you can see, I could be doing lots of different things so even before I can even step into the lab I have to organise my week and work out a plan of what I want to do and when.