After applying to university to study genetics, I became increasingly interested in biochemistry and biophysics - tackling biological problems from a physical and sometimes mathematical perspective - and eventually graduated in Chemistry. In my PhD, I studied some of the physical mechanisms that we think underlie diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, in which proteins malfunction and aggregate together within the brain. Today though my research focuses on how proteins are made in the first place, and start to acquire their correct 3D structure during their manufacture by ribosomes within the cell. We use lots of techniques for this, but an important one is NMR spectroscopy - using some of the strongest magnets in the world to probe what these proteins are doing during their synthesis. Outside of science, I’m a keen musician, swimmer, and recently cycled from Paris to Barcelona!

In a video conferencing call...

...I am happy to talk about my research.

...I can show live experiments or equipment, e.g. NMR spectroscopy (high-field)

...I am happy to answer questions about university and career-related questions.

...I am happy to moderate a discussion.

...I am happy to speak to others (e.g. to journalists, museums).