Profile

I was born in Stoke-on-Trent and moved to Nottingham in 2013 for University, I’ve lived here for just under 10 years which has seen me go from undergraduate, postgraduate to postdoc! It’s a great city and introduced me to so many things, including Ice Hockey which I could talk about for hours.

My favourite book is Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, it’s over 1000 pages long but an incredible read.

My favourite scientist is the physicist Richard Feynman, I had a lot of his books as a child and they really introduced me to science in general and made me think.

But my first and longest love is Stoke City FC, they’re not very good but that doesn’t stop me!

Cells that allow us to sense our environment are called “sensory neurons”. These neurons transmit information that allow us to sense heat and feel pain. To do this they grow out fibres like branches on a tree called “axons”. Information is carried along the axon and eventually to the brain. To speed up this flow of information axons are covered in a substance called myelin which forms a thin sheath around the axon. These sheaths of myelin allow the sensory information to “jump” quickly up the fibre to the brain. If you’ve trapped your finger in a door that horrible sharp pain is carried by myelinated axons!

Despite the importance of myelin, we know little about how it is produced and regulated. It is my job to find out which genes in the body contribute towards myelin production and once identified to investigate if any mistakes in these genes contribute to any diseases involving loss of myelin.

We have weekly lab meetings on Thursdays and larger departmental meetings on Wednesdays. These are sessions where myself and students will present our work and receive feedback and advice. But they’re also great opportunities to catch up with people and share this week’s successes or get some moral support if there were failures!