Studied PARP biology under the supervision of Hector Keun and Ed Tate.

Member of the Protein Degradation Team on a 2 month PhD internship.

During my laboratory rotation within the Molecular Cell Biology of Autophagy Laboratory I used CRISPR Cas9 gene editing to develop cell lines expressing endogenous ATG9 with a fluorescent tag.

As part of my MRes in Cancer Biology I undertook a 22 week laboratory rotation within the ICR's protein networks team. Using chemical screening and molecular profiling approaches I investigated functional pathway dependencies in EGFR mutant lung cancer, to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying acquired resistance to EGFRi therapy.

Received training and work experience using the C programming language, I also had the opportunity to assist on an ongoing project.

During my placement year and undergraduate research project I worked along-side a PhD student investigating novel β-adrenergic receptor antagonist’s ability to inhibit breast cancer metastasis (data not yet published). I investigated the pharmacological response to these compounds using methods such as 2D migration, cell viability and apoptosis assays; but also through global approaches, including mass spectrometry and gene expression analysis using the NanoString nCounter System.From the mass spectrometry study, I identified a marker involved in breast cancer progression, and designed a series of experiments to validate this during my final year project; involving knocking down target gene expression, and beginning preliminary validation in vitro using functional assays.I gained significant experience undertaking qRT-PCR and Flow Cytometry when characterising basal adrenergic receptor expression, in normal and breast cancer cell lines. I also had the opportunity to carry out cell cycle analysis and quantify cAMP levels in cell lysates by ELISA.

Worked alongside a Histologist to validate potential markers of breast cancer disease progression. My main responsibilities were to stain tissue sections using a VENTANA BenchMark ULTRA System, to assess each markers expression, and evaluate their association with disease survival and metastasis.