Developing next-gen therapies for the management of diabetes and obesity

Currently a collaborator on the "MaraBioactive: Extraction and exploitation of bioactive fish components for health enhancement" project at Ulster University in partnership University College Cork (UCC), University of Limerick (UL) and Galway Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT). The project aims to investigate the development of reproducible and scalable protocols for the generation of prototype blue whiting biofunctional peptide ingredients with a potential role in the modulation of obesity-diabetes.

PhD Student within the Diabetes Research Group at UUC exploring the therapeutic potential of novel Peptide YY based analogues in diabetes and obesity

Enrolled on the prestigious Innovation to Commercialisation of University Research (ICURe) programme on behalf of the Diabetes Research Group at Ulster University. I guided the team through a 3 month market discovery period after which I presented findings to a panel of industry experts at the "Options Roundabout" who validated our suitability to pursue spin-out. Following success at the Options Roundabout, we were granted additional funding to build our business case and put together an application for follow-on funding from Innovate UK. Again, I was able to lead the team towards success, with over £297,000 awarded provisionally to our spin-out.

Tweeting on behalf of two SAGE, open access journals; "Therapeutic Advances in Endocrinology and Metabolism" and "Clinical Medicine Insights: Endocrinology and Diabetes" to promote articles and engage with readership

Following completion of my Pre-Registration year at a Medicare branch in West Belfast, I continued to work regularly as a locum pharmacist in the Greater Belfast area; working as part of various teams across several branches.

I worked with Hygieia on a part-time basis (in addition to continuing my work as a locum pharmacist). This saw me working as part of a multi-disciplinary team (consisting of doctors, nurses and another pharmacist) to provide a support service for Type 1 and Type 2 diabetics using the d-Nav insulin-guidance device. This involved me enrolling patients onto the service (which required intensive counselling regarding the device, service and medicines – particularly for those new to insulin therapy), following up patients to determine their progress (through interpreting device downloads and testing HbA1c) and also liaising with a patient’s relevant health-care professionals should any issues or concerns regarding their diabetic control arise.