Birmingham, England, United Kingdom
Final year PhD student in rheumatology. I've greatly enjoyed my time studying for my PhD where I've had the opportunity to work with multiple collaborators, learn new techniques and analyse a wide variety of data. Key Skills: Practical • Cell culture including isolation and culture of primary cells (e.g. Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells, HUVECS and fibroblasts), and cell lines (e.g. melanoma line 501-mel) and setting up of co-cultures • Molecular biology i.e. DNA and RNA extraction and purification, primer design, modular cloning, transfection and transformation • Sectioning and staining of FFPE tissue sections, using H&E, florescence and the CellDIVE multiplex imaging system • Microscopy using fluorescence (including confocal), brightfield and phase contrast, along with computerised image-analysis of leukocyte behaviour • Flow cytometry with a fortressa • Assays for proliferation, luminescence and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), as well as complex 3D assays for accessing leukocyte migration behaviours • Phlebotomist Computational • Genomic analysis (single cell and bulk RNA-seq) with bash/unix and R and use of pathway analysis tools including ingenuity pathway analysis and the broad institutes gene set enrichment analysis • Metabolomic analysis with Metabolab, Chenomx and SIMCA software, and Metaboanlyst website • Image analysis with QuPath, ImageJ and ImagePro • Statistical analysis with Prism, MATLAB and R • DNA sequence analysis with CLC and DNADynamo Languages Intermediate German and basic French and Spanish
A 4 year PhD based in rheumatology at the University of Birmingham, in collaboration with Novartis, Switzerland. I worked on a variety of projects, collaborating with multiple labs. The primary projects consisted of: (1) RNA-sequencing analysis of 2 bulk RNA sequencing data; macrophages or endothelial cells (ECs) co-cultured with fibroblasts from different stages of Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), working with Novartis (2) NMR spectra analysis of serum from polymyalgia rheumatica and giant cell arteritis patients, in collaboration with Leeds, (3) Multiplex fluorescent staining using the CellDIVE imaging platform, working in Oxford. The focus for most of these projects was on data analysis, and during the PhD I frequently used R, and Bash (Unix shell), and for metabolomic analysis SIMCA-P, Metaboanalyst and Metabolab. I built on previous laboratory techniques (e.g. RNA isolation, qPCR, cell culture etc.) and learnt multiple new techniques including; isolation of endothelial cells (ECs) from synovial biopsies, blood and umbilical cords, isolation of peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBLs), primary cell culture of fibroblasts from synovial biopsies or joint replacement and endothelial cells, co-culture of endothelial cells and fibroblasts either side of a porous membrane, flow-based adhesion assays using a specialised in-house set up and the ibidi system (flowing lymphocytes across an EC monolayer, sometimes in co-culture with fibroblasts), sectioning of formalin fixed paraffin embedded section (FFPE), fluorescent staining and imaging of the sections and preparation of samples for NMR spectroscopy. During the PhD, I presented my work in poster and oral presentations at both local and European conferences. I helped supervise an intercalating medic with a project on pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) focused primarily on staining and imaging of slides to access galectin expression.
Taught in small group teaching and as lab demonstrator in practical on 3rd year biomedical science inflammation module. I helped students design and then carry out their own experiments.
Summer intern within protein science department, had my own project and learnt new experimental techniques such as phage display and ELISAS.
One year placement based in computational biology within the Georg Fritz lab of SYNMIKRO at the University, of Marburg. Had my own project, gaining experience working in the lab and on the computer - designed primers and analysed sequences with CLC, and learnt many experimental techniques such as PCRs, transformations (with B. subtilis and E. coli) and luminescence assays.
Vacation worker during the summers of 2014 and 2015. Worked within team spraying, watering and dipping of crops used for herbicide testing.