I completed my undergraduate degree in Natural Sciences at Cambridge University in 2002. Research work in academia and the pharmaceutical industry led me to my PhD with Dr. Lucy Donaldson in Bristol, which I completed in 2008. It was during my work with Lucy that I developed my interest in nociceptor physiology, using teased fibre recordings. These interests and skills were further developed during my subsequent Post Doctoral Position with Lucy and Prof. Sally Lawson.
I graduated with honours from Medical School in 2012. During my elective, I worked in Gothenburg with Prof. Olausson, Prof. Wessberg and Dr. Ackerley, where I learnt the fascinating technique of human C-fibre microneurography. The Foulkes Foundation kindly supported my research during medical school with a fellowship in 2011.
On returning to Bristol in 2015, I have progressed through the NIHR clinical academic training framework under the mentorship of Prof. Tony Pickering, firstly with an Academic Clinical Fellowship and, most recently, with a Clinical Lectureship. I have used this time to create a forward and reverse translational platform, combining my PhD preclinical models with human microneurography, to better understand nociceptor dysfunction.
These interests have opened additional research pathways. Tony and I have partnered with Ely Lilly and ALSPAC, with funding from Above and Beyond, to explore the genetics of nociceptor excitability. I also have a very exciting new partnership with Profs. Whittaker and O’Neill in Newcastle to explore technical and computing solutions to utilise microneurography in clinical diagnostics.