As much as I love doing research, I feel great aversion doing it at the cost of countless animals being sacrificed. Being a passionate advocate of ethical and sustainable research practices, I am fascinated by the idea of using alternative in vitro platforms to reduce and ultimately replace animal testing methodologies. While I acknowledge the historical significance of animal testing and the complex physiological interactions that they provide, I firmly believe that the rapid advancements in the field of biomedical research and development of in vitro testing platforms such as microphysiological systems, organoids, 3D bioprinting offer a more humane and robust approach for toxicological assessments.
I completed a PhD at the University of Nottingham focusing on osteoblast cell-biomaterial interaction and cell adhesion signalling. I then completed 8 year postdoctoral research in Ophthalmology culturing primary human choroidal and retinal endothelial cells to study the disease mechanisms and treatment of neovascular age-related macular degeneration. After this I moved to a spin out company, Exonate as Principal Scientist in novel assay development for Ophthalmology and Cancer Immunology. I now produce scientific content and marketing materials for Qkine, a manufacturer of high purity reproducible growth factors for stem cell and organoid research.