She holds an MSc in Forensic Science from King’s College London and a PhD in Forensic Genetics from the University of Dundee. As part of her MSc, she spent three months at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, where she carried out her master’s research project in DNA profiling. Her PhD research focused on investigating alternatives to Short Tandem Repeat (STR) profiling for human identification. The aim of her research was to validate the polymorphic diversity of Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) markers and explore their application to complex DNA mixtures involving three or more contributors. During her PhD, she gained experience designing PCR primers, optimising PCR protocols, and preparing DNA libraries for multiple parallel sequencing (MPS) analysis.
Following her MSc, she worked as a biobank technician for the Department of Twin Research at St Thomas’ Hospital in London, and later joined the Thrombosis & Vascular Biology Group at the same hospital, where she was involved in the analysis of clinical samples and reporting results from phase 1 clinical trials. She then joined the King’s Health Partners (KHP) Cancer Biobank, as a research technician, where she handled sample processing, tissue preparation, and data management. After completing her PhD, she took on a postdoctoral research position at the Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science at the University of Dundee, where her work involved optimising the recovery of trace DNA and developing alternative approaches to forensic DNA research, including the application of nanopore sequencing, and experimental design.
Within the Independent Research Group of the Regional Centre for Digital Medicine (RCDM), her role includes involvement in the creation, development, and implementation of the RCDM research platform, sequencing biological material and genotyping, preparing sequencing libraries, implementing quality management systems, and supporting biobanking activities.
Certificates:
- Risk Assessment for COSHH
- Introduction to Lab Safety
- Human Tissue Act & Consent Training
- Good Clinical Practice for Clinical Laboratory Staff Evaluating Clinical Trial Samples
- Cryogenics training
- Project management
- Publication-Standard Data Visualisation Using GGPlot2 in the R Language
- Open Access and Publishing Practice