I completed my PhD in 2017 through the University of Cambridge MB/PhD Programme. My PhD was supervised by Professor David Rubinsztein at the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research. My doctoral thesis characterises the adaptor protein vinexin (encoded by SORBS3), which shows increased expression in brain ageing across species, as an autophagy regulator. I graduated with my medical degree in 2019 and moved to Edinburgh to undertake academic foundation training. This included clinical work in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh and postdoctoral research in the Smillie Lab at the Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences in the University of Edinburgh on presynaptic dysfunction in Huntington's disease. In 2021 I moved to Oxford to undertake internal medicine training in Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. In 2024 I successfully applied for an NIHR clinical lecturer position, together with a national training number in neurology and general internal medicine. 

My research focuses on the cellular and molecular basis of brain ageing. Central to my research is the question, why do some individuals age 'well' without significant neurodegeneration, while others succumb to age-related neurodegenerative disease? I hypothesise that neuronal capacity to clear neurotoxic aggregate-prone proteins and damaged organelles is a key determinant.

My approach is to use naturally occurring extreme human phenotypes: 1. individuals in advanced old age with middle-aged cognitive abilities (commonly known as ‘SuperAgers’) and 2. individuals with severe neurodegenerative disease. Building on the research groups' existing expertise in cleanly extracting neuronally-derived extracellular vesicles from serum samples, I plan to examine vesicle-based waste clearance mechanisms within the nervous systems of these divergent cohorts. 

Serum samples will initially be obtained from collaborators, but over time I hope to build a local cohort of SuperAgers willing to participate in longitudinal research.