Staff profile

I graduated from the University of Dundee with a Biomedical Science BSc and later studied at the University of Edinburgh for an MSc by Research in Integrative Neuroscience. During my Master’s project I investigated candidate markers for the sensory neurons of the Drosophila antennae. This sparked my interest in working with Drosophila as a model organism to answer important biological questions. Throughout my undergraduate and master’s degree, I have always been fascinated with stem cells, their function and how they are regulated during differentiation.

I study the regulation of intestinal stem cells in homeostasis and disease as a PhD student in the Doupé lab. The regulation of intestinal stem cell homeostasis is critical in maintaining the gut epithelium. These regulatory mechanisms become disrupted during aging and cancer. The RNA modifying enzymes, pseudouridine synthases (PUS) have emerged as potential regulators given their recent role in cancer and stem cells. My PhD project aims to determine the role of PUS in intestinal stem cell homeostasis using the Drosophila midgut as a model.