Lucy completed her Undergraduate and Master’s degrees at Newcastle University, specialising in Neuroscience. During her masters project she became interested in Primary Biliary Cholangitis (PBC) due to the complex and varying cognitive symptoms experienced by a portion of patients.
My work focusses on the mechanisms underpinning the memory deficits found in PBC patients – an area which is largely unstudied. Using a combination of techniques I aim to elucidate the cellular mechanisms involved in the neurological symptoms of PBC. Importantly, this will lead to a greater understanding of neurological symptomatology in liver disease, the development of new drug treatments, and improved quality of life for patients. As well as highlighting the importance of the liver-brain axis and the wider need for non-compartmentalised multi-organ care; not just in liver disease, but medicine as a whole.
Investigating the Impact and Mechanisms of Cognitive Symptoms in Liver disease such as Primary Biliary Cholangitis.
October 2018 – North East Postgraduate Conference: oral presentation.
April 2019 – European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) international congress: poster presentation and oral presentation.
October 2019 – Tenth Annual Alliance for Healthy Ageing Conference: poster presentations.
December 2019 (Co-writer) – Implementation of Pre-clinical Methodologies to Study Fibrosis and Test Anti-fibrotic Therapy, Current Opinion in Pharmacology, Vol 49, pages 95-101.
September 2018 – Newcastle University ICM oral presentation award for best presentation within the Institute.
November 2018 – Best poster prize at the NIHR Newcastle BRC showcase.
April 2019 – European Association for the Study of the Liver Young investigators Bursary. Awarded to the top 50 abstract submissions to the EASL conference.
Ageing is something that affects all of us. We all age and we all know people affected by age related diseases. With age related diseases on the rise every advancement of our knowledge in the field becomes important in people’s lives.
I feel like I haven’t even begun! My PhD has been a steep learning curve for me and I’m learning lessons every day which will hopefully set me up for the future.
My research focusses on cognitive decline in patients with cholestatic liver disease. This area of research is very important because this group of patients have felt ignored for a long time, with no real knowledge of their symptom set or treatments available to help. Hopefully my research can lead to the development of new treatments for these patients.
Being part of the NIHR feels like a real community. There are so many opportunities to meet people and network both formally and informally, and everyone is always so happy to help with any problems.
I think that this has been especially useful to me, as my research spans two themes and this has led to the opportunity for cross theme collaborations which have elevated my research a lot.
The highlight of my PhD so far was definitely being able to go to a major Liver conference in Vienna to present my work as an oral presentation. It proved so valuable for my personal development and also just to get my research out there and hear that people are interested was great!
The main piece of advice I would give is to put yourself and your research out there as much as possible, ask your supervisors if you can submit abstracts to conferences, write reviews etc. Each time you present or write you are honing a skill which will be so important in your future research career!
Definitely the people! From the moment I moved here it felt like home.
