Career History

2023 - Present: Associate Professor, Institute of Ophthalmology, UCL, UK

2019 - Present: BBSRC David Phillips Fellow, Institute of Ophthalmology, UCL, UK

2016 - 2019: JG Graves Medical Research Fellow, University of Sheffield, UK
2011 - 2016: Research Associate, University of Cambridge, UK
2010 - 2011: Postdoctoral Fellow, Linköping University, Sweden
2005 - 2010: PhD Student, University of Ottawa, Canada
2001 - 2005: BSc (Hons), University of New Brunswick, Canada

Career Biography

I have recently joined the Institute of Ophthalmology (IoO) at UCL with a BBSRC David Phillips Fellowship. The UCL IoO is the world-leading centre in eye research with a strong emphasis on the clinical translation of basic research. The Institute was recently ranked as the number one place to study Ophthalmology according to the 2017 Centre for World University Rankings. At the IoO I will study the highly coordinated patterning of glial cells in the embryonic retina and how defects in this system may have consequences for neuronal survival and function, both in the context of healthy ageing and degenerative disease.

My research career began as a PhD student at the University of Ottawa in Canada, under the supervision of Dr. Marc Ekker. It was in his laboratory that I first used the zebrafish as a model organism to study gene regulatory networks controlling the specification of GABAergic interneurons in the brain. After my PhD I was keen to continue studying neural specification, as such I took up a postdoc looking at Drosophila neurogenesis with Professor Stefan Thor in Sweden. Taking my knowledge of genetics and gene regulation I joined the laboratory of Professor Bill Harris at the University of Cambridge. It was in Cambridge where I learned to use the zebrafish retina to study neural development. In the Harris laboratory I explored glial specification and the consequences of glial loss on neuronal function and structure. I then got the amazing opportunity to start my first research group at the University of Sheffield and Bateson Centre as a JG Graves Medical Research Fellow. It was here where I expanded my studies on glial morphogenesis to using the retina as a proxy for the brain to understand degenerative disease mechanisms.