Biography

I graduated with BSc (Hons) in Physiology from University of Aberdeen (Scotland) in 2011. During my undergraduate studies I was involved in couple of research projects that looked into function of vitamin A in pituitary and hypothalamus.

I obtained a PhD in Translational Neuroscience, also from University of Aberdeen (2016). My research thesis was on the “Function of prefrontal GABAergic interneurons in behaviour – a relevance to schizophrenia.”

In 2016 I moved on to a postdoc position at the National Institute on Aging (Baltimore, USA), where I joined the Laboratory of Behavioral Neuroscience (LBN) and the Neurocognitive Aging Section. During my time at NIA, I focused on studying the roles of retinoic acid signalling in a rodent model of neurocognitive aging.
While in USA, I followed my passion of teaching and became an Adjunct Lecturer at a local Coppin State University, where I taught Biology.

I joined Keele as a Lecturer in Neuroscience in February 2021.

Research and scholarship

Although I currently do not have my own lab or do any research I still keep up with the news, especially related to my interests.

During my PhD studies I focused on examining the role of prefrontal GABAergic interneurons in physiology and behaviour and utilised a variety of techniques, including in vivo electrophysiology, animal behaviour and immunohistochemistry. I am still interested in how interneurons in different brain regions contribute to neuronal firing and the excitation/inhibition balance.

During my postdoc days I focused on studying the roles of retinoic acid signalling in a rodent model of neurocognitive aging. I performed an in-depth analysis of downstream retinoic acid signaling pathway in hippocampus. Further work will hopefully reveal whether this system can be exogenously manipulated to alleviate memory impairments in aged animals. I am interested in role of retinoic acid in memory and its function in translation rather than transcription.

Publications

School of Life Sciences,
Huxley Building,
Keele University,
Staffordshire,
ST5 5BG
Tel: +44 (0) 1782 734414