Lisa Dobson

Pathway 1+3

Cohort 2017

1+3 Student

I graduated from Durham University in 2017 with a BSc in Biomedical Sciences, where my final year research project aimed to complete RT-PCR analysis of the anoctamin 5 (ANO5) gene in human muscle cDNA.

Keen to gain additional laboratory experience, I completed a summer placement at the University of Edinburgh, investigating longitudinal age-related variation in T cell subtype proportions in the soay sheep animal model. I also completed a 3-month BBSRC-funded research project at Cardiff University, titled “Development of High Resolution Telomere Analysis for Evolutionary Ecology”, in collaboration with University of Oxford, University of Edinburgh, and University of Exeter.

I chose the MRC DTP programme due to the wide range of projects available. Being able to ‘trial run’ 3 potential PhD projects was also a big plus, aiding me to gain more diverse and well-rounded research skills, as well as being able to decide which lab team was the best fit for me.

Rotation Projects:

  1. Exploring the general mechanisms of mammalian neural crest migration in vivo using live cell imaging and how it is altered in neuroblastoma cancer cells (Dr Karen Liu and Dr Matthias Krause)
  2. Identifying novel therapeutics to target pancreatic cancer metastasis (Dr Claire Wells and Dr Debashis Sarker)
  3. The role of post-translational modification of self proteins in breaking immune tolerance in type 1 diabetes (Prof Mark Peakman and Dr Fun Liu)