And so it begins…

Hi!  I’m Conro Sugden (aka Conor), and I’ll start my PhD in the Hamill Lab in October investigating  the mechanisms through which age and disease associated alveolar epithelial matrix changes drive development and progression of pulmonary fibrosis. This isn’t my first time being a part of the Hamill Lab; Dr. Hamill was my supervisor for 2 x 12 week projects during my MRes.

I studied my undergraduate degree in Biochemistry here in Liverpool, taking the chance to complete a sandwich placement at the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain (see below). Here I got my first taste of what it was like to be a research student, where I was part of a group developing novel plasmids to analyse Leishmania parasites.

Following my undergraduate degree, I completed an MRes in Clinical Sciences, completing 3 x 12-week projects (2 of these projects, here and here, were supervised by Dr. Hamill!) in the Institute of Ageing and Chronic Disease, and this is where I fell in love with matrix biology. My work in the Hamill Lab so far has involved (with the help of Lee Troughton) using minigene constructs to investigate intron retention with alternative polyadenylation (IRPA) in the LAMA3, and then following up this research testing ways we can manipulate this ratio. The data from these projects has been exciting and encouraging, and I’m glad that I get to carry on being a part of this.

During my time in the Hamill Lab I’ve attended my first Burns night, an awesome ‘Assembly, Dynamics and Organisation of Filaments and Cellular Responses’ workshop at Durham University, and I’ve helped with the ‘Sunscreen Challenge’ at Meet the Scientists and other outreach events.

I’m in the process of becoming a STEM ambassador, and I’m planning to bring the ‘Sunscreen Challenge’ to my old high school so that I can talk to the students about what it means to be a research student. Alongside my PhD research I’ll continue with the outreach activities, and I’ve also enrolled onto a Spanish language course (can’t let myself forget everything I learned when I was over there – I will be fluent one day!). Recently I wrote for The Biochemist blog about the link between inflammation and fibrosis, you can find that here.

Going forward, I couldn’t be happier to begin my PhD in the Hamill Lab. The atmosphere is great, as are the lab members. The research currently being carried out is extremely exciting, and I can’t wait to get stuck in and make my contribution to the field.

Thanks for reading,

Conro