I am currently working as a postdoctoral research associate in Professor Rachel McKendry's group at the London Centre for Nanotechnology at University College London. My research focuses on developing rapid molecular tests for infectious diseases.

Before joining UCL in 2016, I completed an MRC PhD Studentship at Imperial College London, which comprised an MRes in Biomedical Research (specialising in Microbial Pathogenesis), and a PhD in molecular biology and materials science. My doctoral work focused on the development of a diagnostic test for tuberculosis using nanoparticle probes to detect a host whole blood gene expression signature. This work was supervised by Professor Michal Levin (Dept. Medicine) and Professor Molly Stevens (Dept. Materials).

Molecular diagnostics (i.e. those that detect specific DNA or RNA sequences within a pathogen's genome) allow us to respond to infectious disease outbreaks with increased agility since they can be developed in a short space of time compared to serologic diagnostic tests (i.e. those that rely on antigen-antibody binding).

My research focuses on developing molecular diagnostics for infectious diseases. By coupling novel molecular biology techniques to advanced nanomaterials, we can develop extremely rapid diagnostics with high sensitivities and specificities.