In 2009 I enrolled on the undergraduate Food and Nutrition programme at Liverpool John Moores University to pursue a lifelong passion for the subject. After subsequently graduating with a first class degree I was fortunate enough to secure a PhD studentship, also at Liverpool John Moores University, in collaboration with the Royal Liverpool Hospital and Northumbria University. My PhD was a mixed methods study focused upon the eating behaviours, quality of life and cardiometabolic risks of adult patients with Type 1 diabetes using continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion therapy. During the course of this study I developed an interest in lipid and lipoprotein metabolism. After successfully completing my PhD I had the opportunity to further this interest by performing a short postdoctoral project to adapt an existing laboratory method for the separation of low density lipoprotein (LDL) particles using salt-based density gradient ultracentrifugation for use with existing equipment housed at the university. Immediately after this I began a second postdoctoral study funded by the Leverhulme Trust, again at Liverpool John Moores University and building upon our collaboration with Northumbria University, which lasted for another two years. The aim of this project was to better understand the molecular composition of LDL and its subclasses using liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LCMS) and to determine if the ultracentrifugation methods used for their separation were disrupting the associated molecules in any way.
In addition to my teaching responsibilities as a Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow at Liverpool Hope University, I am also currently involved in a number of ongoing research studies. Examples being to determine the cardiometabolic risks of bodybuilders using anabolic steroids and to utilise data from the NHANES survey to evaluate the impact of diet and physical activity upon LDL cholesterol and a proteinaceous molecule called ApoB in an American population.