I have been interested in science from a very young age, with first experiments conducted alongside my gran who worked as a high school lab technician, and annual Easter holidays spent with my dad enjoying the Edinburgh International Science Festival. In my early teens, I learned of my grandpa’s diagnosis with a degenerative disease for which there was no cure, and I quickly came to observe the impact this disease had on my grandpa and those close to him. Witnessing this is what inspired me to pursue my undergraduate degree at the University of St Andrews: an MChem (Hons) in chemistry with medicinal chemistry; I wanted to further my knowledge, skills, and understanding of chemistry – a school subject I enjoyed – to improve, and save, the lives of those suffering from incurable medical conditions.
As part of my undergraduate degree, I completed an industrial placement at Merck, Sharp and Dohme (MSD; Merck in the US and Canada) in London. I entered this placement with the intention to pursue a career in industrial medicinal chemistry following my studies, and my time at MSD only furthered this desire. Whilst at MSD, I worked on an early-stage medicinal chemistry project, yet could clearly see the pipeline for taking the molecules I was working on from the lab bench into a patient, one day, and how the work I did in the lab could benefit patients and advance healthcare. I worked at the interface of chemistry and biology and thus saw daily the importance of the ability to work across disciplines and the benefit this has in furthering scientific developments.
Upon speaking with Prof Angela Russell prior to applying for PhDs, I was inspired by her motivation and desire to use medicinal chemistry and chemical biology approaches to improve the lives of patients, something with which we shared. From a PhD, I hoped to gain the skills and experience needed to work in the field of medicinal chemistry following the completion of my postgraduate studies, with the aim of bringing together the fields of chemistry and biology to address unmet medical needs and improve patient health. The DPhil in Cancer Science program by Oxford Cancer offered me the opportunity to use chemistry to understand the biology of acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), and to generate data which could ultimately be used to improve the lives of patients with AML through the identification and development of novel therapeutics.
AML is an aggressive blood cancer characterised by an impairment in regular differentiation of myeloid progenitor cells or myeloid blasts, leading to dysfunctional haematopoiesis. Over 40,000 patients are diagnosed with AML in the USA and EU each year, and the prognosis remains poor, with the 5-year overall survival currently at 18.8% in England and 30.5% in the USA. This, however, depends on age, as survival decreases with increasing age. The standard AML treatment is chemotherapy which carries high risks of morbidity and mortality from infection or haemorrhage due to myelosuppression. Chemotherapy also causes acute toxicity and long-term side effects. Therefore, there is a clear need for milder, novel therapeutics for AML. Inspired by the success of the use of all-trans retinoic acid and arsenic trioxide in the treatment of acute promyelocytic leukaemia – a subtype of AML – which functions by forcing AML cells to differentiate, our aim is to establish a new paradigm in the treatment of AML by developing a small molecule capable of inducing myeloblast differentiation across a wider range of AML sub-types. Years one and two of my DPhil have focussed upon the design and synthesis of molecules which induce the differentiation of myeloid blasts, with the remaining two years aiming to determine how these molecules function biologically.
Oxford Cancer provides not only financial support to directly support my research and project development, but affords a collaborative network allowing me to connect with diverse scientific partners and further interdisciplinary work. Whilst not directly linked to my project, they have allowed for patient and public involvement engagements which serves to remind me of who my research is for, and ensure it remains aligned with patient priorities. Furthermore, Oxford Cancer have provided unwavering support to ensure I maximise my DPhil from both a personal and professional perspective, for which I am incredibly grateful.
Find out more about the DPhil in Cancer Science on our study pages.
