Miss Amtul Bhunnoo

Biography

I am a PhD candidate with a keen interest in studying key genes, and understanding the mechanism behind diseases particularly affecting pancreas, lung or kidney, with eventual desire of developing targeted therapies. I started my undergraduate project with Dr Praskevi Goggolidou on polycystic kidney disease by understanding the clinical implications of the disease by dissecting and looking at mouse kidney, lung and liver tissues and preparing them for various experiments. This built my interest in carrying out further research on this project. However, due to unforeseen circumstances, my research journey under Dr Goggolidou was transferred to Dr Natasha Hill, which lead to my project looking into splice variants in diabetes. My doctoral training has well-equipped me of research skills in the Genetics and molecular biology field. I have been able to identify and fully sequence novel splice variants in diabetes, for which publications is underway. I have had the chance in working in both hospital and institutional laboratory settings, exposing me to the intense clinical and research environment too. Dr Hill has a successful record and have secured grants by Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Diabetes UK and society for endocrinology. Having Dr Goggoldiou and Dr Hill as project supervisors and working with various topics have shaped me into becoming an excellent researcher, ready to face challenges with a resilient and persistent attitude towards excellence and seeking truth. By receiving this opportunity of sponsorship and working under a truly successful researcher of a compact and dynamic background excites the idea of new contribution in the research field and helping me into becoming an academic researcher.