Katie is a Barnsley girl through and through and very family orientated. So much so, that she chooses to continue to live there and commute to Nottingham for her job, a testimony to both her commitment and passion to her work and her family and friends.
Katie attended Doncaster Road Primary School before moving on to Holgate Secondary. She enjoyed school and openly admits that “for a bit of geek I was lucky as it didn’t seem to dent my popularity and I managed to avoid any teasing for being a bit of a swot!”
Her school years were enjoyable ones and, as you might expect from her subsequent chosen profession, Katie’s favourite lesson was Biology. She comments, “I was interested in the biological mechanism surrounding health and disease.” And having lost her granddad to oesophageal cancer when she was young, the two combined to motivate her to focus on the oncology sector.
It must have been strong motivation as neither her mother, father nor any of her school friends travelled the science route.
Katie opted for a 4 year, with one year placement, Biomedical Science degree course at Sheffield Hallam University during which time she also joined the Sheffield Multiple Myeloma Research Team, a group of researchers and clinicians dedicated to searching for a cure to myeloma; currently an incurable haematological cancer. Her final year project was totally lab based, at the University of Sheffield Medical School, investigating the transcriptional changes of bone anabolic therapy in a mouse model with myeloma bone disease. The team, under the leadership of Dr Alanna Green, had success with these trials, discovering that the treatment used saw a significant reduction in the lesion area in the affected bone. As a result, a paper was published.
“I found Dr Green to be truly inspirational,” comments Katie. Dr Green is currently working to develop novel therapeutics targeting one-carbon metabolism and the DNA damage response to treat cancer, specifically bone cancer.
Katie is celebrating this week, having just passed her PhD in cancer immunology, so all the hard work and long hours of juggling studying and work have paid off. She will be forever grateful that her university lecturer, Dr Neil Cross, managed to track her down while travelling following her degree to apply for the PhD, although filling out her application while lying on a sunbed in Thailand was a whole different experience!
Katie began her career in April 2022 at Cellomatics Biosciences. It was a natural pathway for her, applying for the only, but perfect fit, available position of immune oncology scientist. Since joining, Katie has been working on projects relating to cancer cells and immune cell co-cultures and enjoying every moment of it.
Katie comments, “The team here at Cellomatics have made me so welcome and I feel very appreciated. I’ve made some good friends here,” she adds, “Progression and self-development is positively encouraged, and I see myself at Cellomatics for the long term, working my way towards becoming a senior scientist.” Katie looks forward to working on different diseases to broaden her expertise and experience, carrying out research and testing of potential new drug discoveries. Cellomatics has encouraged her to design, experiment and develop new assays and she’s about to share her most recent findings at her first life science sector conference in the Spring.
To find out more about current vacancies at Cellomatics, visit our careers page.
