Postgraduate research students

About my research

I am interested in the effect of insulin resistance on the ability of HDL (so called "good cholesterol") to protect our blood vessels from cardiovascular disease. People with reduced good cholesterol are at greater risk of cardiovascular disease, though therapies aimed at increasing HDL have been shown to be ineffective. As such, the focus has shifted towards the composition and function of HDL in health and disease.

This is particularly important in people with type 2 diabetes mellitus, as they have a much increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease mediated in part by impaired HDL function. In recent years it has been demonstrated that weight loss and improved diet can reverse type 2 diabetes (i.e reducing insulin resistance) - my research seeks to understand whether good cholesterol plays a role in this and whether diet and exercise can improve good cholesterol's protective functions on our blood vessels.

I am also interested in extracellular vesicles (EVs), as methods used to isolate HDL from blood also co-isolate EVs. These small vesicles are secreted from all cell types and are involved in cell to cell communication. I am interested in understanding the contribution of this EV fraction in isolated HDL on HDL function, given the risk of confounding EVs in experiments designed to understand HDL function.

List by: Type | Date

• Dr Dilys Freeman
• Dr Delyth Graham
• Professor Jason Gill

Conferences attended

• Maternal Obesity and Preeclampsia: Common pathways - Amsterdam, The Netherlands
  5 - 6 November 2019
  Poster presented entitled "High-density lipoprotein composition is unchanged in gestational diabetes mellitus pregnancies compared to healthy pregnancies"
  
  
  

Funding

My work is funded by a British Heart Foundation 4-year PhD Studentship.