Outside of work, I enjoy running and have done two half marathons and two full marathons, playing touch rugby and painting. I am also mum to a very sweet one-and-a-half year old.

I became interested in neurology as a medical student when I did my first small research project in multiple sclerosis (MS) and since then, I have continued working both clinically and through research in MS. Whilst I was undertaking my fellowship in London, I was involved in several clinical trials and particularly enjoyed meeting, working with and learning from the participants who have all been affected by MS in different ways. While it has been encouraging seeing the progress that has been made in developing treatments for relapsing MS, I have been particularly inspired by the drive and motivation of mentors, fellow colleagues and people with MS to find treatments that will slow down and ultimately stop or even reverse the accumulation of disability in progressive MS.

There has been a lot of progress in the last decade in developing new highly effective disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) to reduce inflammatory disease activity in relapsing remitting MS. This is great for patients and clinicians as there are now many more options available and treatments can be tailored to each individual. The recent research into the link between Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) and MS has also been very interesting.

My current project is aimed at developing a more targeted and personalised approach to treating MS, by restoring immune tolerance in an autoantigen-specific manner. Whilst we have a number of highly efficacious disease-modifying therapies, they often have broad immunosuppressive effects that can increase the risks of infections.

My project aims to develop a new way to treat MS based on using patients’ own blood immune cells. These cells are treated with anti-inflammatory signals coupled with a relevant MS-specific autoantigen in the laboratory and then re-administered to the patient, where they selectively target and dampen down the pathogenic immune cells that promote inflammation and disease, without suppressing the rest of the immune system.

This project builds on the work I did during my PhD, where I was able to generate dendritic cells from blood cells of people with MS and induce them to take on tolerogenic or anti-inflammatory characteristics. I also identified a novel peptide from an MS autoantigen RASGRP, which could stimulate pro-inflammatory immune responses particularly in immune cells of people with MS carrying the major risk gene HLA-DR15.

The next steps focus on clinical translation and involve identifying patient populations who may be suitable candidates for this therapy and testing this approach in a laboratory model of MS.

This research focuses on clinical translation of a treatment approach that addresses a fundamental cause of MS - loss of immune tolerance. Directly targeting antigen presenting cells that initiate the process of autoimmunity with relevant autoantigens selectively suppresses the disease-causing immune cells, whilst also inducing protective regulatory immune cells. This approach reduces the risks associated with broad immunosuppressive effects of many current disease-modifying therapies and has the potential to treat both relapsing and progressive disease. It also provides the possibility of a more personalised approach to treating MS.

I enjoy the varied nature of the work, from seeing people affected by MS in research studies, to collaborating with other colleagues from different fields, to learning new clinical and research skills and techniques. On the other hand, one of the challenges particularly with laboratory-based projects is that experiments may not always work, and a lot of repetition can be required to make progress, but it is very rewarding when you get an interesting and novel result. Another recent challenge is finding a balance between work and family life with a young child!