About
Laura obtained her B.Sc (Hons) in Biomedical Science from King’s College London, with a placement year working in the lab of Dick Heinegard at Lund University Sweden, where she researched cartilage matrix proteins. Laura’s D.Phil was from the University of Oxford, working in the lab of Tony Monaco at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics. Her thesis was entitled “An investigation into the genetics of Specific Language Impairment”.
Following her D.Phil she carried out post-doctoral work in the lab of Deb Pal at King’s College London working to understand the genetics of Rolandic epilepsy and associated co-occurring syndromes such as migraine and reading impairment. Laura also carried out research on families with absence epilepsies, working to understand how changes in the number of genes, called copy number variation (CNV), are important in these disorders.
Laura currently works on diverse genetics projects in the lab, spending half of her time at the Eli Lilly campus using their cutting-edge techniques, as a Lilly Innovation Fellow. A main focus is understanding the molecular consequences of GRIN2Amutations from epilepsy families on the expression, trafficking and electrophysiological functions of this glutamate receptor. She also works on copy number variation (CNV) in Rolandic epilepsy, and on trying to find the genetic causes of speech impairments in families with epilepsy.
Laura is a keen triathlete and when not at the lab is often found swimming, cycling and running!
Qualifications
- B.Sc (Hons) – King’s College Lonon
- D.Phil – University of Oxford
Core Expertise
- Glutamate receptors
- Copy Number Variation
- Electrophysiology
- Exome Sequencing
- Linkage analysis
