Dietetics, Nutrition & Biological Sciences - STAFF

B.Sc . Honours (Botany), Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Edinburgh

Ph.D. Medicine, Department of Medicine (Western General Hospital), Faculty of Medicine, University of Edinburgh

After completing my PhD, I continued my interest in a variety of cardiovascular projects at the Western General, using a variety of techniques such as raising antisera, developing radioimmunoassays, HPLC of biogenic amines, and platelet aggregation studies. I then obtained a post at the University Department of Physiology, first as a Research Fellow then as a Lecturer, where I carried out ion-transport studies using conventional and ion-selective electrode physiology, and ion-sensitive cell-permeant fluorescent probes to monitor transport of lithium or magnesium in Purkinje fibres and isolated mammalian heart cells. In 1997 I was appointed as a Senior Scientist in the Hannah Research Institute, Ayr, where initially I started investigating the role of magnesium in nutrient partitioning in ruminants, and then later as a Principal Scientist, characterising adrenergic receptors in the bovine mammary artery using conventional organ baths and wire myography. I relocated to Strathclyde University Department of Biological Sciences in 2006 as a Senior Research Fellow to investigate changes in mammary artery tone during the reproductive cycle, before taking up my appointment as Lecturer at Queen Margaret University in December 2007.