My PhD Project: success and setbacks - Roxanne Dyer

I’m currently in my third year of the CDT TERM programme, meaning that I’ve completed the MSc component, passed transfer, and am in the second year of my PhD project. My project is focusing on developing decellularised nerve hydrogels for supporting regeneration in spinal cord injuries. I’m based in the School of Biomedical Sciences.

At the moment, what’s going well for me is the production of the hydrogels themselves: after some trial and error, I’ve found protocols that work well to decellularise small pieces of nerve, digest the resulting nerve scaffolds to form a solution, and then induce gelation of the solution.

However, I’m now having issues with quantifying gelation kinetics, as measuring changes in turbidity as the solution gels hasn’t produced very clear results. I’m looking into alternative ways to quantify gelation, including making use of my links with the School of Mechanical Engineering to do rheology testing there.

I’m looking forward to getting to combine my gels with some neuronal cells, so that I can start seeing which variations of the gels are more capable of supporting neuronal growth and therefore have more potential to help treat spinal cord injuries.

Outside of the lab, this year I’ve enjoyed doing some demonstrating for undergraduate practical classes, as well as some public engagement with children and families. I’ve also participated in presentation skills training, which I found useful as it encouraged focusing on the goals of a presentation and provided a structured way to think about how to use the presentation to achieve those goals. I’m hoping to make use of this training at upcoming conferences, now that I’m starting to get some results which I can present.