I am a PhD student from the PSIBS doctoral training centre which involves furthering the physical science of imaging for biomedical sciences. My previous projects have involved Micro-CT imaging for the detection and quantification of atherosclerosis in pre-clinical models and functionalisation of nanoparticles for targeted delivery into cancer cells.

My PhD centres on the combination of mass spectrometric techniques and Raman spectroscopy for advanced chemical imaging of biological samples. LESA coupled to chip-based nano-ESI will be used for the detection of proteins and drugs from dosed tissue samples and will be used alongside MALDI MS imaging and Stimulated Raman Scattering (SRS) microscopy in order to obtain complementary information. Quantitation issues for all three techniques will be addressed to provide a workflow for the spatially resolved, quantitative detection of both endogenous biomarkers and drugs with their associated metabolites from samples representative of real biological problems in the pharmaceutical sector. This project is in partnership with the National Physical Laboratory, work involving MALDI MSI and Raman spectroscopy will take place at NPL and LESA MS will be carried out in Birmingham.