Sophie L. Walker
University of Edinburgh, UK
Biography
Sophie Walker was awarded a 1st class MChem BSc in Chemistry with year in industry from the University of Leeds (2015-2019). Following on from undergraduate studies, she moved to the University of Edinburgh Centre for Cardiovascular Science at the Queen’s Medical Research Institute to study for a MSc (2019-2020) and PhD (2020-present) funded by the British Heart Foundation. Here, she is studying to optimize islet transplantation for the treatment of type 1 diabetes through the use of microparticles to modulate the liver niche, working under the supervision of Prof. Shareen Forbes, Dr Mairi Brittan, and Dr Lisa White (University of Nottingham). This work will hopefully allow for a greater insight into the effect of the liver niche on the survival of islet cells when transplanted via hepatic portal vein injection and aim to provide information to aid the continued development of the procedure with its translation into a clinical setting