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ePortfolio of Philippa Richardson

I gained a First Class integrated masters degree in Neuroscience at the University of Southampton. While studying at Southampton I had two Laboratory based projects. The first was using immunohistochemistrory to further look into where the immune cells of the brain arise from. My next project was using electron microscopy to identify how long synapses appear to remain healthy after the brain is disected. This project used both muring and human tissue.

Alongside these projects I also undertook a year in industry at GSK in Stevenage. Here i was part of the in vivo imaging unit and my main project was using bioluminescence imaging as a method to monitor liver and kidney fibrosis.

I am now within the 2016 MIBTP DTP cohort here at Warwick and undertaking my PhD within the Frenguelli lab. Here we are trying to further unravel the story about MSK1 and its involvement in learning and momory. When MSK1 function is removed we see impairments in the ability of neurons to communicate between one and other and why this occurs and also what this means in terms of behaviour is where my project begins. Using western blotting, surface biotinylation and immunogold studies I hope to get a clearer picture of where the receptor that is vital for rapid excitatory signalling, AMPAR, is localised as this pathway has previously been shown to effect proteins that mediate AMPAR trafficking. Alongside this an array of behavioural tests observing diffferent forms of memory.

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Pippa Richardson

p.richardson.1@warwick.ac.uk