ApconiX Welcomes Charlotte North

ApconiX welcomes Charlotte North to the team.  Charlotte graduated from Sheffield University in July with a degree in Biomedical Sciences and is working in the ApconiX Ion Channel Laboratory as an industry placement student this month.

Charlotte has been spending her time, since graduating, exploring the many opportunities the pharmaceutical industry can offer.  She is deciding whether to continue academic studies and study for a Masters or carry out post graduate research to gain a Ph.D.  Although she still hasn’t totally ruled out employment!

Charlotte’s third year project, based on the treatment of breast cancer, was entitled the “The Success of Biological and Endocrine Therapies in The Treatment of Breast Cancer”.  The project reviewed current treatments and looked at the success of more recently studied combinational therapies in the treatment of breast cancer.  Charlotte produced a research proposal based on her findings to assess whether a triple combinational therapy may offer a successful alternative treatment.  The proposal included the methodology to test the hypotheses and determine the possible success of the proposed regime.

While at ApconiX, Charlotte is developing a cell line to specifically express one of the TRP ion channels so the cell line can be used to test potential drug candidates against a CNS target.  After an initial set back, the project is going well.  One of the components just didn’t work but after reviewing the literature and running appropriate control experiments, the issue was resolved.  Dr Karen Jones noted, “Trouble shooting is a great skill to learn. Experiments can go wrong and finding out why and how to improve results is key to successful research.”

Charlotte commented, “Having recently graduated in Biomedical Science, this is a fantastic opportunity to gain experience in the drug discovery industry, working amongst dedicated and specialist scientists and witnessing the impact their work is having on improving drug safety.”

Dr Michael Morton, Director and Co-Founder added, “Charlotte has been a pleasure to work with.  We always enjoy having industry placement students.  It’s a great opportunity to help young graduates decide which, of so many, career paths to take.”