I graduated from Cambridge University in 2008 with a BA in Natural Sciences (Biological), having specialised in Experimental Psychology. After graduating, I completed a summer placement at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge, working on a study of attentional mechanisms in anxiety. I then moved to the University of East Anglia, where I worked on a project, funded by the Welcome Trust,  investigating cognitive bias modification as an intervention for anxiety.   I moved to the CIDDRG in October 2010, to begin a PhD investigating epilepsy in adults with intellectual disabilities. I am supervised by Dr Howard Ring, and Dr Peter Watson (MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit), and funded by Epilepsy Action.

My PhD project is entitled ‘The possibility of friendship with people who have profound intellectual disabilities’.  I am interested in friendship as a possible framework for ethical relations with people with profound ID.  Some of the questions I am considered are:  Is friendship a feature of the local contexts in which people with profound ID live?  If, so, how is achieved and what value do people attach to it?  What is the status of friendship in comparison with alternative frameworks such as care, family and citizenship?  My supervisors are Dr Marcus Redley and Dr Howard Ring.  Prior to starting my PhD in October 2007, I worked in statutory and voluntary sector services as a social worker and care manager with adults with a range of disabilities and needs.  I continue to be registered as a social worker and learning disability nurse, and am a social work practice teacher.  I am interested in interdisciplinary working in practice and academic settings, and am one of the convenors of an interdisciplinary study group on health and welfare. (http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/page/33/health--welfare.htm).

Outline of my project ...
       

My publications and recent presentations ...

I joined the CIDDRG in August 2009 in a position funded by the NIHR’s Flexibility and Sustainability Funding (FSF) programme for one year. I am working with Professor Tony Holland, Professor Digby Tantam (University of Sheffield) and Dr Tessa Webb (University of Birmingham) on a pilot study investigating a genetic link between atypical psychotic illness and autism. I am now in my 2nd year of working on a PhD based on this pilot data (supervised by Professor Holland and Professor Peter Jones). Before coming to the CIDDRG, I studied at the University of Exeter (BSc Psychology, 2006), and then worked as a support worker for men and women with learning disabilities. I completed an MSc in Mental Health in Learning Disabilities at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London. My dissertation was based on a project about self-reported attachment style in adults with mild learning disabilities and the links between attachment style and challenging behaviour or mental health problems and details of it were published in Advances in Mental Health in Intellectual Disabilities in July 2011.

I joined the CIDDRG in 2009, as a Research Assistant on a multidisciplinary study aiming to curb overeating in Prader-Willi Syndrome. I was awarded the 2011 Pinsent Darwin Studentship in Mental Pathology and am now a PhD student. The focus of my PhD is the development of Alzheimer’s disease in Down Syndrome (DS), particularly the role of mitochondria in development of amyloid plaques and onset of dementia. I am supervised by Prof Tony Holland and Dr Shahid Zaman and will be working closely with the MRC Mitochondrial Unit and colleagues at the CIDDRG as part of a larger investigation into amyloid build up in men and women with DS. Prior to joining the CIDDRG, I graduated in Psychology from the University of Glasgow and then completed an MPhil in Biological Sciences at Cambridge on circadian rhythm dysfunction in mouse models of Huntington's disease.

I graduated from the University of Bristol in 2007 with a BSc in Experimental Psychology, and in 2008, with an MSc in Neuropsychology. During my Masters degree and for six months after graduating, I worked as a Research Assistant in the Department of Experimental Psychology Department at the University of Bristol, with  Dr. Christine Mohr. I worked on a project exploring individual differences in cognition, personality and creativity. I joined the CIDDRG in May 2009, as a Research Assistant. Funded by the CLAHRC for Cambridgeshire & Peterborough, to work with Dr. Isabel Clare. I have been awarded a CLAHRC funded PhD Studentship and, from October, 2009, will be working with Dr. Andrew Bateman at the Oliver Zangwill Centre, Ely, and Dr. Howard Ring, on a project exploring  new interventions for the rehabilitation of acquired brain injury, in particular executive dysfunction.