Matthew Davies PhD, 2016

Postgraduate

We have a really good scientific community at Southampton of specialists working on neurodegenerative diseases and this kind of research is essential for humanity.

I graduated in 2011 in Biomedical Science at the University of Southampton but decided I wanted to carry on learning so signed up for a PhD here. It’s a great campus-based university and an important hub for research into neuroscience.

My PhD involved working in animal models of diseases such as Alzheimer’s, to understand why some cells in the brain are dysfunctional and investigating if we can manipulate early changes in these cells. We have a really good scientific community at Southampton of specialists working on neurodegenerative diseases and this kind of research is essential for humanity. Everyone knows someone who has dementia and we hope our work could help to make people’s lives better by delaying the symptoms of the disease.

I now work for a clinical trials company. I travel a lot going to hospitals monitoring trials for pharmaceutical companies and I’m beginning to see the results of early research. I’m hoping I’ll be the first to see if we are making progress before these pioneering drugs even get to market.

My dream is to progress in the pharmaceutical industry and make my contribution to clinical trials.