Lorna Daniels

I completed my PhD in Cardiac Physiology at the University of Otago (Dunedin, New Zealand) under the supervision of Dr Jeff Erickson, Dr Regis Lamberts and Associate Professor Fiona McDonald. During my PhD, I investigated the role of calcium calmodulin dependent protein kinase (CaMKII) in the progression of diabetic heart disease and provided evidence of a novel therapeutic potential for CaMKII inhibition to reverse impaired contractility and prevent heart failure progression in diabetic patients. I then moved onto my initial post-doctoral position at the University of Auckland (NZ) under the supervision of Dr Kim Mellor, further developing my research experience into cardiac metabolic dysregulation in diabetic cardiomyopathy.

I was awarded a Novo Nordisk Postdoctoral Research Fellowship to work with Professor David Ray in OCDEM and Dr Maxwell Ruby at the Novo Nordisk Research Centre Oxford, starting in January 2020. The focus of my fellowship is to investigate circadian regulation of liver energy metabolism in diabetes. This project will capitalise on recent innovations which permit human liver organoids to be used as a translational model for diabetes and metabolic dysfunction. I will utilise high throughput ‘omics technology platforms, cell based assays and systems microscopy to allow entirely novel biology to be revealed and provide potential therapeutic advances.