While I'm doing analysis at my desk, I like to have relaxing background music playing to help me focus. I mostly listen to soundtracks from Pokémon, Kingdom Hearts, and Animal Crossing, and sometimes jazz renditions of the songs. Lately, I've been enjoying music from a YouTube channel that plays Lo-Fi tracks, accompanied by animations of a capybara doing random things like drinking coffee at a café or relaxing in a pool. It's the perfect mix of soothing and quirky.

During my undergraduate degree, I became fascinated by how both the immune system and the brain work. Multiple sclerosis sits right at the intersection of these two systems, so when it came time to choose my first research project, MS felt like the natural path. I also have a parent living with MS, which brings a personal connection and extra meaning to the work I do every day.

For me, one of the most interesting developments in recent years has been the unravelling of genetic factors that influence both the risk of developing MS and how quickly it progresses. We now know of many genetic mutations associated with MS, but we still understand very little about how these mutations actually affect the brain and immune system. It feels like we're on the cusp of a breakthrough, where the pieces are coming together and we're getting closer to understanding how MS truly develops at a molecular level.

My research focuses on a type of cell type found in the brain called pericytes, which haven't been widely studied in MS. Pericytes sit on top of blood vessels in the brain, where they help control blood flow by squeezing or relaxing the vessel. They also talk with immune cells and can control which cells are allowed to cross into the brain.

In MS, where both blood flow and immune cells are disrupted, pericytes could be playing an important role, but we still don't fully understand how. My research will compare the function of pericytes from people with and without MS to see whether they behave differently, which could reveal new insights into how the disease develops and progresses.

By studying how pericytes from people with MS behave differently, we hope to uncover new mechanisms that contribute to the development of MS and its progression. This could reshape how we understand the earliest changes in MS, especially those affecting blood vessel function, which are often overlooked.

In the long term, this research could open up new therapeutic avenues — not just by targeting immune cells, as current treatments do, but by improving blood flow or restoring the barrier function of blood vessels, potentially slowing damage and improving outcomes for people with MS.

What I enjoy most about working in the lab is the ability to take an idea or a question, design a way to investigate it, and then actually go into the lab to test it. That process, from forming a theory to generating and analysing the data, is very rewarding. I especially enjoy the moment when the data starts to come together and tells a story you didn't fully expect, or that supports your theory in a meaningful way.

One of the challenges is that research rarely follows a straight path. Experiments don't always work the first time, and it can take a lot of trial and error to get things right. But that's also where a lot of the learning happens.