Profile

People lead plastic-packaged, industrially-treated, pollutant-exposed, sugar-loaded, chemically-cleaned, fast food-indulged lives. With fertility in both Western and developing countries decreasing, it is time to look at how our lifestyles and evnironmental exposures could be linked to this trend.

I look at human sperm parameters such as oxidative stress, DNA damage, reactive oxygen species production, motility, morphology and how these can be affected by our lifestyles/environment. Right now I am particularly interested in epigenetics: the regulation of our genes by the environment.

I cycle through the madness that is Manchester to University. I meet the sperm donors and go through consent forms for their participation in my study. After they’ve done the business, I do a standard semen analysis looking at motility, morphology and concentration of the sample. Then I can proceed to getting on with the molecular techniques I use such for measuring parameters such as DNA damage and levels of reactive oxygen species or extracting sperm proteins. I spend my time in the lab and the office with other PhD students – they have become like my PhD family.