Research

Santa Walker

PhD Student
Image
Profile of Santa Walker

Biography

Personal pronouns: She/her

Contact details:

santa.walker@earlham.ac.uk

Santa Walker

I am a Norwich Research Park Bioscience Doctoral Training Partnership (NRPDTP) PhD student working in the Neil Hall group under the supervision of Neil Hall and Sally Warring.

My PhD project investigates metabolic diversity in Euglena – a group of protists with untapped biotechnological potential, largely due to a lack of high-quality reference genomes – using comparative and functional genomic methods.

Prior to this, I completed an MSci in Biotechnology at the University of Aberdeen, with a year in industry at the Earlham Institute. My Master’s placement project explored resistance gene durability and population structure in wild seabeet, under the supervision of Mark McMullan and Hélène Yvanne (Neil Hall Group). 

My Honours project (Hiscock lab, University of Aberdeen) looked to define the cell types that govern amphibian regeneration, focusing on a novel leptin-expressing motor neuron in the Xenopus laevis frogs.

Alongside my studies, I am a member of an NHS Research Ethics Committee focused on Clinical Trials research, and also hope to get involved in lots of science communication and public engagement during my PhD.