DTC - Claudia L. Driscoll

Claudia L. Driscoll, St Hilda's College

Doctoral Student on the Oxford Interdisciplinary Bioscience DTP

Doctoral Training Centre (DTC), 1-4 Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3QU

claudia.driscoll@dtc.ox.ac.uk

Background

I completed my undergraduate degree in Chemistry and Biology within Natural Sciences at Durham University (St. John's College), graduating with a Master of Science in 2020.

Interests

My academic interests lie predominantly in the field of protein biochemistry and biotechnology. How can we exploit the inherent properties of nature that make life function at the highest efficiency, specificity and precise control to solve current challenges in industry, agriculture and medicine in a sustainable way?

My extracurricular interests include rowing, rock climbing and hiking.

Research

2019/20 MSci Project at Durham University (Durham, UK) investigated the kinetics and mechanism of nickel binding to the Escherichia coli nickel-responsive transcription regulator NikR under the supervision of Dr Peter Chivers. This project utilised techniques including fluorescence and UV-visible spectrophotometry, X-ray crystallography and structure determination, as well as kinetic and thermodynamic equilibrium modelling.
2018/19 Summer Research Internship projects in the Bloom Lab within the Laboratory of Virology, National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH (Hamilton, MT, USA) aimed to characterise the role of mammalian host cellular factors involved in Powassan virus (family Flaviviridae) replication. Techniques employed include siRNA transfection, confocal microscopy, creating and titering virus stocks, and quantifying infectious virus production by immunofocus assays.
2017 Summer Research Internship project at Los Alamos National Laboratory (Los Alamos, NM, USA) included studying the thermal behaviour of polyhalite complexes, through integration and masking of 2D synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction images.