Megan Stoker

Prior to starting my postgraduate study in Oxford, I studied Biomedical Sciences at University of Bath, graduating with First-Class honours. Integrated into the course was a year long industrial placement year which I undertook in Nuffield Department of Women's and Reproductive Health under the supervision of Dr Karl Morten. Here I investigated the effects on antiviral and chemotherapeutic agents on mitochondrial function in vitro, presenting my work at various conferences in UK and abroad. Linking the work with the Morten's group research in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), I extended my work into whether these agents have an impact in ME/CFS due to direct effects on mitochondrial function, which was presented at the CMRC conference March 2020.

Furthering my interest in mitochondria and disease, my DPhil research builds upon my placement projects, investigating the potential for targeting mitochondria and energy metabolism as a therapeutic strategy in cancer, again under the supervision of Prof. Karl Morten (WRH) and Prof. Geoffrey Higgins (Oncology). My work involves investigating the mechanisms of action of novel agents both in cancer cell lines and in vivo, which have the potential to kill or sensitise tumours in cancers requiring mitochondrial function for survival.

I was awarded the CRUK Development Fund award for a side project in developing Raman micro-spectroscopy to determine the OXPHOS /glycolysis status of patient tumours. It's an exciting new area for tumour diagnostics and would allow the best therapeutic strategy be determined from only a few patient cells.