What motivated you to come to Bristol and do this programme? 

Prior to starting my PhD I was working within the school as a Research Associate. One of the schools great strengths is its multi-disciplinary approach and the variety of academics who work here. As an early careersresearcher the willingness from everyone within the department to offer help and advice really solidified my desire to study at Bristol. I was also really keen to move into the area of female reproductive health and Bristol has a number of academics all doing really interesting research into this area. 

What is the key research question of your PhD research project and what have you found out so far? 

My main PhD project is on ‘Menopause and depression: assessing causation and identifying mechanisms’.  The overall aim of the project is to investigate the relationship between age at menopause, time since menopause, and risk of post-menopausal depression. Mendelian randomization (MR) approaches will be used to improve causal inference by using a genetic instrument for age at menopause and oestrogen levels. 

Currently, I am working on my first mini-project which has been a great opportunity to start learning the basics of Mendelian randomisation (MR) prior to starting my main project. The aim of the project is to explore the role of the gut microbiome on the risk of ovarian cancer. I will be using two-sample MR to estimate the causal relationship between the gut microbiome and ovarian cancer. 

Where do you think your research could lead and what are your future career plans now? 

There are still so many under researched areas in female reproductive health and my goal is to stay in the area and hopefully help improve our understanding of these topics. I would love to stay in academia but am also interested in exploring other areas as well.