Abstract

Friday 21 February 16:00

Milk it! The Cambridge Lactation Lab Vision

Dr Alecia-Jane Twigger

Principal Investigator, Cambridge Lactation Lab

Biography: Dr Twigger began her research career with a PhD in the Human Lactation Research Group at the University of Western Australia. Securing two prestigious postdoctoral fellowships back-to-back, she moved to Dr Christina Scheel’s laboratory at the Helmholtz Centre Munich, Germany to develop a milk cell derived mammary organoid model. In 2019, she was invited to join Walid Khaled’s laboratory at the Department of Pharmacology at UoC and Cambridge Stem Cell Institute. Here she focused on understanding differences in cell states of the mammary gland in normal (lactation) or abnormal (cancer) development using single cell protein and transcriptomic technologies. For the past 3 years, she has collaborated with a large interdisciplinary team lead by Prof Greg Hannon (CRUK-CI) and Jean Abraham (Breast Unit Addenbrookes) on a Wellcome LEAP funded project to determine the molecular mechanisms of triple negative breast cancer patient response to chemotherapy. Recently, she secured the prestigious UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship to start her own research group, the Cambridge Lactation Lab. The focus of the lab’s ongoing research programme is to develop models of human lactation to untangle the biosynthesis of milk to support breastfeeding and long-term health of mothers and infants.