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Biography
My name is Carver (Kei) Wong. I am a postdoctoral research associate working under Prof Morgan Alexander and Dr Rian Griffiths to develop and design bio-instructive materials for translation-ready medical devices. This is a multi-disciplinary project involving the collaborative effort of academics and postdocs from University of Nottingham's School of Pharmacy, Computer Science, Physics and Astronomy, and Life Sciences, as well as the Faculty of Engineering. My role will be specifically focused on extracting detailed molecular insights on host immune cell and bacterial pathogen interactions with diverse chemistry-topography (Chemo-Topo) polymer combinations to derive the mechanisms at play. To characterize immune cells and their interactions with and without bacteria on these Chemo-Topo surfaces, we will employ a range of mass spectrometry approaches (liquid extraction surface analysis (LESA), liquid chromatography (LC-MS), and atmospheric pressure matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (AP-MALDI)) to probe the metabolomics, lipidomics, and proteomics of both the secretome and biointerface.
I graduated with an Integrated Masters in Biochemistry in 2020 from University College London. My master's project was centered on developing a drug discovery pipeline for investigating PLCĪ³1 signalling in rare cancers, immune disorders and neurodegenerative diseases.
Following my undergraduate degree, I took on a PhD project at the University of Nottingham's School of Pharmacy to investigate a novel tubulin-HDAC inhibitor as a potential dual-target anticancer agent under the supervision of Dr Zheying Zhu, Dr Marios Georgiou, and Dr Rian Griffiths. To evaluate the drug's pre-clinical effectiveness, elucidate its mechanism of action and compare its efficacy against existing single-target counterparts, I employed confocal fluorescence microscopy and mass spectrometry approaches (AP-MALDI and LESA) on an in vivo D.melanogaster pupae cancer model to, respectively, assess the general drug efficacy and probe for drug-response-related metabolomic and lipidomic changes.
Expertise Summary
Experimental skills:
Mass spectrometry: AP-MALDI MS-imaging, LESA-MS2 characterization; Confocal microscopy - fluorescence live imaging, IHC antibody staining; in vivo D.melanogaster disease models - genetic crossbreeding, dissection, cryosectioning, drug feeding; Biochemical protein assay optimization - in vitro HTRF/FRET fluorescence analysis; High-throughput screens; Drug discovery pipeline development; Lipid extraction and processing - chemical derivatization; qPCR and Illumina HiSeq preparation; SDS-PAGE and Western blot.