Dylan Lamptey

PIPS Host Organisation: Treventis Corporation

PIPS Project Title: Biosensor cell line development for neurodegenerative proteinopathy drug discovery.

During his time at Treventis, Dylan was tasked with developing a biosensor cell line which can be used for testing different compounds that the company has developed. This biosensor cell line leveraged the intrinsic biological properties of the target protein to produce different fluorescent markers based on how well the candidate drugs work. Dylan’s lab work largely consisted of molecular cloning, cell line production and automated assay development. These techniques built upon his prior scientific experience, enabling him to conduct processes he was familiar with but at a much more advanced level, and therefore greatly contributed to his personal development as a research scientist. In particular, Dylan learnt about the skills he holds as an individual, and the precise ways in which he can apply these to provide the greatest possible contribution when entering a new team. Moreover, Dylan gained hands-on experience of what it can be like to work in an advanced industry research setting, which has greatly informed his future career aspirations.

Dylan’s host organisation rated his placement as “excellent”, noting that he has a “good attitude to learning and working with other staff.” They were impressed with Dylan’s “questions about the rationale behind the research planning” which they felt “every PhD student should have”. Within his work, “Dylan made a new cell line which can be used to access the loss of nuclear TDP-43 protein. More importantly, he set up new protocols for measuring the fluorescence signal from the cells by using fluorescent microscope and microplate reader. And all these protocols are script-based automatic program. These protocols will be useful when testing the effect of our compound on the loss of nuclear TDP-43 in the future.”