Will Banyard

Will is a second year DPhil student on the British Heart Foundation (BHF)-funded Cardiovascular Science programme, supervised by Associate Professors Chris Toepfer and Lisa Heather. His research interrogates how insulin resistance alters post-translational modifications of sarcomeric proteins and how these changes may contribute to diabetic cardiomyopathy. He uses human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC)-derived cardiomyocytes in 2D culture and 3D organoids, combining biochemical assays and function read outs to link modifications to contractile function.

Prior to Oxford, Will completed an MRes at Imperial College London in Professor Ed Tate’s group, developing a novel proteomic platform seeking to rationalise the discovery of molecular glues. Here he learnt a number of mass-spectrometry-based techniques and cell-line engineering(Stable and Transient approaches). He also holds a BSc (Hons) in Pharmacology from the University of Glasgow, where he characterised an anticancer peptide in vitro which targets protein-protein interactions implicated in p53 suppression.