Lucy Field

I am a biochemist with a particular interest in the application of genome editing technologies for the treatment and modelling of haematological disorders. I am also passionate about science communication and outreach.

I studied for a BSc (Ind) in Medical Biochemistry at the University of Leeds, during which I worked at GlaxoSmithKline as an Industrial Placement Student. My research focused on optimising a Sanger Sequencing strategy to validate break-point fusions identified at the transcriptome level in solid cancers. Following my undergraduate degree, I worked as a Research Assistant in the Epigenetics Department at the Babraham Institute. My research focused on optimising a low input Chromatin Immunoprecipitation-DNA Sequencing (ChIP-seq) approach for studying changes in active chromatin marks during ageing in yeast and C. elegans.

As a PhD student, co-supervised by Professors Adam Mead and Irene Roberts, my research is focused on understanding the effects of CRISPR genome editing on normal haematopoiesis as well as using CRIPSR genome editing to model loss of function genetic aberrations observed in childhood leukaemia. I have optimised a fluorescent reporter system in which the contribution of edited stem cells to blood production can be tracked in vivo as well as purified for transcriptomic analysis. I am also targeting loss of function mutations, specifically associated with childhood leukaemia, in human stem cells to study disease progression from initiating events. I am an active contributor to the MRC WIMM public engagement program, having hosted In2Science work experience students for two consecutive years. I have also developed and run activities to explain the concepts of haematopoiesis and genome editing at both primary and secondary schools.