Athena Pagon

PhD thesis: Characterising The Circadian Clock in Human Liver

My project characterises the circadian clock within human livers to further our understanding of how the clock helps maintain organ health.

The circadian clock consists of many biochemical processes taking place at the tissue and cellular levels to synchronise homeostasis. When the circadian clock becomes dysregulated, this homeostasis is disrupted, resulting in macroscopic behavioural changes and microscopic cellular changes such as desynchronisation of biochemical stress responses. This dysregulation is emerging as a key factor in disorders such as metabolic liver disease.

To understand and potentially treat this issue, I will study healthy human livers to find transcriptional clock regulators, then apply these synchronisers to livers suffering from metabolic disorders as a potential therapeutic to see if re-regulating the clock can rescue the pathology. This project will allow us to better understand the mechanisms of the circadian clock in human organs and explore its utility in treating and improving organ function.

Who or what inspired you to pursue your research interests?

When thinking of feats of engineering, instead of bridges and space shuttles, I thought about cells. They are complex miniature engineers that demonstrate incredible ingenuity in building tissues, organs, and organisms.

Driven by this deep-seated interest and a perpetually curious personality, I chose to study biomedical engineering and stem cell biology. I want to understand how cells organise tissue creation and repair so that we may apply this towards advancing regenerative medicine.

I am deeply inspired by the sophisticated engineering designs inherent in biology, and I hope to continuously learn and incorporate these principles for engineering a healthier humanity.