Samuel Davis

Biography

I graduated from Nottingham Trent University in 2013 with a 1st Class BSc in Pharmacology. Shortly afterwards I began working in an ISO 15189 accredited NHS histology lab, where I assisted qualified biomedical scientists in the lab operations. I then studied for a Masters by Research (MRes) in Pharmacology at the University of Strathclyde, where I expanded my skills and applied them to a yearlong project to characterise the physical interactions between two G-protein-coupled receptors. This work was undertook in the labs of Dr. Charles Kennedy and Dr. Margaret Roe Cunningham.

After a period of working as a locum histology medical laboratory assistant, I then undertook an MRC funded PhD in the labs of Professor Bill Hunter and Professor Tim Hales at the University of Dundee. My research focused on recombinant production and investigation of neurotransmitter channels and transporters and utilised a wide variety of techniques. Two publications characterising the probable interactions of novel epibatidine and cytisine derivatives at nicotinic acetylcholine receptors resulted from my PhD research. Additionally, after initial work on the insect GABAA homolog Resistance to Dieldrin (RDL), I was able to establish a methodology for producing recombinant human GABA transporter 1 at high yields. This protein appeared to be promising for future cryo-EM studies.