Participant Details
- Photo
- First Name
- Melissa
- Last Name
- Rayner
- Institution
- UCL
- Country
- m.rayner@ucl.ac.uk
- Technologies/Techniques Used
- 3D cell culture models, Animal Models, Cell culture, Cell signalling assays, Confocal Microscopy, Drug Utilization Research, Electrophysiology, Fluorescence Microscopy, Model In Vitro Systems, Molecular pharmacology, Primary Cell Culture, Stem cell differentiation
- Research Interest
- Advanced Therapies, Disease models, Neuropharmacology, Regenerative Medicine, Stem cells
- Publication Profile
Personal Info
- Bio
- Melissa graduated with a first class honours in her Master of Pharmacy (MPharm) degree from Medway School of Pharmacy. Following graduation she completed a year of pharmacy pre-registration training in acommunity setting before qualifying as a pharmacist in 2014. In 2014, Melissa began her PhD programme at the Centre for Doctoral Training in Advanced Therapeutics and Nanomedicines at UCL. The first year involved the completion of two training projects based at the Department of Pharmaceutics,UCL School of Pharmacy, and in Drug Product Design, Pfizer, Sandwich, U.K. Following the completion of her PhD, Melissa joined the UCL Institute of Prion Diseases as a postdoctoral research fellow. During her project she developed an assay to reproducibly quantify infectious human prions. Using cells that express the human prion protein, Melissa developed a linear cell model, which can reproducibly and stably propagate human vCJD prions. This model is now being used to identify the cellular factors that are required for propagation of these infectious prions. Recently, in 2022, Melissa was appointed as Lecturer of Pharmacology and Principal Investigator at UCL School of Pharmacy where she is leading research in the development of drug and cell-based therapies to promote nerve regeneration following damage. Melissa is a committee member of the UCLrepurposing therapeutic innovation network (TIN) and a board member forthe European Society for the Study of Peripheral Nerve Repair and Regeneration.
- Website, Blog or Social Media Link
- iris.ucl.ac.uk/iris/browse/profile