Parkinson’s Disease, is the most common movement disorder, affecting ten million persons worldwide, including 100,000 Canadians. It results from the degeneration of a specific cell type in a specific region of the brain. Kaitlyn Cramb’s thesis for her Oxford DPhil at the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics will ask ‘why do these cells die’ and her research aims to determine the cause of this cell death. Her specific project focuses on whether the cells were defective prior to their death and whether their failing function might be repaired before the cells begin to die.
Kaitlyn has been passionate about cell biology since her undergraduate courses in microbiology and immunology at UBC, where she studied infectious diseases and how the body is able to fight them. Taking time out before more studies, she taught sciences for two years at a North Vancouver High School.
From 2015 until 2017 further studies led to a Masters degree in cell biology at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich. The research results were published in peer-reviewed journals. With a final grade of 94% and a thesis mark of 6/6, she was ready for the next move. Drawn back to research by receiving a Canadian NSERC grant, she was accepted at Oxford beginning in May 2019. Here she will attempt to understand the root causes of Parkinson’s disease, and help develop advanced therapies to prevent further disease progression. Her research will have an important impact on the health of Canadians.
Her Oxford supervisors have been quick to praise her understanding of the mechanism of neurodegeneration in Parkinson’s. Passionate, with a natural aptitude for research, Kaitlyn’s self-motivation coupled with an ability to assimilate information, has allowed her to work independently and as a part of a team. One referee says she is driven by a desire to make important changes to the world.
Kaitlyn is still devoted to her BC connections, where she has spent the months of lockdown. With her love of mountains and the ocean, with hobbies of rock climbing, kayaking and hiking, she hopes to return to British Columbia to pursue a career as a university professor in neurodegeneration, continuing research on a disease for which as yet there is no cure, prevention or disease modifying therapies.
