Miss
University of Nottingham, United Kingdom
My name is Miss Morgan Scott-Dennis (BSc MRes) and I am a first-year medicinal chemistry PhD student at the University of Nottingham's Centre of Membrane Proteins and Receptors (COMPARE).
I was inspired to pursue a PhD after completing my Master's by Research (MRes) in Molecular Pharmacology in the lab of Prof Dr Dmitry Veprintsev, where I studied biased signalling at cannabinoid receptors. During this project, I developed a novel membrane-based assay as a high-throughput screening tool for screening novel compounds at the cannabinoid receptors and is applicable to other GPCRs, which is the premise of the work I will be presenting on my poster at the SLAS Europe 2023 Conference and Exhibition.
Building on my MRes, I am now completing my PhD in the lab of Asst Prof Dr Shailesh Mistry. My PhD continues to work on GPCRs and focuses on designing and synthesising fluorescent ligands for the beta-3 adrenoceptor. I am excited about this project because it enables me to create my own toolbox of fluorescent ligands for this target receptor, which can then be used to visualise and track the beta-3 adrenoceptor, the activity and signalling properties of which are still emerging.
I am very enthusiastic about my MRes and PhD journey and am considering both academic and industrial careers following my PhD.