Hi, I’m Diana and I am part of Cohort 4 of the QUADRAT DTP studentships. I’ll soon be starting my PhD at Queen’s University Belfast with the goal of developing an inexpensive, smart, measurable, accurate and real-time (SMART) point-of-site biosensor for the rapid detection of marine biotoxins. The way I see it, next generation biosensing tools will help with our understanding of natural phenomena such as harmful algal blooms, and will shape the future of environmental management and aquaculture production. My project is a CASE studentship, thanks to which I will be working closely with the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) and alongside their experienced scientists.
I am originally Spanish. I studied my BSc in Biotechnology in the University of Salamanca (Spain), and I completed my final year in Leuven (Belgium) as part of an Erasmus programme. I moved to Belfast at the start of 2021, where I recently graduated from an MSc in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology. My experience at QUB undergoing my master’s thesis in the development of toxin-free immunoassays using anti-idiotypic mimics for marine biotoxins is what led me to want to pursue this DTP project. I am very excited to start this QUADRAT DTP and to dive further into a career in research.
In my spare time, I enjoy painting, drawing and doing anything creative. I spend most of my money traveling and I recently discovered I like going to the gym more than I thought I would.
