Final year Nutrition undergraduate student Douglas Wright has delivered a funded research project with ground-breaking results.
The research project followed a successful bid for funding, put forward by Dr Richard Webb, Denise Roche, Aoibheann Mullan and Liam Pope within the School of Health and Sport Sciences at Liverpool Hope University. The £2,000 grant was awarded by the Nutrition Society to employ a student over the summer period.
Doug successfully applied for the role and spent the summer working in Hope’s state-of-the-art Bioscience Laboratories recruiting and testing participants and analysing samples he collected for a study entitled 'epigenetic changes to cardiovascular-related genes in female athletes with low energy availability'.
Doug commented: “It was an amazing experience to get this opportunity to delve into research. We do a lot of lab work in our learning and it’s an area that I particularly enjoy, so for my lecturers to recognise that ability in me and trust me to lead this project was a real confidence boost.
“The great thing about Hope is that smaller class sizes have presented more opportunities such as this one, and it means that support is accessible and I feel confident to ask questions. I have built up a great relationship with my peers and lecturers, and really enjoy being in an environment that has a community feel where everyone knows who you are.
“University staff were able to introduce me to different research methods and ways of working but then I was very much in control of the research project. It felt like a project that I owned rather than something that was just involved in. I enjoyed the independence and after this experience would consider going onto study a postgraduate degree after my final year.
The research findings showed that females who perform exercise had much higher concentrations of circulating proteins relating to cardiovascular function compared to a control group who performed no exercise - possibly offering some form of protection against heart disease. This was in stark contrast to females who also perform exercise but who do not consume enough energy for their requirements. These females actually had much lower levels of the proteins - perhaps suggesting that the production of the proteins may be suppressed in these participants. This is the first time anyone has investigated this phenomenon of 'low energy availability' in this context, opening up opportunities for potential future research.
The grant also covered travel to London, where Doug presented at the Nutrition Future conference in early September.
Doug added: “Being able to present in front of other research students from across the UK and Ireland was a fantastic opportunity. It was daunting but I found the day enjoyable and took a lot from watching other people’s presentations and learning about their research areas. Nutrition is such a diverse subject area with so much scope for research, and I was able to make new connections at the event and have kept in touch with some of the other students involved.
“Thank you to my lecturers for trusting me with this project and supporting me in my studies so far. I have got my final year ahead of me now and know it will be challenging but so worth it. Time at university goes so fast, so my advice to any new students would be to absolutely go for any opportunities that come your way and get stuck into other extracurricular activities such as societies and social events to really make the most out of your experience.”