Alexandra Hawkins

Rotation PhD student (Wellcome Trust Programme)

Alexandra Hawkins

Degree(s)

BSc (Hons) in Biological Sciences, University of Exeter (2022)

Profile

Past Member To and From Dates: February 2023 – April 2023
Past Member Current Position: Rotation PhD student (Wellcome Trust Programme)

Alexandra graduated with a Bsc (hons) in Biological Sciences with Professional Placement from the University of Exeter last summer. During this time she undertook a professional placement year at Public Health England (now UKHSA) where her research focused on biochemical characterisation of an E. coli moonlighting protein as a potential vaccine candidate. Additionally, owing to COVID-19, she was involved in recombinant production of novel Spike and Nucleocapsid proteins to monitor developing variants. She then returned to Exeter where her honours project worked on developing a novel SPR assay platform to measure antibody titers in response to vaccine or to detect infection. Outside of science she is a classical violinist and enjoys riding horses, cooking and weightlifting.