Dr Toryn Poolman
Lecturer (Teaching)
Structural & Molecular Biology
Div of Biosciences
- Joined UCL
- 29th Jun 2020
Research summary
My previous research was focused on trying to understand how steroids work and how they interact with our body clock. Cortisol, a hormone released from the adrenal glands peaks in the early morning (the wakening hormone) and is virtually absent in the evening. Corticosteroids (a collective name for steroid hormones produced by the adrenal gland, including glucocorticoids and mineralocorticoids) have powerful anti-inflammatory and metabolic effects, which are the template for synthetic steroids used to treat inflammatory diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis and asthma; however, their use is hindered by severe side effects. My interests are in using techniques to measure changes in all genes or proteins, using next generation sequencing or mass spectrometry. I am particularly interested in all aspects of data science for education and research (mainly using the R programming language), using machine learning and other techniques to understand complex datasets