Spotlight: Samantha Lawes

What is your role and what does it involve? I am in the final year of a British Heart Foundation Cardiovascular Biomedicine PhD.

  I am based in the Psychobiology Group in the Department of Behavioural Science and Health.

I am researching the role of inflammation in people who have symptoms of depression.  Depression affects over 300 million people and is the leading cause of disability worldwide. Unfortunately approximately 60% of depressed people do not respond completely to antidepressant treatment and approximately 30% do not respond to treatment at all. These patients also have higher levels of inflammatory biomarkers which also increase their risk of chronic disease, such as cardiovascular disease.

During my PhD I recruited people with depressive symptoms and healthy controls.  I took blood and saliva samples as well as conducting a psychological interview.  I am now in the process of conducting laboratory experiments to compare biological pathways involved in the inflammatory process. The results of these experiments will contribute to our understanding of the role of inflammation in patients with depression and may highlight targets for intervention.

How long have you been at UCL and what was your previous role?

I have been at UCL for over 4 years now.  Previously, I completed an MSc in Health Psychology here at UCL.  I also undertook two Research Assistant positions, in the UCL School of Pharmacy and the UCL Centre for Behaviour Change.

What working achievement or initiative are you most proud of?

I am most proud of the depressed patients I recruited who came in to see me early in the early morning, despite the English weather and the London rush hour, and donated their time and samples so that this research could take place. 

Tell us about a project you are working on now which is top of your to-do list?

I am currently working on an experiment to identify expression of a specific receptor on an immune cell to determine whether it is expressed at a different level in people with depression.

Why did you want to research mental health? 

I think I've always been interested in how people's thoughts and feelings affect their lives. At the beginning of my journey I was more focused on how thoughts and feelings affected behaviours.  However as I progressed, I also became interested in how they way an individual feels could influence their physical health: "Why would someone who feels depressed be more likely to suffer from a chronic disease?"  There are some obvious behavioural answers, such as reduced physical activity, poor diet, smoking, disrupted sleep as well as socio economic factors. But even when these things are taken into consideration, people who feel depressed still have an increased risk of physical disease.  So this suggests that psychological experience can influence biological systems directly.

Research has made great strides in being able to identify several pathways involved in this relationship but much work is yet to be done in order to fully understand the interplay between the way we feel mentally and the way our bodies function. 

Who would be your dream dinner guest?

Marianne Williamson.

What is your favourite place?

The New Forest or anywhere by the sea.

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