Bhavik Patel

I graduated with a BSc(Hons) in Pharmaceutical and Chemical Sciences at the University of Brighton in 2002, which sparked my interest in analytical chemistry and its application in measurement in biology. From this I moved to Imperial College London to undertake a PhD in the field of Bioengineering under the guidance of Dr Danny O’Hare and Dr Mark Yeoman (University of Brighton). My work focused on understand the changes in signalling during ageing from an individual neuron from the pond snail, Lymnaea stagnalis.

Shortly after my PhD, I was fortunate to win an EPSRC Overseas LifeSciences Interface fellowship to focus on the development of analytical devices to study the formation of synapses between neurons. Most of the fellowship had to be conducted outside the UK and I was fortunate to spend approximately two years in the laboratories of Professor Greg Swain (Michigan State University, USA), Professor Mark Wightman (University of North Carolina, USA) and Professor Naweed Syed (University of Calgary, Canada). It was during my stay at these leading research institutes that I was exposed to the challenges of measurement within the digestive tract and began collaborations with Professor James Galligan (Michigan State University) and Professor Keith Sharkey (University of Calgary).

I joined the University of Brighton as a Lecturer in 2010 and moved up the ranks to the position of Professor in 2019.