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Owen Trimming

Mr Owen Trimming

(he/him)

Teams and roles for Owen Trimming

  • PhD Candidate

    School of Biosciences

  • Research student

    School of Biosciences

Overview

I am currently conducting a PhD with the ECORISC CDT concerning the impact of pharmaceuticals on fish. My work centres around utilising Rainbow Trout cell cultures as an alternative to animal testing, with a particular focus on assessing toxic responses by changes in the transcriptome. As a result, I am familiar with RNA sequencing, qPCR and cell culture methodologies. Through my CDT I am also gaining experience in Environmental Chemistry and Bioinformatics approaches. I believe we have a responsibility of stewardship to the environment, and therefore we should be utilising advances in biotechnology to fulfil that duty as best we can.

PhD Title: 

Advancing in vitro fish models for assessing environmental pharmaceutical risk: Intergrating transcriptomics to explore toxicological mechanisms.

Supervisory Team:

Professor Peter Kille (Cardiff University)

Professor Charles Tyler (Exeter University)

Professor Christer Hogstrand (King's College London)

Dr Stewart Owen (AstraZeneca)

Biography

For my undergraduate degree, I studied Biochemistry at The University of Manchester, graduating with a 2:1 in 2020. Following my degree, I moved to Cardiff, where I got a job as a lab technician in the COVID-19 testing facility. After a year of developing my practical skills, I started my MRes at Cardiff to follow my research ambitions. In 2022, I achieved a distinction in my masters. 

Using the research skills I developed in my past degrees, I am currently conducting a PhD in ecotoxicology. I'm very happy to be a part of the ECORISC CDT program and I have the privilege of working with AstraZeneca as my industry partner. My Research concerns using in vitro fish models for assessing environmental pharmaceutical risk. Chemical pollution is well beyond safe limits and presents a substantial risk to wildlife. We have a responsibility to try and prevent and manage this damage. Pharmaceuticals fascinate me in particular as unlike other pollutants, drugs are designed to cross membranes and interact with receptors.

In my work, I want to intergrate trancriptomic techiques into in vitro ecotoxiclogy, allowing for a more precision approach than traditonal acute toxicity testing in vivo. By doing so, I hope to contribute to the understanding of mechanisms behind toxic responses while minimising animal testing.

Honours and awards

(MRes) Master of Research in Biology at Cardiff University. Graduated with a Distinction in 2022.

(BSc) Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry at The University of Manchester. Graduated with a 2:1 in 2020.

Contact Details

Email TrimmingO1@cardiff.ac.uk

Campuses Sir Martin Evans Building, Room C/3.17, Museum Avenue, Cardiff, CF10 3AX

Research themes

Specialisms

  • Bioavailability and ecotoxicology
  • Genomics and transcriptomics
  • cell culture
  • Biochemistry and cell biology