Who is Girl With A Pipette?
Girl With A Pipette is my online alias on most social media platforms. I am a keen science communicator and want to showcase science and the power of #WomenInSTEM to a wide audience. As a first-generation university student and someone who arrived at a PhD via a less conventional route, I am particularly interested in showing there isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ approach to a career in research.
I have given talks, written blog posts and magazine articles and volunteered at various public engagement events in the South West of England. You can see some examples of my outreach and communication work by visiting my Portfolio.
About Kelli
When I was 12 years old, I dissected a heart in biology class and in that moment, became obsessed with the inner workings of the human body.
Learning science from books kept me satisfied for some time, until I well and truly caught the research bug during a Wellcome Trust Summer Vacation project as part of my BSc in Biomedical Science at UWE Bristol.
After graduating, I moved to the other side of the country to complete an MRes in Medical Sciences at Newcastle University, specialising in Cancer Biology.
In 2016, I started working in the School of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Bristol. I inititally worked in neuroblastoma research in the Cancer Epigenetics lab before I moved to the Piddini lab, where I investigated mechanisms of cell competition.
Between 2021 and 2024, I worked as a Research Assistant in the Walko lab at the University of Bath. My research focussed on Rho kinase inhibition in the human epidermis and my time in the lab resulted in me discovering a love for skin biology.
As of September 2024, I am a SWBio DTP PhD student at the University of Bath, under the supervison of Dr. Keith Vance and Prof. Jody Mason. My project looks at using protein engineering to enhance the activity of MITF, with the aim to better understand melanocyte development and improve treatment of melanoma.
When I am not in the lab, you will probably find me at singing in my local choir, at a gig, trying to win a pub quiz, playing the guitar (badly) or working through my ever growing collection of books.
Girl With A Pipette 