Miss Lola Brookes

PhD student

Research Interests

Amphibian diseases, Non-model organisms, Viral disease research, Fungal disease research, Amphibians, organ culture

I am a PhD student at the Institution of Zoology and Royal Veterinary College and as part of my research plans I want to explore Organ-on-a-Chip technology as an alternative to the non-model amphibians we work with and see if we can answer our research questions that have direct implications to animal conservation. We are facing the second biggest massive extinction event since the dinosaurs with amphibians suffering globally from two different disease. As a result of this a lot of research is being undertaken to better understand both the consequences and treatment for affected amphibians. Hundreds of thousands of amphibians are used globally on an annual basis for just this type of research and I want to see if we can create a chip that would allow for elements if not all of the research to be achieved without having to use a live animal model.