You had quite the journey to complete your PhD 鈥 what was your experience?
In 2016 as I was about to start Masters, I was diagnosed with a degenerative lung disease that would require transplantation in the future. As I had already had a liver transplant when I was a teenager, the process of waiting for a transplant and the lifelong medications and monitoring to maintain it was not unfamiliar to myself or my family. Nevertheless, it was devastating to learn that I needed another transplant, and the progression of endless tests, additional medications and rapidly deteriorating health would begin again before hopefully receiving a surgery that I was not guaranteed to survive.
I began my Masters research part time, met and married my husband, upgraded my research to a PhD and waited for the phone call to say there was a set of donor lungs that were right for me. In the meantime, my health continued to decline, my lungs became scarred, my breathing was laboured and I needed to be on oxygen permanently. Finally in February 2020, we received the call and my husband and I were on the next flight to Auckland. Early the next morning, I went into surgery and several hours later, the lungs that had been gifted to me by my selfless donor were mine. What followed were a couple of weeks of continuing surgeries to fix complications all while being ventilated and on a heart-lung machine in the ICU. The doctors then decided I was stable enough to wake me from the coma I had been put in and the slow rehabilitation process began. 18 months and a few more surgeries later, my health finally stabilised enough for me to set about writing my PhD thesis.
I submitted my thesis near the end of 2023 and was awarded it in March 2024 however, it was only with the support of my family, church and the certainty that my Christian faith gives me that made any of it possible.
Methamphetamine and rats? Can you tell us a bit about your research and what inspired it?
In my honours year I had completed a paper about addiction, and learning about the stranglehold that addiction can take on our brains and lives was sobering and fascinating in equal parts. It sparked my desire to research it, especially for people and their loved ones who are affected by addiction, and I hoped to gain further insights into what is an extremely complicated subject. I had also really enjoyed an animal analysis of behaviour paper, the logic and systematic processes behind trying to understand why we engage in behaviours such as drug use really appealed to me. The statistical analysis of data, not so much.
Nevertheless, I made an appointment with Professor Randy Grace and told him 鈥業 want to study meth鈥. From that rather broad starting point, we narrowed it down to a study on different aspects of impulsivity alongside methamphetamine administration with rats. Using animals in research is important because we can pinpoint a behaviour and follow it right through from no exposure to a drug to what would be an addiction level of use in humans. This allows us to observe the development of maladaptive behaviours and discover precisely what is driving them.
Is there anything that surprised you when conducting your study?
I was so impressed by how smart my rats were. Their ability to figure out complex tasks they had never before been exposed to was amazing. It gives me hope that these little wriggly rats can help us to untangle the intricacies of something like drug addiction that at times seems overwhelming and insurmountable.
What memories or experiences stand out when looking back at your time at UC?
My main memories were that despite my complicated health needs, nothing was ever too hard for my supervisor and the Psychology School to overcome. The support I received from them was incredible, and knowing that my experiment would be finished by another student when we had to leave for Auckland so I could finish my study was really reassuring and helped me know that they were in this journey alongside me.
What鈥檚 next for you?
At the moment, I am working with Randy and Associate Professor Anna Mitchell to secure funding for a study into cognitive flexibility and rats. Cognitive flexibility is the ability to change our behaviour when it is no longer giving us the best outcome, and rats do it as well. Cognitive flexibility is impaired in several mental health, neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental conditions and we want to test some drugs that may help restore it when it has been impaired. I am excited to investigate the possibilities that this research may provide to not only understand an aspect of our behaviour, but to improve it which could help enhance the quality of life of people in the future.聽
