Before joining our team as a Project Manager, Jess spent a year working in the Clinical Research Facility at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals as a Clinical Trials Assistant. This was her first role after university and it marked the beginning of her NHS career. 

Jess studied Biomedical Science at the University of Sheffield and stayed on to complete her postgraduate degree in the same department. Here, she spent two years studying the mechanisms that transport cargo into cells in the developing fruit fly, using a combination of applied developmental genetics and molecular biology techniques. During university, Jess pursued her passion for learning and teaching by coordinating the Peer Assisted Study Scheme, running the BMS PhD Journal Club and working as a Graduate Teaching Assistant in the Practical Cell Biology modules of MSc students. This experience enabled her to attain Associate Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy. 

After university, Jess became interested in exploring a career in healthcare research, which led to her becoming part of the team at Sheffield Teaching Hospital’s Clinical Research Facility. At first, she primarily worked in a team to conduct COVID studies in the hospital, but Jess soon went on to manage her own portfolio of studies that covered infectious diseases, rheumatology and gastroenterology. 

Jess says:

“I’m absolutely thrilled to be joining this amazing team and Sheffield Children’s. The work NIHR CYP Med Tech does is incredibly inspiring and I’m really excited to be part of a team that is at the forefront of such an important area of research.”