Dr Melisa Baptista
Senior Lecturer
Biography
Melisa is a Senior Lecturer in Genetics and Molecular Biology in the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Society at the University of Chester, UK. She provides teaching and learning materials at both undergraduate and postgraduate level and has supported more than 50 students with their dissertation projects. Melisa is the Partnership Link Tutor with St. Helen's College for the FDSci Applied Microbiology programme. Melisa is an experienced researcher in the field of neurogenetics and cell modeling of disease, her work being published in a number of international journals. She is an active member and supporter of ARUK and also a member of the Genetics Society.
Teaching and Supervision
Dr Baptista began her teaching career teaching biology and mathematics on an Access to HE programme at Warrington Vale Royal College. Whilst there she was instrumental in bringing, preparing and delivering the HNC and HND Health and Social Care programme to the college, training up to 50 students per year. Since joining University of Chester, Dr Baptista has taught on a number of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes and was Programme Lead for MSc Medical Genetics. Dr Baptista uses a combination of lecture, seminar and laboratory based teaching methods in her teaching.
Research and Knowledge Exchange
Dr Baptista's research interests have focused on studying the gene expression profiles in models of neurodegeneration including Parkinson's Disease, ALS and Dystonia The approach taken involves identification of common polymorphisms and mutations that are postulated to contribute to the aetiology and progression of disease. In order to generate cell line and animal models of disease to further characterise the biological mechanism, with the hope to better understand the early indicators or neurodegeneration. With the ultimate aim to work towards intervention and possible cures for this group of debilitating conditions. She was a contributing author to the publication that was the first to identify gene triplications causing familial Parkinson's Disease.