Poppy completed her Cellular and Molecular Medicine MSci at the University of Bristol in 2022. Afterwards, she worked in the University’s Flow Cytometry Facility and gained a valuable understanding of flow cytometry and cell sorting. Currently, she is completing a GW4 BioMed MRC DTP 4-year PhD. Primarily, she is working under the supervision of Dr Angela Nobbs at the University of Bristol Dental School; co-supervisors on the project are Dr Borko Amulic, Dr Maisem Laabei and Dr Steven Burston, also all based at the University of Bristol. She will be investigating how Streptococcus bacteria can cause a severe form of heart disease, infective endocarditis (IE), which carries a high mortality rate. Specifically, she will focus on how bacterial surface protein PadA can interfere with the immune and coagulation systems and its potential as a therapeutic target to combat IE. Her PhD offers her the opportunity to look at the relationship between pathogen and host immunity, delve into structural biology to decipher the structure of PadA, and put her flow knowledge into practice by devising a panel screen for PadA in clinical isolates.