Annie de Bray
Hormone doctor and researcher
I grew up in Kettering, Northamptonshire (the county of Weetabix, Princess Diana and Bridget Jones) and developed a love for science, communication and education during my school years. I chose to study medicine at the University of Birmingham and discovered my passion for the specialty of hormones (endocrinology) through learning about the elegance of hormone systems and being on hospital placements with inspirational endocrinology doctors. After completing my medical degree, I stuck around in the West Midlands to do my medical training and chose to specialise in diabetes and endocrinology. I love the diverse range of patients and staff that I get to work with and am especially keen on getting involved with patient and colleague education. I have arranged national training courses and conferences for other endocrinology doctors in training and chatted with school children about diabetes at Oxford Science and Ideas Festival events.
I am currently completing a PhD at the University of Oxford in the field of diabetes, specifically developing tools to understand how the latest diabetes and weight loss drugs (GLP1 and GIP receptor agonists) work in the body. These tools are fluorescent versions of these hormones and drugs which allow us to look down a microscope and see where and how the drugs are working at a molecular level. These drugs are revolutionary and more drugs of similar design are going to be on the market soon, so understanding what areas these drugs target in the body and how they change the function of those areas is really important to science and patients.
My PhD is funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC).
Find out more about Annie’s research:
