Clinics in Mother and Child Health

Hardip Sandhu

Hardip Sandhu
Faculty Research Centre in Applied Biological and Exercise Sciences (FRC ABES), Faculty of Health and Life Sciences
Coventry University, Coventry, UK

Biography

Hardip Sandhu successfully undertook and defended her Ph.D. at the Department of Clinical Experimental Research at the Glostrup Research Institute (Glostrup University Hospital, Denmark) in March 2011. During her Ph.D. she undertook studies linking G-protein coupled receptor expression in cerebral vasculature by exposure to the stroke risk factor: cigarette smoke. Her studies identified a potential therapeutic intervention against acute phase of cerebral stroke at a clinically significant time window. After her PhD she worked on a project in collaboration with Prof. Flemming Pociot in the Department of Clinical Experimental Research at the Glostrup Research Institute (Glostrup University Hospital, Denmark), investigating biomarkers of diabetes type I in children, employing real time PCR techniques to observe microRNA differential expression. She is now employed at Coventry University as a Research Fellow in Prof. Helen Maddock’s research team, where we assess the cardiotoxic effect of clinical drugs. In addition, as a part of her own independent research, She is looking at the effect of anti-diabetes therapy on the vasculature in women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) with emphasis on (i) insuline resistance, (ii) diabetes and (iii) cardiovascular disease development. The goal is to optimise and standardise PCOS therapy and thus improve outcome in these women.

Research Interest

Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) affects about 7% of fertile women and is characterised by insulin resistance, dyslipidaemia, hyperandrogenism, and oligomenorrhoe. The metabolic disruption in PCOS women requires treatment to prevent the progression of insulin resistance to diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Basic research into developing optimised drug treatments for insulin resistance in PCOS is critical to reducing the development of PCOS associated diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Developing a PCOS insulin resistance simulated organ culture model will enable us to understand the complicated intracellular signalling mechanisms and may lead to development of potential new drug therapy options optimising the PCOS treatment outcome