Throughout my academic journey, I have been trying to understand how connectivity goes wrong in neurodevelopmental disease models. I completed my undergraduate studies at the University of Edinburgh, where I focused on the development of neuronal morphology in Fragile X Syndrome. I then obtained my MPhil from the University of Cambridge, where I conducted experiments to validate control theory predictions in cultured neural circuits. After a few years working as a management consultant in productivity and supply chain for the public sector, I am thrilled to be back in the academic world. I have now joined the Rico Lab as a DTP MRC PhD student, where I am researching the role of the mTOR pathway in excitatory synapses targeting inhibitory interneurons to understand its contribution to the excitatory-inhibitory imbalance seen in ASD and epilepsy.