Sharon Owen

Biography

Dr Owen (nee Brown) returned to education after starting a family and obtained a BSc in Biochemistry from Liverpool University. In 1997, she embarked on a PhD based in the Charles Salt Centre at the RJAH under the supervision of Dr Christopher Sharp investigating the biomechanical and biochemical properties of osteoarthritic bone. Following completion of her PhD and further additions to her family, Sharon returned to the RJAH in 2004 and started working on a project investigating the stress response of cells from the intervertebral disc (Grammer and European Spine Journal Award, 2010). Since 2010 Sharon has been involved in various projects with Professor Sally Roberts and Dr Karina Wright. Primarily, these projects have involved tissues and cells from the intervertebral disc but have also included investigations into the purity of commercially prepared proteoglycans and the potential of blood biomarkers to predict neurological outcome in spinal cord injury patients. In 2014, Sharon was awarded a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Travelling Fellowship. At the end of 2018, Sharon started working with Dr Heidi Fuller on a GOSH and SPARKS funded project investigating the proteomic profile of cells from different clinical types of Spinal Muscular Atrophy patients. The aim of this work is to identify molecular differences between the different clinical types and then to utilise these differences for more targeted treatment and/or as biomarkers to monitor treatment strategies.