Dr Jess Haigh, Senior Lecturer

Dr Jess Haigh

Senior Lecturer

Dr Jess Haigh is a Senior Lecturer in Biomedical Science at Leeds Beckett University. Jess studied for an undergraduate degree in Medical Sciences at the University of Leeds. She stayed to gain a PhD in Neuroscience in 2016 undertaking an interdisciplinary project developing bacterial toxins as neuronal delivery agents. Jess remained at the University of Leeds as a Teaching Fellow in Neuroscience for one year before deciding on a change of scenery and heading to the University of California, Davis as a postdoctoral researcher. Here her research encompassed the study of neurodevelopmental disorders including schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorder and epilepsy using genomics techniques to characterise variants in regulatory regions of the genome. After two years in the sun, Jess returned to Leeds for another postdoctoral position, this time investigating the effects of high-fat diet on the dorsal vagal complex in the brain with a focus on the translatome.

Current Teaching

Jess is a Senior Lecturer teaching on BSc and MSc Biomedical Science, including the modules:

  • Medical Pathophysiology
  • Physiology and Metabolism
  • Science Communication

Research Interests

Jess’ research explores how insulin resistance develops following consumption of high-fat diet using cell culture models. The aim is to identify novel therapeutics targets to counteract obesity and type 2 diabetes as well as finding early biomarkers of insulin resistance.

Dr Jess Haigh, Senior Lecturer

Ask Me About

  1. Biomedical sciences
  2. Neuroscience
  3. Obesity