Dr Alina Oknianska

Alina's academic teaching and research has been broadly based covering areas such as human physiology, endocrinology, biochemistry, cell signalling and experimental biomedicine, microbiology and biological applications of novel nanomaterials. Alina is involved in teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate level . She is also research active and involved in several collaborative projects.

Dr Alina Oknianska has obtained her M.Sc. in Biology from University of Gdansk in Poland. She then completed her PhD in Biomedical Science at the Medical University of Gdansk, Poland, in collaboration with Medical Faculty, Lund University, Sweden. Alina was than awarded Tage Blucher’s fellowship and Wenner-Gren foundations fellowship to continue her biomedical research with Professor Eva Degerman, Division of Diabetes, Metabolism and Endocrinology, Medical Faculty, Lund University, Sweden. Her scientific projects have been focused on cell signalling and experimental diabetes and included projects related to the adipose tissue metabolism and cell signalling in primary adipocytes and differentiated 3T3-L1 cells. She has also participated in the interdisciplinary projects focused on biological characterisation of macroporous biomaterials and their applications in biotechnology and tissue engineering. Moving to the UK Alina continued her research working as a Research Fellow in Endocrine Pharmacology with Professor Noel Morgan, Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry, Universities of Exeter and Plymouth, where she studied various aspects of pancreatic beta cell biology and was able to undertake collaborative research visit to the Department of Neurology, The Mount Sinai Medical Centre, New York, USA. While at PCMD, Alina was selected by EASD (European Association for the Study of Diabetes) to complete advanced diabetes training course awarded to 15 selected European scientists which took place in Helsinki, Finland. She also contributed to teaching delivered to medical students at PCMD and started to work as an Associate Lecturer for the Open University, Human Biology course. At the University of Liverpool Alina's research focused on the mechanisms of diabetic complications in the eye. She also worked together with an interdisciplinary team of scientists at the Open Innovation Hub for Antimicrobial Surfaces, Surface Science Research Centre, University of Liverpool. Hub brings together academia, multinational industries, SMEs and the NHS to advance the science of antimicrobial surfaces, therefore she regularly worked with industry, providing business assist, expertise and proactive resources to a wide range of industrial and health care partners. Alina received AFHEA and later, while working as a Lecturer in Health Sciences, Liverpool Hope University, was awarded FHEA, before moving to work as a Lecturer in Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Central Lancashire.