Her research looks to better understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underpin chronic liver disease, with a focus on the gut-liver-brain axis.
[1] During her undergraduate studies, she spent a year at Imperial College London, where she completed an intercalated degree in physiology and clinical pharmacology.
People who suffer from cirrhosis, a chronic disease of the liver, are likely to develop an infection that results in organ failure.
Shawcross studies the molecular-level mechanisms that determine whether people cirrhosis suffer from an infection, with a focus on the understanding the behaviour of the gut–brain axis and immune response.
[4] Shawcross has shown that people with cirrhosis have dysfunctional gut microbiome (a reduced diversity of species, as well as multi-drug resistant organisms), which can impact their likelihood to suffer from liver disease.