Sophie Cotton is a scientist from Sydney who holds a Bachelor of Biomedical Science and Bachelor of Laws from Southern Cross University. Sophie is passionate about bridging the gap between medical discoveries made in the lab, and the patient’s ability to benefit from them in real life. She hopes her law degree will equip her to harness science’s potential to inform legislation and help patients. In 2019, Sophie began collaborating with a Microbiome lab at Stanford University, which led to her current PhD focus: how changes in our western lifestyle have altered our gut microbiomes, causing an increase in neuroinflammatory disorders. Sophie focuses on how the microbiome affects the brain across the lifespan, from autism in early childhood to Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. With her World Universities Ramsay Postgraduate Scholarship, Sophie will study a PhD in Microbiology and Immunology at the University of British Columbia. In the future she hopes to both advance research and influence policy.