The College is delighted to welcome Dr Richard Lloyd, Physiology, Development and Neuroscience Fellow in Anatomy

At Cambridge, Dr Lloyd manages the Human Anatomy Centre, which is home to one of the busiest body donation programmes in the United Kingdom and is responsible for providing anatomy instruction to all pre-clinical and clinical students. 

Richard teaches pre-clinical anatomy within PDN and supervises Part II anatomical projects. In College, he supervises the MedST Part IA Functional Architecture of the Body (Anatomy) paper, a role he also undertakes at Hughes Hall. Read Richard’s full profile here.

In this fascinating interview, Richard tells us about his passion for toxicology, the aim of his work and what he hopes to bring to the Lucy community.

What have you been working on recently and what did you hope to achieve?

Before coming to work in Cambridge, last October, I was fortunate to have been based at a forensic institute that was highly research active. My area for several years has been post-mortem toxicology, and within this field I have specialised in drug detection in embalmed and decomposed human remains. Admittedly, it’s not everyone’s idea of a dream day in the proverbial office, but it’s one that has engrossed me for a number of years!

For the past six or seven years I have spent much of my time working on new methods for the detection of drugs in embalmed and repatriated bodies. The problem I have been addressing is related to the fact that increasing numbers of UK nationals die abroad, usually on holiday. Most families elect to have the body repatriated to the UK for a funeral service, but all commercial airlines insist – for reasons of hygiene – on bodies being embalmed before transportation. The problem is that the main constituent of embalming fluids, formaldehyde, being highly reactive, causes the majority of drugs of forensic interest to degrade at very rapid rates. If there is any subsequent concern around the cause of death, then traditional toxicology is unlikely to be able to provide any evidence at autopsy. What I have been doing, therefore, is examining a number of so-called avascular fluids within the body – fluids that do not have a direct blood supply – that are not affected by the embalming process. With a little more work, we should hopefully soon have new and robust methods for undertaking toxicology in such cases.

How did that lead into what you're doing now?

I needed more samples from my research and reasoned that Cambridge, with its very large and well-known medical school, would have lots of bodies donated for medical science from which I might be able to obtain samples. One thing led to another, and, as well as being provided with samples, I was invited to join the Human Anatomy Centre as an occasional Senior Demonstrator in Anatomy. Having done this for a year or so - and having in the meantime fallen in love with Cambridge and the University – a permanent position came up in the department, managing the Human Anatomy Centre, which I was delighted to be offered.

What do you like about Lucy Cavendish College, how did you become involved with the College and why did you want to be part of it?

I “spotted” Lucy Cavendish College shortly after arriving in Cambridge, when I was instantly attracted to the College’s explicit aim of attracting under-represented students. Coming from a working-class background, having left school with no A-levels, then later being the first in my family to attend university, as a mature student, I was immediately able to empathise with much of Lucy’s ethos. It was the most remarkable coincidence, therefore, when Lucy contacted my department, looking for a Fellow in Anatomy, and I jumped at the opportunity to become part of such an exciting and forward-looking community.

What’s your role in the community and what you would like to achieve as a Fellow?

My primary role at Lucy is to teach Anatomy on both the standard and graduate-entry medical courses. Beyond this, however, I am very much looking forward to supporting both the students and the ethos of the college. I believe passionately in opportunity, and if, through outreach, I can encourage able students to consider Cambridge and Lucy, then I will consider myself to have achieved one of my primary aims as a Fellow. With first degrees and an earlier career in Music, furthermore, I am very much looking forward to becoming involved in the musical life of the College, when not working!