What are you trying to achieve with your research?
I am a Postdoctoral Scientist working in James Davies' Group under Theme 2 of the NIHR BTRU in Precision Cellular Therapeutics. I am trying to develop a new cell therapy to prevent neutropenia (a weakened immune system) in people with acute myeloid leukaemia who are receiving intensive chemotherapy.
What does a typical day involve?
In this field, my days are quite variable. Once or twice a week I’ll have a day dedicated just to lab work – processing new patient samples or analysing the immune cells that I’m testing our latest treatment idea on. The other days will be a mix of lighter experimental work (usually feeding cells) and either analysing past experiments or planning future ones.
What do you like most about your job?
I really like getting interesting new data! It’s exciting to find something new, and especially rewarding because it usually takes a lot of work to find it. It always recharges my curiosity and gives me a load of new questions to ask. That’s when I feel most motivated to start a new round of experiments.
What made you decide to work in this area?
I like working to help invent new treatments for patients because it’s a clear goal that will help people. For this project specifically I wanted to work on developing a cell therapy because it makes sense to me to that to fix a complex disease, the best solution would be a complex cell (and I find working with cells fun, it’s kind of like gardening).
Are there any aspects of your work that might surprise people?
I think more often it’s us that get surprised because we forget how remarkable the things we do every day are to other people. It’s quite common for us to very casually mention editing the human genome or looking at cells under the microscope only to realise we’ve said something that sounds amazing to non-scientists.
How do you explain your job to other people and what do they normally say?
I tell people I’m trying to invent a new kind of blood transfusion and they say, ‘Wow!’
What do you enjoy outside of work?
I do a lot of writing/photography/arts/crafts type things like painting or ceramics workshops. Anything creative, I will try! In the last couple of years, I’ve started climbing (the indoor one with brightly coloured climbing walls) which I’ve found is a really fun way to get stronger – I’m slowly working towards being able to do a pull up!
What would your dream job be – if you were not a researcher/scientist?
My dream job would be to have a way to try many different things – being a gardener, painting portraits, working with wildlife or writing screenplays – I think these would all be fulfilling ways to understand and enjoy the world around us. I wish I could be an expert in everything!