Profile
Celine Wittke
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About Me:
I am a PhD student from Germany
but now live in Glasgow. I love to cook, go to the gym and travel🌍 -
My pronouns are:
she/her
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My Work:
I am a PhD student researching how liver cancer and liver disease develops particularly in patients who also have obesity or Type 2 diabetes.
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I am researching how a particular gene (a piece of DNA) called p53 helps to protect liver cells from cancer. P53 is known as a ‘tumour suppressor gene’ which means that it can help to prevent a cell from turning into cancer. People with obesity and type 2 diabetes have a greater risk of developing liver damage that can become cancer. My research is trying to understand how p53 tries to protect the liver so we can understand what goes wrong in liver cancer and liver disease. Knowing this will help us find targets for treatments to prevent liver cancer.
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My Typical Day:
My typical day starts around 7am with breakfast before getting the train to the lab. I get to the lab around 8:30am to set up my experiments for the day. My experiments usually take a few hours but I have breaks in between for extra meetings and lunch. Once I finish my experiments, I do some data or image analysis and plan for the next day ahead before travelling home at 5pm.
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I currently have a regular routine in the lab when it comes to experiments. I usually spend my mornings checking the liver cancer cells that I am culturing and treating. These cells grow in plastic dishes and I have to check them regularly to make sure they are growing and dividing well before I can use them for any experiments. Currently, I am treating these cells with different conditions – for example, some cells will get a normal media allowing them to grow as normal, whereas other cells get media with lots of fats and sugars in them to see how this changes the cells.
After this, I would often run a Western blot which is an experiment used to identify different proteins in a sample. This takes a few hours to complete so I would have my lunch break half way through.
On Fridays, I harvest the cells that I have been growing and treating. This involves scraping them off the plates they are growing on and collecting them for different experiments, for example for more Western blots, for the following week.
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What I'd do with the prize money:
I would use the prize money to make science more accessible to pupils in primary and high school. When I was that age, I didn’t know what a scientist did on a daily basis or what different paths I could take to get there. The prize money would help me deliver sessions in different schools to share my enthusiasm for science to younger pupils by doing lots of experiments and hands-on activities so they can see how fun science can be. I would also like to provide help and support to older pupils looking to get into science after school e.g. through Q&A sessions, career talks or help with personal statements and applications.
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Education:
I went to Charleston Academy, Inverness, Scotland where I studied my Highers and later Advanced Highers in my final year. I also studied Higher German although this was super easy as I grew up speaking German.
I knew I wanted to study something Human Biology related as this was my favourite subject in school. I applied to many broad biomedical science courses at different universities because I couldn’t decide on one single area. I ended up going to University of Edinburgh to study Medical Sciences for 4 years which I loved. After this, I stayed at the University to do a Masters by Research (MScR) in Biomedical Sciences) which involved doing two science projects to prepare me for a research job. I really enjoyed this and wanted to carry on with research, ideally focussing on cancer, so I applied to several PhD projects including this one at Glasgow Caledonian University and Cancer Research UK.
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Qualifications:
National 5: Maths, English, Biology, Chemistry, French, Geography, Histology, Art
Highers: Maths, English, Biology, Chemistry, Geography, German
Advanced Highers: Maths, Biology, Chemistry
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Work History:
I spent my University summers working in a busy tourist hotel in the restaurant, café and ice cream parlour. During the pandemic I started online tutoring in Maths, Biology and German to earn some money but I ended up really enjoying this so continued to do it part time ever since.
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Current Job:
I currently work as an online tutor helping high school students improve their grades in Biology, Maths and German.
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Employer:
Glasgow Caledonian University and Cancer Research UK Scotland Institute
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My Interview
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How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
dog-loving cancer biologist
What did you want to be after you left school?
A teacher
Were you ever in trouble at school?
Very rarely
If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?
Travel the world while teaching
Who is your favourite singer or band?
Bastille
What's your favourite food?
Anything with chocolate
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
Cure liver cancer, pay off my student debt & build a great life for my future dog
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