Profile
Gemma Egan
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About Me:
Hi, I’m Gemma from Glasgow. I live with my husband, David, and our cat, Ben. I love going for walks, Taylor Swift, drinking tea, and cooking.
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I live on the outskirts of Glasgow. We adopted our cat Ben in 2014 from the Cats Protection, and he has been a great addition to our family. He loves going outside in the evenings and trying his best to find some sun to sleep in. His favourite treat is cat soup, and he won’t let us forget it! I like to go on walks with David to get some fresh air, and we are lucky that we live close to some nice walking routes.
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My pronouns are:
She/Her/Hers
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My Work:
I work as a Research Assistant at the University of Strathclyde in the department of Biomedical Engineering. My current work is looking into the bacteria in poo to help find out what diseases we can learn more about.
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In our bellies there are millions of helpful bacteria that can influence our health by digesting food that we eat for us, but they can also make us sick. The way we test this is by growing up the bacteria that come out in our poo and doing some gene analysis to see what ones we have. This takes ages and is expensive, so isn’t done very much. I am working on a test that can quickly look at bacteria in a sample using electricity. I have also used this test to look at urine for urinary infections (UTI). Another part of my work is using this technique to see if we can tell the difference between cancer cells and normal cells quickly.
I used to work on something quite different during my PhD. I was using silk from silkworms to make new wound dressings. We can make the silk threads back into liquid (how it is in the silkworm before they spin their cocoons) and then this liquid can be processed into hydrogels. These are quite firm gels made with a lot of water content. They are good for wounds as they can absorb any ooze that comes out but can keep the area moist enough to speed up healing. We can also add things into the gels that will make healing better too.
I like my work because it is quite varied and I like to come up with new ideas to try out.
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My Typical Day:
I get up and have a cup of tea whilst I get myself ready for the day. I get the train to work and arrive just before 9 before sitting at my computer and checking my emails. I usually will then pop along to the lab and set up whatever experiments I have planned for the day. I will then have lunch with my colleagues before heading back to the lab and checking the experiments are going well. I then sit at my desk for a while looking at the results and writing up my lab book, before heading home around 5pm. Once home, I give Ben his dinner and let him outside for a run about whilst I make our dinner. Then it’s usually time to sit and relax for the night, ready to go again in the morning.
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In the lab, I have bacteria and cells that I need to keep alive, like pets. I need to give them food and keep them at the right temperatures to keep them healthy. I grow these cells up to use in my experiments, where I will take some of them and run my tests to get my results. My experiments take time to run, and usually need to be left overnight, so I don’t know if my work has been good until the next day! Once a week I get to go to talks by other members of the university where I can learn about their work, which is really interesting. I also have meetings to talk about future plans for the work. Sometimes I need to write up reports too. I enjoy my work because I get to work by myself, but I can always ask my colleagues for advice or help when I want to. I like being in charge of my schedule, as I don’t need to work 9-5 everyday and can work from home sometimes. My work also changes a lot which keeps it interesting for me.
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Education:
I went to a small primary school before moving to Eastwood High School near Glasgow. I stayed in school until S6 when I was offered a place on the Biomedical Science course at the University of Strathclyde. I accepted this offer and did this course for 2 years. When I was told my career options would be testing urine or blood in an NHS lab, I decided to have a look around for other options. Strathclyde had just begun to offer a course called Biomedical Engineering, so after enquiring within the department, I changed to this course. It meant starting again, but I feel like this course suited me better. I finished with my honours degree in 2017, and the opportunity to apply for a doctorate in medical devices came up. I decided I wasn’t done with studying so applied and got in! It was a long slog doing the doctorate for 4 years and writing up for another couple, but I graduated with my EngD in 2023. Ironically, I have ended up testing urine anyway!
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Qualifications:
I did Intermediate 2 maths, english, physics, chemistry, biology, art, etc. then took maths, english, physics, chemistry and biology to higher. In sixth year I did advanced higher chemistry, advanced higher biology and higher art.
I have an honours degree in Biomedical Engineering and an EngD (engineering doctorate) in Medical Devices.
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Work History:
I started working in McDonald’s when I was 16 and still in school. I was a part time crew member and worked in a city centre restaurant that was always busy! I actually really enjoyed the pace of the job, and I learned a lot about food safety and hygiene, and customer service. I got the chance to work in the largest McDonald’s in the world at the 2012 Olympics in London, which was a unique experience I didn’t think I would get from a simple job selling burgers. I was also then given the opportunity to become a shift manager. I gained a lot of valuable skills such as money handling, management experience, and training other staff. I also got the opportunity to learn first aid.
After I worked in McDonald’s for 5 years, I felt like a change of scenery, so I applied for a job with Three, the mobile phone company. This was a sales role, so a little different in terms of pace. I learned about contract handling and data protection, sales tactics, and of course I had to learn about all the new phones coming to the market. I loved getting to play with new technology all day.
When I started my doctorate, I was able to receive a stipend which meant that I no longer needed part time work to survive. University and studying became my full time job and I got paid for it! My research was looking into silk and how we could use it for wound dressings in different ways. I learned a lot from this role, like how to plan an experiment, how to write scientifically, how to analyse different datasets, how to work lots of different machines, and how to communicate my research to other people. I am shy so it has been really good to see how much more confident I am with standing up in front of crowds of people to talk about my work.
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Current Job:
As my doctorate was coming to an end, I got the opportunity to start work as a research assistant on a project that was different to the research I had been doing. I use a technique called electrical impedance spectroscopy to learn about how bacteria and cells interact with their environment. I have used this method to test urine (pee) for infections, and most recently, stool (poo). I am also developing this technique to find cancer cells and see how they are different from healthy cells. Although I don’t handle money every day now, the skills I learned from as far back as McDonald’s are still useful, as I now manage my own work and I am responsible for my day to day tasks.
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Employer:
University of Strathclyde, Glasgow
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My Interview
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What did you want to be after you left school?
A vet, then a doctor, then something to do with medicine that didn't involve patients!
Were you ever in trouble at school?
Not really, only for being too quiet.
If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?
I still think I would be in research, but maybe more biology than engineering-y than now!
Who is your favourite singer or band?
Taylor Swift
What's your favourite food?
A Christmas Dinner
Tell us a joke.
Why do bees have sticky hair? ...because they use honeycombs! I told this joke in ASDA when I was younger and won a frisbee.
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