Profile
Hradini Konthalapalli
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About Me:
I live in London with flatmates. I’m a cell biologist by day and I do jigsaw puzzles in the evening! I love trying new recipes over the weekend (chocolate brownies are the best!) and going on long walks.
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My pronouns are:
She/Her
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My Work:
I look at cells under a microscope and observe how they grow and divide!
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My Typical Day:
I wake up, get ready for the day and get to work by 10 am. During the day, I do different kinds of experiments. I work in a group and we all get lunch together! In the evening, I spend time looking at my observations from my experiments and thinking about what I’ve learned. After planning out the next day, I head home around 6 pm.
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Read more
My day usually has a mix of different types of experiments. They could be molecular biology related; I make changes to DNA present in bacteria. This lets me make bacteria that glow! Other times, I’m doing cell biology work. I can grow cells in the lab that are made from human cells. These cells help me do experiments to understand how human cells divide.
Cells have small things inside of them, called proteins. Proteins are like tiny machines and do different things. Sometimes, I can make changes to proteins to make them glow and see how they move inside the cell.
Your next question might be, How do you see inside a cell?? I use a microscope. It has lenses (like the ones you might have in your spectacles) that let me see really small things!
Here is an example of what a cell looks like with the DNA in pink!
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My Interview
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What did you want to be after you left school?
I wanted to be a scientist
Were you ever in trouble at school?
I was usually the teacher's pet :)
If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?
A product designer? I love using things that are well designed! Like pants with useful pockets, mechanical pencils that don't need to be sharpened....
Who is your favourite singer or band?
For English music, my favourite band right now is Panic at the Disco. I also like the band Agam, they mix rock with Indian Classical music!
What's your favourite food?
Pasta! I like all types of pasta but my favourite is a pesto sauce with the spiral shaped pasta
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