Profile

I’ve always been interested in science from being young, but never knew I’d end up doing my current job. Specifically, I wanted to know how medicines work and how they make people better. After doing my A-levels and first degree, I ended up working on new medicines at the University of Leeds in 2014 as a PhD student and have stayed ever since!

I’ve been lucky enough to make lots of friends while I’ve been at University. I spend my weekends with them going for walks, drinks and having a laugh. My laugh is noted for being loud and infectious- people know when I am somewhere because they can hear me! Being from Sheffield originally, I don’t have too far to go to see my friends and family there too, especially since lockdown! I also really like cooking and playing my piano- great ways to get away from my science at the end of a busy day!

Proteins are biological molecules which make life possible. They are made of long chains of amino acids, which fold up into a different shapes. These shapes allow them to do their job,e.g weaving together like a rope to make your hair and skin, or folding into a Y-shape so they can stick to viruses and bacteria. These Y-shaped ‘antibody’ proteins are the type I study, as they can be used as medicines to stick to things in your body which don’t work properly.

The amino acid chains of proteins can unravel and stick together if their structure changes; this sticking together is called aggregation. If it happens to an antibody medicine, this bad, as the aggregates can make patients ill. My research looks at how antibodies  might unravel when they squirted through thin tubes like needles. If we understand why this happens, we can take steps to stop it in future.

I like a leisurely morning ( I don’t like Winter mornings!), so I get up at 7 am, read the news while I have a drink and then get ready for work around 8am. I leave around 9 am and walk 20 minutes through a park on my way to the University.

Once there, I will have a coffee and check my emails (a common thing for scientists to do!) and get on with my lab work around 10 am. Depending on what experiments I have to do, I may get 40 mins for lunch, sometimes less. But I make sure I have a break in the afternoon when my lab work is nearly finished! Hometime on lab days is generally a bit later (~6 pm) than if I have a ‘desk day’.

I spend desk days (usually Fridays) analysing my results, writing reports for my supervisors and make presentations for the companies who fund my research, some of whom are based in the USA. I sometimes present these results to other scientists in our lab meetings, or sometimes at a bigger event like a conference (where lots of scientists meet to share results with one another).