Profile
Rebecca Edge
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My Typical Day:
I never leave the house without breakfast (it makes me cranky!), and a short cycle to work wakes me up. I always have a cup of tea with my work friends at the start of the day and chat about what experiments we need to do during the day or week. I then have a busy morning in the lab getting things started, but these usually calm down around lunch time. I aim to finish everything in the lab by around 4.30 and head home to exercise or cook tea before relaxing and putting my feet up for the evening.
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I work on a large number of separate but loosely related projects which means I have to schedule my working day and week to ensure everything I need to get done actually gets done. I spend some time on Monday morning planning my week before heading into the lab to make a start on my experiments. Sometimes I test different snake venoms against new types of treatment to see which might work best to save somebodies life. At other times, I try to design new snake toxins that look as similar as possible to as many different snake species as possible. This helps to make antivenom that will work against any snakebite, regardless of the snake responsible. I also have to try and understand the results of all my different experiments, and this will take place at my computer instead of the lab where I examine all of the data I’ve produced in the lab.
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What I'd do with the prize money:
I’d buy video cameras to film the weird and wonderful things snakes get up to when nobody is watching, and show these at schools and public engagement events. I’d also get arts and crafty and help little children make their own pet snakes whilst hopefully teaching them some little facts along the way.
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Education:
Cheshire Oaks High School and 6th Form
Liverpool John Moores University – undergraduate degree
University of Chester – masters degree
University of Manchester – PhD
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Qualifications:
GSCEs in Science, Maths, English, German, Travel & Tourism, RE and IT
A Levels/BTEC in Biology, PE and Travel and Tourism
BSc Biology
MSc Biomedical Science
PhD in Lung Immunology
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Work History:
Levi’s sales assistant
Fancy dress shop sales assistant
Health care assistant
Research assistant making flu vaccines
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Current Job:
I am currently a research assistant helping to improve snakebite treatments in low and middle income countries likes sub saharan Africa and India. My job covers elements of immunology, molecular biology and biochemistry.
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My Interview
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How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
snakebite immunologist
What did you want to be after you left school?
A science teacher
Were you ever in trouble at school?
I accidentally set fire to a paper towel in science class once!
Who is your favourite singer or band?
I like everything from cheesy pop to classic rock!
What's your favourite food?
chippy
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
To always be happy, to be financially comfortable and to travel the world
Tell us a joke.
Got any good sodium jokes? Na..
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