Profile

My research is all about finding ways to make cells form tissues in the lab so that we could some day replace bits of the body that don’t work anymore. In particular, I am interested in growing tendons and ligaments – these are special tissues that hold our bones and muscles together! If our tendons and ligaments are damaged then we can find simple things like walking, running and even standing difficult and very painful. Unlike bones, that will usually heal after a few weeks, tendons and ligaments don’t heal very well at all and can cause lots of problems for people who  have injured them. Maybe you have heard of a footballer “tearing a ligament?” – this can often mean they have to give up football forever! It is my job to find ways to grow them a new ligament, maybe even using their own cells.

I get into work around 9am and spend about 30mins answering emails and checking my calendar for the day. Sometimes I have to give a lecture to medical students on a part of the human body. This is usually an hour long and can be up to about 300 students at once! Other times I will need to prepare lectures I’m giving on another day too.

I also spend a lot of time reading and writing. Scientists love doing experiments, but we need to apply to special places to get money to carry out these experiments! This is called applying for a grant, or ‘funding’ and we need to convince the funding places that our experiments are really exciting and can help people. If we make a really good job of this, we will get some money that will pay for other scientists to come and work with us to do the experiments. Then, we need to write about what we did so we can tell other scientists what we found out! I spend lots of time reading about what other scientists have done and what they have found out because that can often help me decide what we need to do next.

I also have students and staff that work in my laboratory so I spend time meeting with them, discussing their results and planning what to do next. Things don’t always work out as we expect in science, and so there is often a lot of problem-solving and head-scratching!

A lot of the rest of my time is spent in meetings with other scientists, other lecturers and students. I am a tutor to students and so they can come to me if they have any problems at Uni (or at home!) and I am a friendly ear that they can talk to.

I’m usually finished about 6pm when I leave to go home, but this is very variable, depending on what is on my to-do list!